CUM-ON!
PORNA AND ITS HAPPILY
EVER AFTER ENDING
27 JUNE 2014, AMSTERDAM
NADINE MEANWELL
Student No. 6089119
MA Thesis Television in Cross-Media Culture
University of Amsterdam
First Reader: Mw. Dr. A.M. Kustritz
Second Reader: Dhr. Dr. S.M. Dasgupta
23277 Words
Abstract
This thesis seeks to analyze to what extent the new pornographic filmic subgenre entitled ‘porna’, reestablishes and challenges female gendered behavior
stereotypes in relation to the female gaze. This thesis incorporates several
theories on gender, sexuality and stereotyping and uses these insights to closely examine two heterosexual-orientated porna films. Underlining the films of
Jennifer Lyon Bell and Petra Joy, porna will be addressed in terms of the female gaze, voyeurism and identity.
Keywords
| Sexuality | Pornography | Masculinity | Femininity | Voyeurism | (Fe)Male Gaze | Stereotyping | Identity | Objectifying | Porna |
INTRODUCTION: ‘THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY’ 5
CHAPTER 1: GAZING AWAY 9
1.1 The Male Gaze 11
1.1.1 James Bond and the Male Gaze 12
1.2 The Female Gaze 14
1.2.1 Men as Eye Candy 16
1.2.2 James Bond and the Female Gaze 21
1.3 Gazing at his Johnson 21
CHAPTER 2: PORNA ?! 23
2.1 Petra Joy – Feeling it, not Faking it 23
2.2 Jennifer Lyon Bell – Matinée 25
CHAPTER 3: HEGEMONIC GENDER IDEOLOGY AND PORNA 27
3.1 Hegemonic Masculinity 29
3.1.1 Pornography and Hegemonic Masculinity 30
3.1.2 Porna and Hegemonic Masculinity 33
3.2 Hegemonic Femininity 36
3.2.1 Porna and Hegemonic Femininity 40
CHAPTER 4: PORNA AND THE FEMALE GAZE 43
4.1 Matinée and the Female Gaze 45
4.2 Feeling it, not Faking it and the Female Gaze 47
CONCLUSION 49
REFERENCES 52
APPENDIX 1: FEELING IT, NOT FAKING IT… IN WORDS 56
APPENDIX 2: MATINÉE… IN WORDS 60
INTRODUCTION
‘THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY’
Pornography, a subject that is known to almost everyone. People have been involved with porn on many different levels in every civilization thinkable throughout history. Representations of a sexual nature have even existed since prehistoric times (Rudgley 195, Adovasio et al. 252-253). Early pornography,
strictly speaking erotic depictions, came in different forms. Fertility figurines, erotic rock art and erotic paintings could be considered to be classified as the first erotic depictions. Other approaches came to light with the upsurge of erotic writing, the creation of ceramic figures and erotic depicted pottery, woodblock prints (shunga) and other forms of erotic art (Kornicki 358, Rudgley 195, Clarke 168). Porn as known from contemporary media culture started with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450 (Klooster 8). The printing press made mass circulation possible and consequently, the ‘mainstream-ability’ for pornographic images and literature. The modernization has made path for the invention of photography, magazines and eventually also motion pictures. All of these creations were and are still used for erotic depictions. Today, most people have a quite similar idea of what pornography is. As Brian McNair claimed in his book Mediated Sex: Pornography and Postmodern Culture, ‘pornography has always been infused with theoretical and semiotic complexity, and caries within it a multiplicity of meanings’ (90). Contemporary pornography is considered to be printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement. Online dictionary and thesaurus, Merriam Webster, depicts pornography as ‘movies, pictures,
magazines, etc., that show or describe naked people or sex in a very open and direct way in order to cause sexual excitement.’1 It also explains that
pornography comes from the Greek adjective ‘pornographos’ which means ‘writing about prostitutes’. In other words, the word originally signified any work of art or literature depicting the life of prostitutes.
Pornography has always played a significant role in civilizations lives. However, as time has gone by, porn has become somewhat a taboo, a forbidden practice due to its promiscuous and outgoing nature. Nevertheless, millions of people are engaged with porn daily and their reasons are very variable. In
contemporary media, erotic content is very diverse and used for various reasons. It has grown immensely with numerous niche-markets, subcategories, websites and other media outlets. It could be stated that pornography has always been of great interest within a wide radius of studies and beliefs, for different aims and causes. This is why pornography could be tagged as being ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. There are many different opinions about pornographic outlets and they could all be categorized within one of the three mentioned above. Some see ‘The Good’ in porn, as it can be beautiful, helpful, interesting, arousing and
1 Retrieved from Merriam Webster online dictionary. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pornography>
educating. ‘The Bad’ side of porn could considered to be its negative short term effects such as its addictiveness, its expenses and jealousy. Then there’s ‘The Ugly’: the unrealistic view of the male and female body (perfection), lack of respect in porn, the relationship displayed between male and female,
objectification of women and its numbing effect on reality. There will always be pros and cons. As mentioned earlier, a lot of research has been done in the field of pornography, debating the positive and negative effects of the matter. As it could be claimed that this is a never-ending debate, this thesis will not get
involved in this conversation. This paper will be focusing on something that could be considered to be a subgenre of pornography: ‘porna’. However, the creators of these erotic motion pictures preferably argue that it is poles apart from
traditional filmic pornography. To respect their aspiration, this thesis will
demonstrate several dissimilarities with traditional filmic pornography and argue that they merely exist besides one another equally without crossing each other’s boarders.
According to many theoretical and feminist point of views, women’s roles in pornography have historically been relegated to that of sexual objects (Dines 118). As Pamela Paul states in her book Pornified: ‘The problem with softcore pornography is that its voyeurism teaches men to view women as objects rather than to be in relationships with women as human beings’ (Paul 80). Besides, filmic pornography is mostly produced by men. Consequently, the initial intention for the mass commercialized porn creation was to merely satisfy, entertain and arouse men. A quote from Hugh Hefner is self-explanatory: ‘If you are
somebody’s sister, wife, or mother-in-law and picked us up by mistake, please pass us along to the man in your life and get back to the Ladies’ Home
Companion’ (Dines et al. 39). This quotation was printed in the first publication of his Playboy-magazine in 1953. According to Hefner, porn was part of a man’s world and women were supposed to read “Home Companion” magazines. It’s not the case that women didn’t watch porn, but according to Hugh Hefner, it was initially not made for them. According to R.C. Snyder-Hall from ‘Third Wave Feminism and the Defense of “Choice”’, in the early 1990s, third wave feminists were in search of freedom and human rights of sexual equivalence through entering the adult entertainment workforce (Snyder-Hall 256). This third wave feminism or “choice feminism” ‘responds to women who choose to engage in sex work, turn themselves into sexual objects, or eroticize male dominance’ (256). In this way freedom and self-dominance is being encouraged through
sexual equality and pleasure (255). Now, many years later, a new player has entered the market. Porna. What is porna? The title of the pornographic motion picture was created by DUSK!, a Dutch monthly subscripted television channel established in 2009. DUSK! is the first and only mature television network worldwide intended for female spectators. According to their website, films
produced in the category of porna covers real chemistry between actors, (fe)male excitement and perception is shown equally, high quality productions, attractive people with beautiful, natural and dissimilar body types, an unhurried and
passionate build-up of sexual arousal, and explicit sex. This description does cover it all and provides a clear understanding of what could be considered as “porna”.
