To what extent do women conform to the traditional female stereotypes in American films with reference to the movie “taken”?
In my critical investigation I will be answering the above question and applying Laura Mulvey’s theory to my questions as she stalks about the Male Gaze. Jonathan Schroder quotes “ Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a males point of view”. The idea is obtained from an article called “visual pleasure and Narrative cinema” is an essay that Laura Mulvey is greatly known for and was written in 1973 in the influential British film theory journal screen. “Male Gaze” is a phrase that was created by her in 1975.
Mulvey believes that characters have to be looked at by the viewers from a perspective or point of view of a heterosexual male. The determing male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure. Mulvey referred freud’s notes to scopophilia, the enjoyment and happiness that is involved in people’s bodies being looked at as objects that are erotic. What mulvey has argued is that there are different varieties of features that cinema viewing conditions assist for the watcher. These being the narcisstic process of identification and voyeuristic process of objectification of females with a “perfect ego” that can be seen on display. According to Mulvey (1992, 27) in patriarchal society “pleasure in looking has been split between active/males and passive/female”. The dominant forms of cinema are reflected in this. Laura mulvey differentiates among the fetishistic and voyeuristic modes. She did this by looking at the film spectator. Fetishisitc is about the men’s fanatasies and desires come together to produce the perfect woman and voyeuristic looking is about observing someone in a completely oblivious way to your viewing.
The male gaze is a concept of gaze that deals with how an audience views the people or person that are presented. There are three ways in which feminists can be thought of. These being how women look at themselves, how women look at other women and how males look at women. To have the viewing of the male gaze, it requires the camera to stay in one place for a period of time, focusing on the curves of the female body. The events that are occurring to women are influenced as a part of the male’s attitudes to these events. Women are being downgraded to the status of objects. The female viewer has to experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. There are a number of theorists that have noted the sexualising of the female body even though the situations where female sickness has nothing to do with the product of advertising. However the gaze doesn’t only have to be directed to the male’s, but can also be directed towards members of the same gender. Reasons not all of which are sexual for example comparing the different clothes and the body image. Also some women do enjoy being looked at. Things such as beauty pageants which is Lacan’s mirror theory would be an example. The term “male gaze” can also be relevant to other types of media such as television, art and advertisements even though it was introduced as a piece of film theory.
“Taken” is a French action thriller movie about a former Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operative also known as the CIA who is on his way to try and find his daughter Katie. Liam Neeson is represented as the patriarchal “male hero”, looking after his family as well as trying to find his daughter and “ saving the day”. He is portrayed as the dominant character as he seems like he has control over the family and he is the boss. Neeson has the right “battered” look and acts well in the part as a combination of a trained killer and a loving father. Whereas the women are represented as weak, helpless and are totally unaware that they are being watched or observed in a sexual way which is seen as voyeuristic for both the characters and audience. They are dependent on the help from a male, for example the desperate help Lenore (Framke Janssen) needs for her ex-husbands help to find her daughter.
To demonstrate the occurrence of male gaze, I will explain the different examples of the way the women are portrayed all the way through American cinema with reference to taken. I will discuss the rape scene to illustrate ideas about the male gaze. This is because the scene that comes to mind when thinking about the male gaze and the voyeuristic behaviour that occurs in the movie is when Neeson enters a construction site as he was told by his translator that this is where the Albanians took some of these women and abused them. The representations of these women in this scene shows that they are weak, helpless and are being totally controlled by the men as the men are doing whatever they want to them without the women being able to complain mainly because they are drugged up and scared. In order for Neeson to be able to look for his daughter, he had to take a glimpse of what was going on behind the curtains quickly and quietly, looking at the shocking sight of women barely clothed, scabbed arms and being raped by the men. The mise-en-scene used in the scene is very clever. The environment of the place where the scene has been taken is very dark, dull and dirty with really pale murky flashing lights. I believe that the use of this dark lighting is to hint to the audience that something immoral and wrong is about to happen as darkness is usually used to show danger and evilness. It creates anticipation within the audience, as the audience know that something “bad” is about to happen but they are not exactly sure what it is. Diegetic sound is used in the scene to emphasise the sexual act that is occurring between the “prostitute” and the Albanian sex trafficker. Low angle shots on Neesons face may present that even though he isn’t the villain in the movie, it shows that men have more power and are “greater than the women”. There are many mid shots used when Neeson is walking through the dark room and a couple of close- ups to show the shocking and terrified facial expressions. A long shot is also used when Neeson first enters the room so the audience can get the feel of the atmosphere and see how the setting around him looks like. In contrast there are female roles which argue against this and have made an attempt to showcase their femininity as empowering against the male dominian.
