spectatorship essay

How significant is gender to a spectators experience

I believe that gender plays an extremely important role in a spectators experience. As a straight male is going to experience certain films differently to how a straight woman. But there are many different ways that they can apply to each gender.

One thing that would help a spectator of a specific gender align with a character/characters in the film would be down to psychoanalysis. Knowing the characters psychoanalysis this helps the spectators aline with them and can help them connect through a common desire or thought. The person who came up with the theories on psychoanalysis was Sigmund Freud, saying that "our personalities and egos develop through early childhood". He goes on to say that these experiences effect our love life's as at some point we are all attracted to our mothers or fathers depending on the upbringing of the child. Generally the boys being attracted to their mother’s, girls attracted to their fathers. This theory can be used to support the theory of how gender affects a spectator’s experience. Normally men are drawn to action films heavily influenced by violence and women are drawn more to films that have more of a narrative centred on love. A film that shows a massive influence from a parent is black swan, where the protagonists (Nina) mother is over protective about her throughout the whole film especially when she finds out that Nina is playing the swans in Swan Lake. This brings up her mother’s paranoia that Nina is going to start self-harming again. Whenever Nina's mother confronts her Nina resorts in to childlike behaviour. This could be due to the absence of a male authority figure or the fact that her mother never let her out of the house. Another film where psychoanalysis plays a big part is a clockwork orange as the reason Alex is a violent thug of a teen is a cry for attention as he has no positive parental figure in his life as whenever  his parents are in the film they seem to have no interest in him what so ever. The only parenthetical figure that shows interest in Alex is his head teacher in his school who is a very odd man who touches Alex up when he has come in to Alex's house when Alex is in his underwear, but this does not seem to bother Alex in anyway so. The lack of interest from patently figures could be the reason he goes around raping women and beating men up as he has never been told it is wrong. But as a male spectator it is something I enjoy as I know it's wrong and could never do it myself, but it gives me satisfaction to watch Alex do it.

Another thing that affects the significant of gender of a spectator is the mirror stage. The mirror stage is where the spectator can identify with the omniscient ego in the film. This is where the spectator sees things that the characters in the film cannot see. This means that the spectator can see it from more than one of the characters perspective. The mirror stage comes up heavily in films where the character has an identity crisis. In black swan this is shown with Nina’s split personalities. She is struggling to find out who she is. This is why she sees herself on a number of different characters in the film. Her personalities struggle is also shown when she is playing the swan. The white swan showing innocents and nievaity. The black swan showing her darker hidden side which is trying to come out. This can also be shown with the mies en scence as when she is the white swan she has very little make up on her face. When she is the black swan this is completely different as her face is covered in in especially her hers that are surrounded by black make up. The other dancers in the film also seem to know about Nina’s past as the all seem to tread lightly around her. Another thing that shows the mirror stage is when she is out with Lily and they come home and perform sexual acts on each other this is all inside Nina’s head and that is what her darker side wants.

The male gaze plays a significant part in a spectator’s experience of a film. The male gaze is the ideas that in films men act and women appear. This means that films take a voyeuristic approach towards women. This is mainly down to the fact that majority of main stream directors are male. This means that in films we see majority of it through a man’s eyes. This means that a female spectator is going to struggle to aline with the characters as they are going to have to interpret how a man is going to see this. The male gaze can be heavily applied to black swan as a lot of the film is voyeuristic for example you see the dancers getting ready in the changing rooms throughout the entire film. This is an area men know they are not meant to be in but enjoy seeing it anyway. Another scene where it is heavily influenced by the male gaze is the scene when Nina and Lily perform lesbian acts on each other in Nina’s bedroom, this is also another voyeuristic thing as the bedroom door is shut and barricaded so the two girls obviously want privacy but the camera show this to us anyway. Although this was put in to keep the male views excited and wanting more. The lesbian acts can also back up the fact that she is struggling with her identity as she is struggling with her sexuality. Another scene that the male gaze applies to in black swan is when Nina starts to touch herself sexually, the camera starts concentrating on her hand going down her pants then, starts to concentrate on her face when she starts making sexual noises. But black swan could arguably be aimed at lesbians so could also be exploring the queer gaze. It could be argued that sexuality and gender could play an important role in spectatorship.

Spectatorship is based around the emotional response towards the film which has a big part to do with gender. This is called the reception theory it is based on how successful the spectator has assigned meaning to the film and how they have interpreted it. The processes of spectatorship where gender makes ups make an alignment and allegiance with the characters this makes us begin to identify with them. Then we align with them either producing an emotional response or being able to relate to our own lives with that of the characters. Allegiance is where we find ourselves on the same side as the character, being forced to follow them on a journey. In Black Swan gender is the main focus determining the experience of the spectator. Although it could be argued that it can be seen through a homosexual perspective due to the nature of the sexual acts in the film. Also I assume that people of different ages and ethnicity will align with the film differently. Whereas in clockwork orange women seem to almost be objectified as throughout the film they appear naked, This could be for the sexual need a desires of the character Alex. But they are mainly there for the male audience to look at. This is the opposite of Black swan as in that film the main narrative is revolved around the pressures women face.

I believe that gender plays a big part on the significant of a spectator’s alignment with a film but it is not the only thing. I also believe that every person is going to experience a film different this is due to everyone experiences different things in their life. But it’s not just the spectator’s experiences but also their age, Sexuality and also their race play a pig part. So all together no one person is going to experience the film in the same way.

Alignment essay

How far does a spectator’s gender affect their viewing experience in contemporary cinema?

intro

Gender plays a big part in alignment in contemporary cinema as it does in life. Women tend to see things in more of a positive light where as men seem to be more pessimistic about life. So I believe that applying this to contemporary cinema it will be the same. But as a male teenager I can only say it through my own point of view and only guess what women are going to align with in contemporary cinema.

Paragraph 1

A person’s development in personality is powered by those person’s events in early childhood. For example a super hero film will not apple to a female audience as much as it will to men. As the film is an escapism for men as through out there childhood they have been taught not to be violent even though violence is a masculine trait. This will help them align with the character as this is something they have wanted to experience them self as superhero’s all seem to be hyper masculine.

Paragraph 2

The mirror stage in film is when the audience become omniscient. When the audience know more than the characters in the film. The only way the mirror stage can be broken is if the audience have a say on how the events in the film are going to take place. A good example of the mirror stage is the film crash.

Paragraph 3

The male gaze plays a big part in a lot of films. “Men act and women appear” this will mean that as women are in films to be looked at, this would mean that a women would find it harder to align to a female character in a film as they are just there to be looked at. A good example is Naomi Watts in King Kong although she is one of the main characters in the film all her character seems to do is scream and play the damsel in distress. I would say that it is quite a negative stereotype for the female audience. Where as a male character would be easier or a male spectator to align with as they are normally the dominant ones in the film and have all the power and are in charge and the characters are normally something a western straight white man has wanted to be at some point in his life.

Paragraph 4

Black swan I would say that the alignment of this film would be heavily to do with the gender of the spectator as it is about swan-lake and ballet dancers. As a male spectator the only things that kept my in the film was when Nina stabs Lily just before the performance as she sees her getting ready to play the white swan and also the lesbian sex scenes but these are all in her head.

But I suspect that a female spectator would take it differently as a young girl stereotypically would want to be a ballet dancer at some point. 

Conclusion

All the points I have made back up my answer in my introduction. That gender effects the alignment of a spectator as majority of films are made with a male audience in mind.