Since porna is created for a female audience, by female producers with specific and deliberate means of female arousal, it could argued that the “female gaze” in this perspective is extremely important. As will also be discussed in the following chapter, possessing a gaze, being able to look, has historically meant to be active and masculine. On the other hand, being gazed at, was historically linked to passiveness and femininity. These traditional and outdated theories on masculinity and femininity, linked to power and powerlessness are more and more being criticized in contemporary gender studies. This is why this text will address the female gaze as active and empowering, which exists separately from the male gaze, although still relatable to one another. Most of the articles and texts that discuss the female gaze, perceive it as a secondary gaze derived from the male gaze. However, as times have changed combined with the upsurge of erotic motion picture content produced by and for women, this thesis will address theories from Lorraine Gamman and Margaret Marshment, Eva-Maria Jacobsson and Andrea Dworkin to illuminate modern practices of active female gazing. The oppositional gazes will also be addressed in relation to relatable contemporary media in order to divide the gazes and perceive them as being separate.
Drawing upon the work of the aforementioned authors as well as Judith Butler and Gail Dines, and focusing on two porna-films produced by Jennifer Lyon Bell and Petra Joy, this thesis will argue that porna both reestablishes and
challenges female gendered behavior stereotypes when taking the female gaze into account and placing this framework in relation to the male gaze and
traditional filmic pornography. By analyzing the female gaze and porna as an exclusive female filmic genre, this thesis will argue how this operates within the larger framework of gender issues. In order to understand porna within media
and gender studies, this thesis will address gender in terms of masculinity and femininity which will be combined to passiveness and activeness which is derived from the gender theories addressed by Laura Mulvey. This then will be related to theories and illustrations of the male and female gaze in contemporary media culture. In this perspective this thesis will analyze in what way Mulvey’s theories on gender behavior are somewhat outdated and how in contemporary culture the stereotypical notions and divisions between masculine behaviors and feminine behaviors are still intact. Does being a man mean to be masculine and does this directly provoke a male gaze? Is this the same for women? In order to gain a complete picture, these concepts will be related to the traditional stereotypical gendered behaviorism. When discussing stereotyping and gender, the forming of identity and the comparison of ‘the other’ to ‘the self’ is very important. These theories will form the basis of the thesis and will lead up to the case studies in the later chapters. By analyzing the way the female gaze ‘works’ within porna, several theorists and concepts that are intervened with the matter and act upon these theories will be referred to. When analyzing the female gaze this thesis will argue that it’s not about “more women looking”, but about having progressively more media-products being made with women in mind as their intended viewer. This is constructing an idea of how to structure media for a female spectator. This is why in the first following chapter, the gaze will be addressed. After having analyzed the gaze as a concept on its own, both the male and the female gaze are explained and put into context with contemporary media illustrations. Then the paragraph, “Gazing at his Johnson”, with a self-explanatory title, deliberates gender trouble and the female erotic active gaze. Several popular illustrations from advertising and the music industry will be addressed to demonstrate in what way the media has started to “adapt” this female gaze in a sexual way. Then, after having gained information on the (fe)male gaze, porna will shortly be introduced and explained in the chapter entitled “Porna ?!”, and addressing two porna case studies in two different paragraphs. Both case studies will analyze a porna film that has won a DUSK! porna-award. One directed and produced by Petra Joy and the other by Jennifer Lyon Bell. This short chapter gives an overall view of what porna is and explains the narrative of the two chosen porna-films. After having gained information on the case studies, the following chapter “Hegemonic Gender Ideology and Porna” raises questions on stereotyping and pigeonholing. As the creation of “female friendly” pornographic motion pictures also voices certain aspects on the identity and behaviorism of the female gender.
At first gender behaviorism will be debated in relation to the previous mentioned gazes of both men and women. To narrow it down, the first paragraph will discuss hegemonic masculinity and its behaviors in relation to traditional filmic
pornography. Certain illustrations of contemporary pornographic filmic
productions will be addressed to gain some insights in the way these gendered behaviors are being exploited and/ or neglected. After, the same will be done in relation to porna, addressing the two case studies and discussing hegemonic masculinity and the fluidity of masculinity. The paragraph that follows will do the same when analyzing hegemonic femininity. Gendered behaviors will be analyzed in light of stereotyping, hegemonic ideas and (dis)similarities between the
protagonists. To eventually gain answers on porna and female gazing in relation to gender behaviorism, the fourth and final chapter “Porna and the Female Gaze”, argues that porna has made a logical step incorporating and focusing merely on the female gaze. Concepts of voyeurism and sexuality will be discussed in order to understand this radical “female only” decision. This will be further enlightened when addressing the two case studies and discussing several ways in which female gazing is incorporated within and outside of the filmic narrative. After, all of the findings from the entire research will be lined up and discussed to
eventually find out in what way porna reestablished and/or challenges female gendered behavior stereotypes.
CHAPTER 1: GAZING AWAY
This chapter analyzes the gaze and its usage in contemporary media culture. Focusing on the eminent “male gaze”, the “female gaze” will also be elucidated. The importance of a freestanding and unattached female gaze will become clear drawing upon the work of Jacques Lacan and Laura Mulvey. The way the gazer has control over the subject that is being gazed at raises questions on empowerment, behaviorism and voyeurism. These issues are relatable
differently to the different types of gazing. In this chapter, it will be argued that there is a distinguishable female gaze separately from the historically dominant male gaze and this will in further paragraphs be related to erotic depictions.
A “Gaze” is a term that became common in critical term due to Jacques Lacan’s practice and usage in media outlets. The gaze is a state of awareness in which a person realizes that one can be “watched”. According to Lacan, the gaze can be seen as a “blind spot” of the acuity of detectible reality of the subject
(Lacan 84). This generates a precipitous anxiety which is necessary for the existence of the gaze. ‘It surprises the viewer, disturbs him and reduces him to a feeling of shame’ (Lacan 96). This could be explained by its voyeuristic and exhibitionistic substances that also generates a form of pleasure at the same time (Lacan 181-183, Ellis 138). According to Laura Mulvey in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” there are two modes of looking when it comes to the spectator and his gaze. She differentiates voyeurism and fetishism. Voyeuristic viewing, as Mulvey states, involves a controlling gaze and has a connection with sadism (Mulvey 840). She writes: ‘Pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt – asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness’ (Mulvey 840). She also distinguishes fetishism, which involves ‘the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous’ (Mulvey 840). This in a way shows the physical attractiveness of the object which makes it satisfying in a simple form.