In society today, rape is seen as a tentative issue and is often ignored or dismissed as people don’t want to acknowledge the subject of rape. It is such a serious issue and affects everyone in different ways and because of that it makes it very serious. It’s personal violation where by an individual is caught at their most vulnerable moment and they experience a sense of intuition on themselves physically, mentally and spiritually. The rape scene in taken may be offensive to some women and some people (especially women) may find it disturbing to watch and therefore this can be another reason as to why this subject tends to be ignored.
Also, it’s almost like society is trying to hide the ugliness of the world. A small minority or men men (male audience) will be comfortable with watching this scene and will derive pleasure from viewing this particular scene, while other may find it disturbing and upsetting. The scene is supposed to make all the audiences uncomfortable but highlights male dominance. The fact that the scene was included in the movie and the use of the teenage characters who are 17, it is guaranteed that the scene will receive different responses. Men are often shown as using violence and aggression in solving issues and problems, specifically in the scene where Neeson tries to save a girl as she may know where his daughter is because she had her jacket. Whereas women are conventionally represented as going around the problem a different way which tends to be a less aggressive way. Vladimir Propp states that characters can be resolved in eight broad character types. You have the villan, the donor, the helper, the princess, her father, the dispatcher, the hero and lastly the false hero. For example according to mulvey you’ll have a protagonist which is usually the male and the victim or something for the protagonist to rescue which will usually be the female and she is represented as the weak character.
To conclude, I do believe that women conform to the traditional female stereotypes as they are mostly stereotyped as weak and the ones that are not going to be able to cope with as much as a man can. American cinema presents women as the ones that are scared of men and “taken” does not contradict that. Mulvey’s male gaze theory does not disagree with my opinion as my argument supports her theory and proves that women tend to be used and presented in a sexual way in American cinema and are in control of men. Whether it be for advertising a product which would catch the attention of the males or just used for prostitution by men in American cinema. The way the media represents these women, whether it being on a magazine or TV tends to usually be for the man’s eyes in a sexual way, not attracting the female audience as much. As shown in “taken”, sexual harassment is evident in many different ways. The authority that men have over women is shown in the scene I was focusing on. I also believe that the reason for men having so much power over women in society is mainly because of their social status. Having this high social status I think also allows them to have this authority to do whatever they want to women and this may include sexually harassing them. There is another type of harassment called the visual harassment. What this means is that men have the control of the gaze. For example the control of the gaze can be showed when males are able to watch women in voyeurism when the women don’t know that they are being watched and publicly where they know that they are being watched. An example of showing how the women are being controlled in the scene that I am focusing on is when the camera zooms in on one of the girls arms and shows the audience the scabs on the arms of the teenage girl and how they can’t or are not able to complain but seem like they are obeying the rules that are being given by the “bad guys” or the Albanian thugs which again tells us (the audience) that obviously the men were in control and did what they wanted to them. We (the audience) can tell that the men are in control here as the women are lying on the bed, looking half dead, being raped behind their own individual curtain that they each have been put in. Being put in a construction site also tells us that the women are in control and are under the power of men as the Albanian men have kept them trapped in one big room and are selling tickets to other men to rape them meaning they cant escape even if they wanted to. However this idea of how men are in power of women can in some cases be contradicted. There is the post-feminist theory which shows that men can also be harmed by sexism and gender roles and it’s not just the women that are or can be the victims. This example can be shown in the famous “Kill Bill”. Women here are shown to have more power and to be in control which is something that is quiet different to the representations of women in the film I am focusing on. As shown in “Kill Bill” women do not always have to be the ones that do not have control and are the victims. In the film “Thelma and Louise” the two female characters get their revenge back on the men as a post feminist argument to traditional feminism.

