Women in Cinema

    Firstly, I'd like to talk about Alice Guy-Blanché. She produced the first fictional film in 1896. Although this film was not necessarily the best, it meant something for film and especially for women in film. Despite her male boss disapproving of her working seriously in film, she went on to establish her very own studio, Solax Pictures.  With this, she made 1,000 films throughout her life. In these films, she ensured women were at the center, or at equal with men. Her impact on film was massive. It takes immense amounts of bravery to do what she did in the early 1900s. At this time, women were not meant to be at the center and heart of the film, but she proved otherwise. I believe that Alice Guy-Blanché set an example, and paved the way for women in the film industry, even today. The sad and problematic part of this, was, that, she was one of the few women making films in the entire world. Although women have fought for more space today, the film industry is still primarily dominated by men and marginalizes women. 

    Unfortunately, the film was dominated by men and their male desire, which was a paradox called the Madonna-Whore Complex. The Madonna whore complex essentially explains that men don't want unloveable "loose" women, but also don't want women who are too pure. Women are usually cast as one or the other, to fit the mold that men attempt to put them in. An example of this is D.W Griffith's Way Down East (1920). It is about a woman who gets tricked into a fake marriage, ends up getting pregnant, gets abandoned by her father, loses her baby, and attempts to start a new life. Her past is cast out by the town mayor, but the mayor's son saves her. 

This pushes the idea that women are easily tricked, often abandoned by their fathers, and need a hero to save them. This was the kind of cinema being created at the time, and honestly, something we still see today.

"The Male Gaze" is something that has always existed, but has recently been named and brought to attention by second-wave feminists. The male gaze is what we've seen for hundreds of years in films, and connects back to the Madonna-Whore Complex. Women are objectified in film, and always have been, Women are valued not for their intelligence, thoughts, or ideas, but for their sex appeal and bodies. While with time and fight, this has improved, the male gaze still very much, unfortunately exists.