From the existence of film theory, the gaze has been used to describe the way viewers “look” or “gaze” at motion pictures and also refers to the gaze of performers within filmic media. Jonathan Schroeder claims in “Consuming
Representation: A Visual Approach to Consumer Research” that ‘the gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze’ (Schroeder 208). The power
relation is different within the different types and variations of the gaze. The gaze that is most interesting for this research is the spectator’s gaze in relation to the intra-diegetic gaze. The spectator’s gaze can in this context be considered the viewer’s gaze when watching a film (Mayne 156-157). On the other hand, the intra-diegetic gaze is the gaze of one performer at another within the film (Burgin 148). Within film studies, this type of gaze is directly related to the spectators gaze since they are occurring at the same time. Through point of view shots from the camera, the intra-diegetic gaze lets the viewer “see through the eyes” of the personae within the film. This generates a form of relation between spectator and performer which could alter the spectator’s gaze. According to Christian Metz this relationship is easily constructed as the spectator re-enacts with what Lacan called “the mirror stage” (Metz 49). The mirror stage starts when a child has an encounter with a mirror and realizes he or she has an external appearance. This awareness of any object can induce awareness of being an object (Sturken 81). Spectators are identifying with the gaze of the camera and are seeing themselves
as ‘other’, as they are not part of the filmic world they identify with a person or camera within. Metz claims that the spectator is all-perceiving as he is ‘entirely on the side of the perceiving instance: absent from the screen, but certainly present in the auditorium, a great eye and ear without which the perceived would have no one to perceive it, the constitutive instance, in other words, of the
cinema signifier (it is I who make the film)’ (Metz 51). Everyone at the same time identifies themselves with the character in film and in this way also have a
personal viewpoint when it comes to the other. This viewing is important as ‘cinema practice is only possible through the perceptual passions: the desire to see (= scopic drive, scopophilia, voyeurism)’ (Metz 59). This voyeurism is an important key aspect of cinematic viewing as it has an erotic and exhibitionistic touch. The gazer is seemingly active and the passive actor (gazed at) is
cooperating as he is present and accepting this look. When it comes to gazing, both concepts are important aspects but are very dissimilar. Mirroring while gazing is usually done as an identification process when it comes to filmic experiences. The spectator places himself in the shoes of the character and perceives the filmic world and the narrative through his perspective. When it comes to voyeurism on the other hand, it gets a little more complicated. Voyeuristic viewing with its connection to exhibitionism and erotic
entanglements, is a different type of gazing. When taking the point of view of the spectator while gazing voyeuristically, he or she looks at a filmic character with great pleasure but does not necessarily identify him/herself with this person. As discussed earlier Laura Mulvey argues that the female characters on screen are being objectified through voyeuristic processes and this is how the division between active male/ passive female comes to light. How this works for the different gazes will be explained in the following paragraphs on the male and female gaze.
1.1 The Male Gaze
According to Laura Mulvey in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, film reflects upon the social norms and behavior of sexuality and film replicates the language of patriarchy by including the same gender dissimilarities that all patriarchy is based upon (838). In film, the female is perceived as the “other”,
not as a subject but as an object. Mulvey addresses this issue by discussing “phallocentrism”, a vision of the world in which the male genetalia is seen as the significant epicenter of meaning and power (840). Norms, values and other matters are in historical perspective mostly defined by men. When these issues are reflected upon film, it is the men that carry the narrative and have an active role, while women remain passive (837). As John Berger wrote in “Ways of
Seeing: an Introductory Essay on Art Criticism”, ‘women are still depicted in a different way to men - because the “ideal” spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him’ (Berger 64). Mulvey adds that ‘the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen’ (838). In this sense, women perform inside the narrative, playing with the gazes of both the spectator and the male characters in film. According to Mulvey’s theories there is an obvious division between the male active gaze and the female passiveness which is being looked upon. Women are perceived as objects of erotic desire and are very often inscripted in film to be looked at. Since the existence of film, the man is seen as the historically dominant power within the film narrative as the man possesses the active gaze. His gaze becomes visible by way of camera-movements that follow the perspectives of the heterosexual white male. These hegemonic ideologies within film objectify
women. Mary Devereaux recapitulates it in her essay “Oppressive Texts, Resisting Readers and the Gendered Spectator: The New Aesthetics”, by arguing that ‘narrowly constructed, the gaze refers to actual looking. Broadly, […] it refers to a way of thinking about, and acting in, the world. In literal terms, the gaze is male when men do the looking. […] In figurative terms, to say that the gaze is male refers to a way of seeing which takes women as its object’ (337). Both Devereaux as Mulvey agree upon the same notion of the gaze being a “male thing”. ‘Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’ (Berger 45). As the male spectator dominated, a certain depiction of women has been created to gain male attention (Berger 47). But what does this gazing do? Why do men gaze? Mulvey distinguishes several modes of “scopophilia”, a certain pleasure and satisfaction viewers receive from looking at other people (840). By doing so, the one that is being looked at, is seen as an object. The person doing the looking obtains power from the ability of looking. There is a balance since the person that is being looked at is separate, (s)he is the “other”,
but at the same time, there is an identifying process going on.
There are however differences between the male gazes. The male gaze of the spectator should be distinguished from the gaze of the male protagonist. Then again, it should be taken into consideration that different genders could identify with the male protagonist and different genders could perceive the filmic world through the eyes of the male protagonist. It will be taken into account that the protagonists in film are identifiable by all spectating genders and sexualities possible and that they all can obtain the male protagonists’ gaze. The spectator’s gaze then again is different and as this thesis will argue that there isn’t just one dominant gaze, it is possible for a wide range of sexualities and genders to identify with the different spectating gazes.