To what extent do women conform to the traditional female stereotypes often shown in American cinema with reference to the move ‘Taken’?

Taken
- The two girls Kim (Maggie Grace) and Amanda (Katie Cassidy) taken advantage of by the Albanian Mafia
- The albanian mafia drug them and use them for prostitution as they specialize in sex slavery (they want to place them in the human trafficking world)
- Women being shown as the weak,vulnerable and helpless characters as they are are being used in this way
- Male hero, looking after the family, “saving the day” typical in movies dominant character as he seems like he is the boss and has control over the family.
- More for the male gaze rather than the women gaze
- Women are objectified ad used as sex objects
-Voyeristic- Men have power over the women

Using the Laura Mulvey theory as she talk about the male gaze.
Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

What is the male gaze?
The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:
- How men look at women
- How women look at the themselves
- How women look at other women

The gaze and feminist theory
Laura Mulvey coined the term “Male Gaze” in 1975. She believes that in film, audiences have to ” view” charachters from the perspective of heterosexual male.

Features of the Male Gaze
-The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction of these events.
– Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

Using the male gaze in everyday life
Some theorists also have noted the sexualising of the female body even in situations where female sickness has nothing to do with the product of advertising.

Criticism of Mulvey and gaze theory
Some women enjoy being “looked at” for example beauty pageants.
The gaze can also be directed toward members of the same gender for several reasons not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.

“Visual pleasure and narrative cinema”- Feminists criticized this. Mulvey believed that classical hollywood cinema reflected and shaped the “practile order”, the perspective of her writing actually remained within that very hetrosexual order.

For a woman the gaze is obviously,even a little too obviously, male. ” The determing male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure”.

Laura Mulvey was bon in Oxford on the 15th August 1941. She is a professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck college, university of London. She’s best known for her essay “visual pleasure and narrative cinema”, which was written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influencial british film theory journal screen.

The power of men over women is exhibited in many linguistic senses. Mulvey points out that cinema has changed during the course of 1960′s and early 1970′s in a way which afforded opportunities for other filmmakers outside of the mainstream because of technological developments in filming and also exhibition.

About the movie
Bryan Mills A father played by (Liam Neeson) tries to rebuild relationship with his daughter Kim ( Maggie Grace) as he was not able to when she was growing up because of his work. He worked as a CIA operative meaning he had to spend a long time away (months on end) from his family this also causing his marraige to fail.
His daughter kim tries t persuade him to let her move to france with her friend Amanda as she wants to visit museums and experience the french life. He does not want to let her go as he understands that the world is not a nice place and is very worried about his daughters well-being. Bryan finally agrees to let her go but not before making sure she follows a few rules (keeping her mobile phone with her, ringing him when she arrives, informing him of all her moves, where and whom she is staying with.
As her and Amanda get to france they are kidnapped by Albanians from their apartment before they have even set down their bags. While she is speaking to her father from the bathroom, she sees several men enter the flat and kidnap her friend. Horrified, she tells her father whats going on. She’s instructed by her father to hide under the bed, keep the phone on and shout out any details she can about the kidnapers, knowing she will certainly be taken. He then hears the men speaking in Albanian and when one of them picks up the phone he delivers a message, promising to rack them down.
Bryan then sets of to find his daughter in paris. He has a better chance of finding his daughter than most as he has these skills and background from his CIA training. Learning that these Albanians are into sex trafficking he is told that he probably has 96 hours to ” Never finding her”.