1.1.1 James Bond and the Male Gaze
Some historical examples of the implication of the male gaze are to be seen in James Bond films. They are mostly based upon the male gaze and enforce viewers to view women through the objectifying male gaze. Die Another Day (2002) for example is a Bond film with Pierce Brosnan in the leading protagonist role and Halle Berry in the female leading role as Jinx Johnson, an American agent. Jinx Johnson enters the screen through the sight of the binoculars of James Bond. She was swimming in the sea and walks onto shore in a sexy orange bikini. These slow motion images are very sexual and Bond’s gaze cannot be distracted. The camera takes up the binoculars vignette, which enforces the viewer to
perceive Jinx through the male objectifying gaze. This masculine voyeuristic filmic moment has an erotic impact as she is being objectified as “to-be-looked-at-ness”. The slow-motion application to the shot, shows body movement that is overly sexual and represents in a way the passionate inspection Bond is giving the female body. At this point in film, she has only just been introduced for 30 seconds in film and already she is being objectified and humble to the male gaze. According to Mulvey, the man gains instinctive pleasure by viewing women as erotic objects. The man in this case is the “bearer” of the look and with his
implied gaze, he projects a certain fantasy onto women, whereupon she engages her “role” as a passive object (Mulvey 838). The way women are looked upon within a narrative are controlled by the male protagonist. In return, as seen in Die Another Day, the male character controls the narrative events and has the ability to further construct the narrative. The viewers identify themselves with the male
protagonist since they share the same “gaze” upon the woman in question. By gaining the power to control the narrative, the gaze and the active segment within the narrative, the hegemonic structures again become visible. Going back further in time, GoldenEye (1995), another Bond film, obviously opens up from a heterosexual male perspective. Several guns are shown and used, a lot of naked women dancing sexually, masculine males smoking cigars and some Soviet Russian connotations. These images are clear connotations to historical beliefs of masculinity. It becomes visible that the producers tended to film from and for a male gaze. Again, women are portrayed as ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ and men are the bearers of this look. Christopher John Farley discussed, in an article from Time Magazine from the 10th of November 2002, the Die Another Day (2002) Bond film in relation to previous 007-movies. Farley writes:
The conventional wisdom is that Bond has changed with the times. Agent 007, once the coolest of cold warriors, is now a more generalized sort of hero, tailored to fight the evil triumvirate of problems that bedevil our times; rogue states, terrorists and drug kingpins. Nowhere is Bond’s nod to modernity more apparent than in the supposedly evolved image of the Bond Girl. 007’s paramours, once buxom and docile, are still the former, but no longer the latter. They are expected to be smarter, tougher, and more multicultural than they have been in the past. Basically, they’re expected to do what Bond does, but sexier and in high heels… However, it’s also true that the bigger and more complex Bond Girls get, the more they confirm Bond’s masculine omnipotence when they are conquered…Much of what Bond adventures are about still boils down to sex…The world has changed since Dr. No and the status of women has shifted, but Bond is still on top. Bond, like Tarzan in the mid-20th century, or Eminem in the 21st, exists to demonstrate to men of European heritage that they are still in control, that they are masters of any domain, no matter how tangled the jungles of Africa, the hip-hop world, or international politics. Bond girls are disposable affirmations (1-2).
As Farley argues, the Bond’s haven’t really changed a lot as the male public will still gain the masculine male that can save the world and sleeping with several women in between. Bond’s image hasn’t changed from being a symbol of male sexual dominance. David Morefield agrees and states that Bond ‘is a
comparatively uncomplicated creature, slipping easily from one relationship to another with no messy emotions, and no regrets when it’s over’ (2). Bond’s masculine behaviorism is unquestioned and self-explanatory. Using high-tech gadgets that make every man’s heart jump, small intriguing weapons, fast and expensive cars, beautiful women that long for his attention and love and his trained body, Bond’s exploited every mode of masculinity to come across as a hero for every male spectator. Another example for the everlasting and
unchanging Bond franchise is that the previously mentioned “water scene” starring Halle Berry is an almost exact copy of a scene from a Bond film Dr No from 1962.The beach scene has been replicated in Die Another Day. The original
features Bond laying on the beach and hearing a female voice, he grabs his gun and hides behind a tree to remain “invisible” for the stranger he had seen. Actress Ursula Andress comes out of the water, playing the role of Honey Ryder. Wearing a sexy bikini and a dagger around her waist acting seductive and aggressive at the same time. The camera is viewing her from the male gaze perspective. Point of view shots from Bond’s gaze imply a male audience. After a view seconds, they catch each other’s eye and when Honey asks Bond ‘are you looking for shells?’ he replies: ‘no, I’m just looking’. His gaze has boldly been outspoken, normalizing the fact that it’s okay for a man to gaze at a woman. The same ‘out of the water’ scene has been used in Die Another Day with some alterations. The same reference can be made to Casino Royale, a Bond film from 2006. This time a man, actor Daniel Craig performing the role of James Bond, walks out of the water. The alteration of the sex could be explained by the
modernization of society. Bond himself becomes a sex object and allowing others to view him. Although overly confident with his muscular body and skin tight trunks, he has become the one that is being looked at. Despite of his masculine appearance and confident walk, it provides men and women an alternative “Bond” point of view.
1.2 The Female Gaze
As discussed above, within media, men seem to receive the active roles and women the ones that are more of a passive kind. As John Berger states in Ways of Seeing, ‘men act and women appear, men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at’ (Berger 45-47). According to Berger, women are ‘depicted in a different way to men, because the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the women is designed to flatter him’ (Berger 64). These are the same assumptions Mulvey stated earlier and can also be confirmed by Paul Messaris. They both come to an understanding that females are “gazed at” (Messaris 41). Messaris clarifies this point of view by adding an example of advertising. He states that female models in advertisements that are addressed to other women ‘treat the lens as a substitute for the eye of an
imaginary male onlooker’ (Messaris 41). When women view these ads they are ‘actually seeing themselves as a man might see them’ (Messaris 41). Not just any man is taken as the gaze representative, it is considered to be a heterosexual, Caucasian man that has left puberty behind him. However, as bell hooks and others argue, there should be room for an oppositional gaze. hooks encourages
black women in his text “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators”, that they should not accept the stereotypical and hegemonic representations in film but instead critique them (116). hooks continues claiming that:
Black women have been forced to resist and be critical in order to achieve some identity, and this resistance has not only been directed at the male gaze, and the idea of women as “lack”. They have gained pleasure in such interrogation and deconstruction. Black women who have survived being dehumanized in everyday life 'were most inclined to develop an oppositional gaze (127).
In relation, Edward Said claimed in his book Orientalism that a distinction is made between two binary groups and the relation between them is directly dependent on how they identify themselves. Said concludes that the Orient is being depicted as an illogical, frail and feminized other in relation to the rational, robust and masculine West. He states that ‘this binary relation derives from the European psychological need to create a difference of cultural inequality between West and East; that cultural difference is attributed to immutable cultural "essences" inherent to Oriental peoples and things’ (65-57). People identify themselves on the differences and superior being which separates one from the other (4). In this line, men cannot exist without the relation to women, differences form identities. As stated earlier, men seem to take a more active role whereas women act more passively. Following the line of Edward Said, Richard Dyer acclaimed that ‘men could look freely at women, but women could only glance back surreptitiously’ (Dyer 265). Although Dyer’s and other’s proclamations were put to paper some time ago, there is still a notion of truth that surrounds it. Nevertheless, this paper will argue that alongside the active male gaze, there is an independent and modern female gaze. The differences that are hegemonically determined are not fixed identity formers. Contemporary media culture, advertisements
outstandingly, is experimenting playfully with the female gaze. Women have been appearing more as a marketing tool for brands within advertisements, concluding that the male gaze has always been more predominant. However slowly, more men started appearing in adverts taking the female gaze into account. As the female gaze is becoming more acknowledged and used in
contemporary culture, the hegemonic passiveness of women is making way for a more active female viewer.
In many advertisements a male character is being portrayed and placed in such manner that he becomes an object for viewers. In this way, viewers are invited to experience the pleasures and desires of looking at men. Fatal
Attraction, a 1987 American thriller is a film that on the surface seems to be challenging the traditional role of the male gaze. According to Eva-Maria
Jacobsson’s text “A Female Gaze?” it tries to provide the viewer with a dissimilar interpretation as it surrogates the male gaze for the female gaze (17). The film also exemplifies liberated women as frustrated, unhappy individuals that are in need of traditional norms and values (22). ‘According to the principles of the ruling ideology and the psychical structures that back it up, the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like’ (Mulvey 838). The male personage is always in control since he beholds the active gaze. The film is usually structured around him. However, within Fatal Attraction, this is rather disputable since there is an active female protagonist. According to Laura Mulvey in “Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure and Narrative”, the identification process is affected when a female character
occupies the center of the narrative arena (Mulvey 27). The identification process with a female gaze could be seen as identification with masculinity since
femininity seems to be repressed whenever a female character fulfills the
activeness within the narrative. As masculinity is a concept that is closely linked to men and femininity linked to women, this division is determining the female gaze (Mulvey 26). Director of Fatal Attraction, Adrien Lyne, commented in “A Female Gaze?” written by Jacobsson, when asked in what way he connotes professional women in film:
They are sort of pretending or trying to be men, sort of overcompensating for not being men. ... One hears feminists talk, and the past twenty years one hears women talk about fucking men rather than being fucked, to be crass about it. It is kind of unattractive, however liberated and emancipated it is. It kind of fights the woman as wife, as child bearer. You might have a career and success, but you are not fulfilled as women... (Jacobsson 23).
As there are many different readings on this film, there are many different interpretations whether or not there is or could be a female gaze. The idea of men being passive seems in this way to be rejected by contemporary culture, probably to stay in line with the dominant hegemonic ideas on masculinity.
Analyzing pictures of men and women, these differences remain visible. All of this has to do with hegemonic and stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity. This will be further deliberated in the second chapter on gendered behaviorism and stereotypes.
As has been remarked up to now, certain hegemonic and stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity are inevitably linked to gazing and being gazed at. However, perceiving the female gaze as a separate individual activity,
the “what or who” they are gazing at can probably alter the power-relations between the gazer and being gazed at. In the following paragraph female spectatorship will be discussed regarding gazing and sexual depicted images to further analyze the embedded relations.
1.2.1 Men as Eye Candy
When arguing that there definitely is a female gaze and it is being actively used within popular culture, certain popular and mainstream examples come to mind. One of them is Kelly Rowland’s popular music video Motivation. In a
playfully way this music video experiments with men as objects of desire. In this short clip, men are hardly dressed and they are being tossed around as objects that Rowland controls. At 00:33 seconds, a lot of men are passively standing or sitting in a row and Kelly Rowland walks by and gazing upon them and touching them as if she were in a brothel, choosing her prey. All of the men in the clip are portrayed and used as sexual objects. Next to addressing the female gaze, the video also plays with the male gaze as Rowland herself is also barely dressed and is acting sensually. As there are many other music videos that use men as
passive objects of desire, this clip assumes certain roleplaying. In this case, Rowland actively uses and pursues men whenever “she feels like it”. Although being very sensual and sexy herself, she “acts” like a man in her behavior, which makes the music video even more powerful as now the tables are turned.
Another example of active female gazing can be found in several motion pictures. The protagonists of de film Batman Forever (1995), Batman and Robin, are
frequently objectified by zooming in on their well-trained chest, their crotches and butt-cheeks when they are getting strapped up in leather. Another more recent example of the objectifying of men and the active female gaze is the portrayal of Jacob and Edward, both protagonists in the Twilight-films (2008-2012). The female gaze is quite subtle but noticeable. Several lingering shots can be acknowledged on Edward’s eyes, Bella’s (the female protagonist) point of view shots and the loving and caring relationship between the protagonists. The first film was directed by a woman, which could (stereotypically speaking) explain the soft touch. From the second film on the contrast became very clear, a new
director (male) has taken over in producing the films. As the films are adaptations from the books that have been written by Stephenie Meyer, a female author, the difference with the film adaptations are quite huge. It is noticeable that the books
chronologically contained more action-scenes but the portrayal of these scenes, set to film, are noticeably different from the previously directed films. The soft and tenderness made way for action and fighting but the female gaze wasn’t completely forgotten. From the second movie on, Jacob’s sudden muscular body wasn’t covered up by t-shirts any longer. From 2009 up to 2012 the Twilight films enchanted women with clean, shiny half-naked men in contrast to the fully
dressed women. The men are buff, strong and seem to be very willing to protect their beloved women. Taking the female gaze into account the film also plays with the stereotypical notions of masculinity. As the men are also in need of some help, emotionally. The continuous perceptible emotion in every scene is
controlled by the female performers. All of the films display female empowerment and are produced to turn on the female gaze. As there was some commotion after the release of the Twilight films (being too female orientated and even too sensitive for a male audience), the films are acknowledged to be mostly watched by a female audience. Twilight is somewhat unusual as the female protagonist has (the burden?) to choose between two very different men, which in most popular mainstream films is the other way around as for example discussed in relation to the James Bond films. In most motion pictures, men “get to choose” and women following their lead, passively. Another unusual blockbuster is Magic Mike (2012). As the film is about sexy muscular men who strip in a club for a female viewing audience, this film could be named: The Female Gaze: The Movie. They are in a way subjected to the gazes of the women within the narrative and all of the voyeuristic gazes from the viewers watching the film. As the audience within the narrative is filled with female spectators, the film implies
heteronormativity and implies to be addressed for female heterosexual
voyeurism. The implied female gaze could however also be altered to a queer point of view in which different gazes are also possible. The way the men are “to-be-looked-at-ness”, is however differently to films in which women are stripping in a club for an audience of which the greater part is male. One of these films is Striptease (1996) featuring Demi Moore as a single mother earning her wages by stripping in a club full of men. In one of the memorable scenes, Moore comes up on stage dressed (transgender) like a man, wearing a suit (minus the pants), tie and a hat. Acting over confident and smoking a cigarette which leads to think she was acting upon her “role” as being a man. After a minute she shakes off her jacket and hat and the transformation in (less) clothing automatically leads to a different attitude in her behavior. She is sexy, fierce and trying to be as sensual
as possible to please the male voyeurs. Although still being confident, it is
noticeable she is subjective to the male spectators and dependent of their money (which is what the narrative is all about). The combination of both narrative and the protagonist’s behavior implies a hierarchy-system in which the men are “taking care” after women and that women cannot be completely independent of men. The strippers in Magic Mike are sexually aggressive and are active agents of their own desires who find ways to assert their masculinity and do not depend purely on female resources and approval for self-worth. In a way their masculine behavior and attitude defines their “active” assertiveness although being looked at. In a way, the film is created in such a way that the men seem to be in control in every situation. Nevertheless, their assertiveness, masculine bodies and sexy dance moves are a feast for the eye.
After discussing all of these examples, it could be stated that the female gaze in film is created by presenting the film from and for a female perspective, reflecting upon female attitudes or adding male “eye candy”. This implies a heteronormative point of view, as they are creating texts for what they think (hetero)female audiences want. This however does not really reflect a “truth” about all women but does illustrate in what way the industry thinks about women and their assumptions on how women think and what they desire. There is no homogenous female perspective or attitude so the industry is creating an image that reflects upon the hegemonic ideas that are consistent in the related period. In this way, the media is reestablishing certain hegemonic values and behaviors and exhibitions them as “the norm”. In this way, the queer community is not taken into account from the perspective of the media producers/creators. Nevertheless, different gazes and point of views can be applicable to different media images.