This being a thriller and not a documentary
The context of trafficking gives this story a serious edge
Liam Neeson= has the right battered look and acts well in the part as a combination of a loving father and trained killer.
Farnke Jansson= Is also a good as the mother, initally scathing, then desparate for her ex-husbands help.

ichard W. Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic specialising in cinema. As of 2006 he is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London. Born in Leeds, Dyer majored in French at the University of St Andrew’s and worked in the theatre before studying for a PhD in English at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.

Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex

Henry Jenkins III (born June 4, 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

who is being represented? : Young sexy women who are single and independet. I disagree with the article as i think that the spice girls should have their way of portraying themselves in the media and they dont have to act a certain way to appeal to the audience. I think that the lyrics to their songs can target any age and little kids that listen to them. They may not understand what their lyrics mean so i dont think it is inappropriate for them to listen to it but if the parents realise what they are singing about is inapropriate then they can keep their children from listening to them. Same goes with the types of clothes they where whilst singing. I think it is wrong to say that they are to blame for starting the whole sexy look in the media.

Theories to be applied:

* Male Gaze
* Objectification
* Fetishism

Judith Butler is an american philosopher and has contributed to fields of feminism, political philosophy, queer theory and ethics. She receieved a PHD in philosophy from yale university. In the 1980′s she held a number of teachings and research appointments and was involved in in post structuralist efforts within western feminist theory to the presuppositional terms of feminism. Her research ranges from feminist and sexuality studies, modern philosophical fiction.

was an Austrian philosopher, Roman Catholic priest and critic of the institutions of contemporary western culture and their effects on the provenance and practice of education, medicine, work, energy use, and economic development.

Laura Mulvey was educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She worked at the British Film Institute for many years before taking up her current position. Mulvey is best known for her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, written in 1973 and published in 1975.

Mulvey’s article argues mainly that the cinematic apparatus (specifically of classical Hollywood cinema) inevitably puts the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. In classical Hollywood cinema, viewers are encouraged to identify with the protagonist of the film, who tends to be a man. Meanwhile, female characters are, according to Mulvey, coded with “to-be-looked-at-ness.” Mulvey argues that the only way to annihilate this “patriarchal” system is to radically deconstruct the filmic strategies of classical Hollywood with alternative methods. She calls for a new feminist avant-garde filmmaking that will rupture the magic and pleasure of classical Hollywood filmmaking. “It is said that analysing pleasure or beauty annihilates it. That is the intention of this article”.

• Feminism- refers to political, cultural, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights, legal protection for women and/or women’s liberation. It is also a movement that campaigns for women’s rights and interests.

• Hegemony- is the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter

• Oppression- is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and anxiety.

• Marginalisation- is the social process of becoming or being made marginal (to relegate or confine to a lower social standing or outer limit or edge, as of social standing)

• Silencing-

• Objectification- is the process by which an abstract concept is treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object

• Misogyny- is hatred (or contempt) of women or girls

• Voice and opposition-

• Male gaze- The Male Gaze as a feature of power asymmetry. Theoretically, the male gaze has much influenced feminist film theory and communications media studies.
In film, the male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman’s body, for instance. Laura Mulvey argues that the male gaze takes precedence over the female gaze. This can be reinterpreted as that the subjective male construction of feminine identity has too much prevalence over the subjective female construction of male identities

• Voyeur/voyeurism- is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature

• Male dominance- Male dominance, or maledom, refers to BDSM activities where the dominant partner is male

Marx was a German philosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist, and revolutionary, whose ideas played a significant role in the development of modern communism. Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its destruction.[3] Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, he believed socialism would, in its turn, replace capitalism, and lead to a stateless, classless society called pure communism. This would emerge after a transitional period called the “dictatorship of the proletariat.

Marx argued for a systemic understanding of socio-economic change. He argued that the structural contradictions within capitalism necessitate its end, giving way to socialism:
The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

On the other hand, Marx argued that socio-economic change occurred through organized revolutionary action. He argued that capitalism will end through the organized actions of an international working class: “Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.”