The reason behind intentionally marketing to a female gaze when it comes to film, is most probably to suit it for a female audience. This is why presumably the female gaze is mainly found in chick-flicks, soap-operas and melodramas, but also in commercials. A lot of commercials are addressed to women since,
according to research, they do most of the shopping2. So it isn’t uncommon that a Levi’s commercial includes a very good-looking man, half-naked and a woman checking every inch of his body out. The implied connotation here is: ‘If you buy 2 According to Daniel Kruger and Dreyson Byker the tendency for men and women to shop in different ways could be explained in terms of our hunter-gatherer past as women were the main breadwinners (vegetarian products) and men rapidly hunted animals. Women are in a gathering mode as they browse looking for the best and most nutritious products, spending lots of time examining different products (315-327).
these jeans, you will be attractive to women’. Thus, the female gaze has been used as a marketing tool to make men want to buy these jeans, and women wanting to buy these jeans for a man in their life because ‘they will also look this good wearing them’. This can also be found in an old Coca Cola commercial from 1994. American model and actor, Lucky Vanous, stars as a passive object,
drinking a can of coke without wearing a t-shirt. Within a tall business-building numerous women quickly maneuver to the windows to take a glimpse of him. In the background blues- and gospel-singer Etta James is singing ‘I just wanna make, love to you’. The female gaze is clearly noticeable, and so is their sexual desire. Gamman and Marshment debated in their book The Female Gaze: Images of Women in Popular Culture from 1988 that a lot of texts represent men as objects for a female gaze (Gamman & Marshment 7). They have criticized Laura Mulvey by suggesting that texts also represent men as objects for a female gaze and that female viewers could also be active instead of passive (Gamman & Marshment 7). In her article on “Visual Pleasure” Mulvey debates that ‘the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like’ (Mulvey 838). However, the female spectator can enact a female gaze, as when she identifies herself with a female character or the female protagonist on screen. According to Mulvey, this also has to do with the content of different representations which could make it more problematic for women to identify themselves. As she claimed, a lot of female characters (if there are any) often don’t even get any character development and often don’t act in their own interest within the narrative. Besides, viewing an event within film from a female point of view has also been quite rare. Although these claims are related to early film, women in contemporary media culture, specifically film, are still under-represented. As Mulvey states in “Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure”: ‘on films in which a woman central protagonist is shown to be unable to achieve a stable sexual identity, torn between the deep, blue sea of passive femininity and the devil of regressive masculinity’ (Mulvey, 24). In other words, to be able to identify with a female gaze means that there is always a cross identification with
masculinity as according to Mulvey, masculinity is the norm that is determining the gazes. As discussed above, the male gaze seems to have a dominant position within contemporary media culture, but the female gaze is blooming. What can be concluded from the above is that film is encouraging specific modes of
viewing, but individual spectators can refuse those structures, something Stuart Hall would define as an “oppositional reading” (Hall 138). As certain examples of
the exploitation of the female gaze as a marketing tool have already been addressed, a couple of illustrations of the female gaze in relation to Mulvey’s problematized masculinity will provide new insights. As Margaret Walters discussed in de 1970s, nude male models reassured the hegemonic masculine image to the spectator (Walters 36). Using props such as leather, tattoos, motorbikes and denim, the ads utilized masculinity as a marketing tool to
stimulate female gazing within specific boundaries and genres. This is in contrast with the passiveness of their pose and the powerlessness of being gazed at. As Dyer has argued, the seemingly relaxed pose and attitude, is in deep contrast with the taught muscles that display their promptness for activity (Dyer 110). The same could also be said about the difference between the male and female strippers and the active/passive relationship. Looking at male bodies and looking at female bodies does not have the same meaning and consequences in
contemporary culture as they carry different baggage. An “equal” representation would not necessarily mean exactly the same thing as implied hegemonic
structures, ideas and norms will always alter the image. This has all to do with deeper embedded power relations between male and female, the gazer and the one that is being gazed at and the masculine and the feminine.
As Jonathan Schroeder and Detlev Zweck have argued in their article on “Mirrors of Masculinity”, the gaze in general has become extended. Among the female gaze, there are many ambivalent positions to gaze from depending on concepts such as masculinity, femininity, race and class (44). Schroeder and Zweck argue that ‘to gaze implies more than to look at—it signifies a
psychological relationship of power and sexuality in which the gazer dominates the object of the gaze’ (30). What they are debating is that looking implies power and that being looked at connotes passivity (33).Their non-traditional point of view on the gaze, leaves to imply that there are different modes of gazing that can be seen as separate from the male gaze. The female gaze in this light, is a separate gaze with its own boundaries and guidelines. Many examples have been addressed and it can be concluded that the female gaze has come into being ever since women accepted that it is ok to look, it is ok to stare, it is ok to be active and it is ok not to confirm to the traditional stereotype. The increased visibility of the female gaze incorporated in media, show that more and more products are being made with women in mind as their intended viewer.
Nevertheless, every text is multi-faceted and can have a different meaning in different circumstances. When a media text is presented with an implied female
audience, this does not necessarily mean that all women want to look and this also does not mean that only women are doing the looking. All media texts are produced from a certain point of view and are encoded with meaning, as Stuart Hall has argued, this does not mean that the texts are decoded in the same way as intended. What has been visible from the examples addressed above, is that creators of media texts are more and more taking the female gaze into account when producing media.
1.2.2 James Bond and the Female Gaze
As debated earlier, the female gaze has also been incorporated in one of the modern James Bond films, Casino Royale. An English newspaper, The
Telegraph, writes that ‘the scene in Casino Royale became the most recognizable image of Craig in his new role as 007 and turned him into an international sex symbol. It was widely interpreted as a pastiche of the moment when Ursula Andress stepped out of the sea in the original Bond film, Dr No’ (17 October 2008).
fig. 1. ‘Out of the water scene’s’ in different James Bond films
When the three ‘come out of the water-scenes’ are placed next to one another, it can be stated that the James Bond franchise is taking the female gaze into
account playfully. Although Daniel Craig stated in the before mentioned article in The Telegraph, that ‘it was an accident’, the scene is very much comparable to the similar scenes from previous Bond films. Empire Online, an online version of the print magazine Empire, stated in their article “The Most Gratuitous Sexy Scenes In Movies”, that: ‘A triptych of some of the best of Bond gratuitousness (a quantity never in short supply). It’s the witty twists on a Bond standard that make
this one: from Ursula Andress’ original encapsulation of everything a Bond girl needs (beauty, bikini, knife), through Halle Berry's orange update, to Daniel Craig's feminist inversion.’ In other words, the updates in the Bond films are now also taking the female viewer into account by incorporating some eye candy for her. Mulvey’s observations on the presence of women in film now is also
applicable to the male erotic image in film. In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema she states that ‘the presence of women is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation’ (837). As for now, women are also the bearers of the look and this is why the image of men now provides a mirror between the longings of the female personae on the screen and the viewers in the audience. This is in line with Miriam Hanson’s article “Pleasure, Ambivalence, Identification: Valentino and Female Spectatorship” (1986) in which she argues that women are also able to look at male personae as erotic objects of desire (10,12). The Bond gender reversal is one of the examples in which contemporary media culture is ‘playing’ with the incorporation of the female gaze. This also opens up boarders for a homosexual gaze and consequently, when producing a film from multiple point of views, an overall implied gaze could be accomplished. In this way, the implied heterosexual hegemony wouldn’t be dominant as every spectator could watch in different ways.
1.3 Gazing at his Johnson
Without arguing whether or not women “like” to look or gaze, they do seem to get more and more opportunities to be able to do so. The representation of the body is a theme that seems to be increasingly reoccurring in the visual culture of consumer society. The first nude male models posing in ads did “work”, as it was something new and the masculinity of the image turned around the gaze (Simpson et al. 257). Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger were icons that used their sexuality and played with the gazes in order to become popular (DeCurtis 127). In that time, full nudity was a bit of a taboo and men started to work with several fetishes such as leather, tattoos, several uniforms and denim (as the ad discussed above) (DeCurtis 127). Nevertheless, nudity was a popular theme in paintings and even gay magazines (containing nude photography) arose such as the Physique Pictorial from 1951. Female nudity became “mainstream” when The
Playboy came into being in 1953 by Hugh Hefner. Male nudity with a specific female audience also became a mainstream product, but this took more than a while. It took twenty years for the Playgirl to come into being, as an indirect consequence of a sexual revolution. According to Cara Buckley’s article “They Couldn’t Get Past the Mimbos” from The New York Times in 2008 the existence of the playgirl has connections to the “Feminist Movement” from the late 1960s. With women in mind as the intended buyer of the Playgirl, men are now subjected to be objects of their desire. Nevertheless, the erotic magazine received a wider audience and the photographed men were gazed at by a wide range of spectators.
Gazing and being gazed at is directly related to (dis)empowerment. In traditional pornography, Andrea Dworkin claims in her book Pornland, this power imbalance is visible as women are passively being gazed at and treated actively by the man. As a result of this visual structure, mainstream pornography has been criticized often by feminists proclaiming that it isn’t female friendly and gives a distorted image (Dworkin 199-200). However, as Maggie Andrews argues, when women purchase pornography, “gender trouble” is instigated as males are made into the passive objective of the female gaze. She states that ‘the purchase of porn magazines by women makes a statement. It affirms their sense of
themselves as sexual beings; it dislodges and questions any perception of women as sexual objects, replacing this with a script of women as sexually active’
(Andrews 391). Clarissa Smith agrees and argues that male mainstream nude entertainment such as the “Chippendales” or the Playgirl appears to draw on certain aspects of feminism’s claim to equality for women (Smith 73). She continues stating that the presentation of the male body is subjective to equal situations of commodification as the body of a woman (Smith 71). Although being able to view male nudity for quite some time, with women as their intended viewer, it nevertheless took a while before female porn developed. A highlight appeared in 1984, when Candida Royalle, an ex-porn star founded ‘Femme Productions’, a company that produced pornographic films with heterosexual women in mind as their intended viewer. Pornography made for women, by women.
In this chapter, the gaze has been discussed in light of the dissimilarities between male and female. Some stereotypical notions of ‘viewing’ have also come across when analyzing what is considered to be stereotypical for the male and female gender. It has been argued that there is a female gaze separately
from the male gaze as they coincide with one another. They happen together but are inevitably linked to each other as are the differences in gender. The difference between erotica and porn has come to light quickly and in the following chapter porna will be addressed to come to a clear understanding of what porna is.
CHAPTER 2: PORNA ?!
This chapter will address the two porna films that are going to be further debated in the third chapter. A short overview of Petra Joy’s Feeling it, Not Faking it will be given together with Jennifer Lyon Bell’s film Matinée. Both case studies will be addressed shortly so it’s clear how the films are set up content-wise in order to gain a better evaluation on the relation between gender behaviorism and the two porna films. Both award-winning films are very popular within the porna-industry, as well as their creators, Jennifer Lyon Bell and Petra Joy. The films chosen are completely different from one another to firstly enlighten the diversity that exist within porna and secondly to evoke different readings.
Porna is an erotic filmic subgenre that includes films made by women and specifically for a female audience. The films are passionate and known to turn on a lot of women. Possibly because they are filmed from a female perspective. The narrative is existing in such a matter that it is noticeable throughout the film, with a logical and chronological build up from beginning to end. The highest peak, usually in the middle of the film, comprehends a lot of sexual performed acts in which the spectator can regularly follow the female’s excitement and pleasure. Most of the female personae on screen are assertive, active and take initiative in contrast to the male personae who isn’t always in control as in most traditional, previously discussed, pornography. The other difference with most traditional pornography, is that porna most often leans towards erotica instead of pornography as it can be softer and milder in its content. This is relatable to the softness and gentleness that has hegemonically been attached to the current ‘stereotypical’ notion of a feminine woman. Since there has been lots of critique to the entire pornographic industry and the female relation with it, porna should be able to broaden the horizon and offer alternative point of views.
2.1 Petra Joy – Feeling It, Not Faking It
We live in exciting times: more and more women express their fantasies in books and films. It is a female-led sexual revolution and I am proud to be part of it!
Petra Joy Petra Joy is an award-winning film director, author, film and television producer, author and photographer. She has an MA in history and film studies and is considered to be one of the pioneers of the movement to make pornography explicitly for women, porna. Since 2004 Joy has been creating erotic films for a female audience from a female perspective. Common themes in her films include men as sexual objects, female fantasies and pleasure and male bisexuality. As can be stated from the quote above, Joy believes it’s exciting to express female sensuality within an exciting visual journey of female fantasy, and this is exactly what she wishes to accomplish in her films.
The film Feeling It, Not Faking It (2008), the third film produced by Joy, consists out of eight scenes. In short, the film opens up with detailed zoomed-in body-parts that are being painted. The scene following is very dreamlike as it takes place on a rooftop terrace in the sunset. A women in underwear is being visited by a male angel. He pleases her just the way she wants it. This film also contains a gardener and an espionage scene. The actors or rather, performers, of the film have been selected by the chemistry they had with one another in the introduction meetings before the filmic process. The “players” as Joy calls them are enjoying one another genuinely and have a real sensual and sexual
chemistry. They are not putting on an act for the cameras or edifying the film with unnatural behaviors and actions. As Joy’s website states: ‘This movie is a visual erotic feast that aims to inspire, excite and liberate beyond the clichés of mainstream porn that leaves most women cold.’ Several reviews have been written on Feeling it, forthegirls.com writes: ‘I love this movie and I heartily recommend it to any woman who wants to be entertained and aroused by intelligent, sensual and artistic erotica.’ ANV Europe says that the film is ‘a real couple’s classic, creating a balanced movie of women’s desires.’3 Petra Joy is one of the most well-known porna producers in the world and as she has won many awards with her productions, the choice of analyzing one of her films would seem quite obvious. One of the reasons why this film was chosen specifically, is
because it is addressing and questioning several topics that are coherent in 3 These and more reviews of Petra Joy’s films can be found on her website:
contemporary culture such as race and class. Since this erotic film is “doing” more than just providing pleasure for the viewer, as it also broaches other questions on (in)equality.
Feeling It, Not Faking It, by Jennifer Lyon Bell is a compilation of eight short film fragments that all show explicit sex, pleasure and enjoyment from a female perspective. Each fragment is differently in setting, role-play, ways of pleasing one another and gender. Most of the fragments involve both men as women, as for some merely one or the other. What is interesting about this porna film, is that it does not necessarily carry out a heteronormative point of view as there are a lot of scenes in which women please each other without the needs of a man. Two men pleasing each other however is not seen on screen, as the men only seem to function to satisfy women, not being satisfied themselves. As every fragment has a different theme, involves different characters that are played and in different settings, it embraces the differences between people. Some fragments are probably more enjoyable for some than others, but the film as a whole is all-embracing.
2.2 Jennifer Lyon Bell – Matinée
Jennifer Lyon Bell is an American erotic film director, teacher, writer and erotic curator. She has studied psychology at Harvard and film-studies at the University of Amsterdam. Momentarily she lives in Amsterdam and is directing explicit erotic films through her independent company called “Blue Artichoke Films", a Dutch production house. In her films she tries to express the emotional realistic sexuality in an artistic and unusual way. Bell is also a common speaker at presentations at various events discussing pornography, feminism and erotic film, such as the “Berlin Porn Filmfestival” and the “Dutch Film Acadamy”.
The film Matinée, directed by Bell revolves around the depictions of two actors, Mariah and Daniel, two stage actors that play lovers every night. Their onstage romance however still needs that “spark” to make their performance as a happy couple come across as natural. The performers discover that the Matinée performance that they will be holding on later that evening could bring either total success or total failure and thus could also break their careers.
Subsequently, Daniel wants to alter certain aspects of the performance using improvisation, leaving Mariah wondering whether or not these suggestions are reasonable. Nevertheless, they eventually go up on stage together in front of a live audience. The film then comes to its climax displaying a full-on sex-scene
that lasts over twenty minutes.
Daniel’s personae is being performed by Steven McAlistair and Alicia Whitsover is acting as Mariah, both not having any erotic filmic experience. The sexual scenes cross the boundaries between an art film and erotic film and are real, intense and emotional, perhaps partly due to their unfamiliarity with the genre. The film has been called out to be the Best Narrative Short Film from Cinekin NY in 2009 and has also received a nomination for the Feminist Porn Award in 2009 in Totonto. Forthegirls.com has reviewed the film as being:
Intelligent, sensual and downright sexy… and on top of that, it’s hot! The sex is lusty, realistic and meaningful. The orgasms are real and the two actors really do
have a food time together… What more can you ask? 4
Jamye Waxman a sex educator and author of Getting Off: A Woman’s Guide to Masturbation (2007) comments that Matinée ‘rides the line between erotica and old fashioned entertainment as it’s the bees knees when it comes to quality erotica. It spans the line between porn and erotica with grace and dignity.’ Most reviews highly praised the film whether or not it was “their cup of tea”. The interesting plot of the film is probably one of the reasons why the film is praised by many viewers. Steven McAlistair and Alicia Whitsover, who are acting as Daniel and Mariah, are again acting to be Tony and Lola on stage. Although quite confusing, also quite brilliant as the sex-scene therefore looks like they are really not acting and the viewer is a spectator in the audience.
As the narrative of the two case studies has become clear and some background information has been given on porna, the following chapters will go into depths discussing several issues in relation to this erotic subgenre.
4 All reviews can be found on the website of Blue Artichoke Films: <http://blueartichokefilms.com/films/matinee/matinee-press/>
CHAPTER 3: HEGEMONIC GENDER IDEOLOGY AND PORNA
This chapter will illustrate the hegemonic gendered behavior ideals that are normatively connected to the male and female sex. Firstly hegemonic masculinity will be explained and debated in contemporary culture. Afterwards, hegemonic masculinity will be addressed in relation to pornography, followed by a paragraph on hegemonic masculinity and porna. The paragraph that follows discusses hegemonic femininity in contemporary culture in light of modern advertising and sexuality exposure. This hegemonic femininity and its traits will then be debated in relation to both porna films. Afterwards, the differences and similarities between the two will be evaluated in terms of behaviorism and the act of sex.
In “Gender Labeling, Gender Stereotyping, and Parenting Behaviours”, Beverly Fagot, Mar Leinbach and Cherie O'Boyle, showed from doing research that gender behavior stereotyping is developed straight after being born. They
have also argued that social interactions play a tremendous role in identifying gender (225-230). Certain cultural beliefs on gender are data driven by people’s interpretations of the activities performed by men and women. These gender differences are mostly recognized in the historical division of labor (Gilbert, 94-95). People assume that each of the sexes hold certain characteristics that are correspondently to their activities within society (Eagly & Steffen, 543-544). Certain differences are acknowledgeable, men’s concentration in leadership for example, due to their stereotypical characteristics as being the dominant figure and on the other hand women that are involved with care-taking as they are characterized as kind and supportive. These gender differences are processing the creation of identities. When people don’t fit within one of the two hegemonic stereotyped categories, their role within society seems somewhat blurred and estranged. Curt Hoffman and Nancy Hurst argued in their research on “Gender stereotypes: Perception or rationalization?” that gender stereotypes ‘originate in an attempt to rationalize the division of labor by attributing to each sex those qualities deemed necessary for performance of the assigned functions’ (206-207). In this way, historically given, males are mostly expected to be
independent, strong and assertive and women in return are expected to be passive, sensitive and emotional. Biological factors are one of the main reasons why someone acts in a certain way, as hormones, genitals and DNA are
distinguishable factors in arguing whether someone is a boy or a girl. This
consequently gives different outcomes when a person grows up as the biological factors develop one’s body into a man or a woman. However, according to
Andrea Dworkin in her book Woman Hating:
Hormone and chromosome research, attempts to develop new means of human reproduction (life created in, or considerably supported by, the scientist's
laboratory), work with transsexuals, and studies of formation of gender identity in children provide basic information which challenges the notion that there are two discrete biological sexes. That information threatens to transform the traditional biology of sex difference into the radical biology of sex similarity. That is not to say there is one sex, but that there are many. The evidence which is germane here is simple. The words "male" and "female," "man" and "woman," are used only because as yet there are no others (165-166).
Dworkin in other words believes that there are more biological sexes than the two that are primarily used within society. There are many sexes and people should not be categorized into one of the two options “given”. She continues claiming that:
The discovery is, of course, that "man" and "woman" are fictions, caricatures, cultural constructs. As models they are reductive, totalitarian, inappropriate to
