In her article “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (1975) Laura Mulvey explains how film portrays the female characters as passive sexualised objects, on display for the male (erotic) gaze. Although, Mulvey did make amendments to the original article after it was criticised, her original article is still influential and referenced in academic writing on film. This dissertation investigates how the three selected mainstream American films, namely, Alice in Wonderland, Monster and Transamerica, have female protagonists who deviate from Mulvey’s initial standpoint and enact a new dynamic, whereby the female characters possess active bodies. In order to explain this new dynamic, the dissertation provides an overview of relevant theory in order to establish the necessary analytical tools to investigate the representation of the female body. These tools are taken from feminist notions of the body, most importantly Mulvey’s notions, in order to establish what constitutes an active female body that subverts the male gaze. This subversion is most notable when examining the iconography of the active female body. The dissertation also draws from the overview the importance of place and space, the embodiment of the characters’ inner workings in specific locations, and their relationship with the locations in which they are depicted. Since all three films include a physical journey on which the respective protagonists embark the examination of borders and border crossings is included. The dissertation shows that journeys bring with them the opportunity for the body to be active, as each female protagonist is on a journey to self-discovery. The changing settings in which the protagonists find themselves are an embodiment of their inner workings. Topographical borders mark the entering of new locations. However, concomitant symbolic and epistemological borders are also crossed. The female protagonists need to make choices concerning their lives and as a consequence alter the representations to reflect bodies that subvert the male gaze. These female bodies are active. However, they are active in different ways. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, delves into her psyche to emerge a changed and independent Victorian woman. Bree, from Transamerica, heals the relationships with her family and is able to have her gender reconstructive surgery to become a physical woman. These two female protagonists have positive representations of the active female body. The protagonist from Monster, Aileen, is represented in a constant state of abjection and her active body is portrayed in a negative light. Whether represented in a positive or egative light, these chosen films all portray an active female body that does subvert the male gaze, and hence represent a new dynamic different from the one Mulvey described. / MA (Language Practice), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Subjects rated 12 female body shapes with respect to their physical attractiveness, and the extent to which they would be expected to possess various personality characteristics. The shapes were varied using 3 levels of overall weight and 4 levels of body shapeliness. The sample was modified to control for socioeconomic factors and results are based on 297 undergraduates from Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic racial backgrounds. Loglinear analyses revealed that men and women, regardless of racial background, rated shapely underweight females as most physically attractive, sexy, and ideal for a woman, followed by normal weight figures of similar proportion. African Americans, women in particular, judged the shapely normal weight figures more favorably than the other subjects. Multidimensional scaling and subsequent frequency analyses showed that those figures judged as most attractive, sexy, and ideal were also expected to be fairly emotionally stable, and most successful and interpersonally competitive, but least faithful, kind, and family-oriented. Overweight female shapes, while rated as least physically attractive, sexy, and emotionally stable, were expected to be most family-oriented, kind, and faithful. Shapely normal weight figures were judged to be attractive and sexy, and were assumed to possess a moderate amount of the personality traits in question. The results suggest that Caucasian and Hispanic subjects prefer shapely underweight women, while African Americans, particularly women, find shapely underweight and shapely normal weight women to be physically appealing. African American women also rate shapely normal weight women favorably with respect to personality traits. This perceptual difference may help inoculate them from developing eating disturbances and account for the low prevalence rate of eating disorders in African Americans compared to women of other racial backgrounds. It is suggested that future research identify those beliefs, values or behaviors that seem to inoculate African American women from developing eating disorders. Once identified, mental health professionals may facilitate their development in those women who are likely to have eating problems.

La caricature de mœurs fait définitivement son apparition à Madrid dans Gil Blas. Elle s'empare d'abord de la question féminine en se penchant sur la différence des corps. Les caricaturistes dénoncent les apparences fallacieuses du corps de la bourgeoise dans un déshabillage qui met en perspective un discours masculin sur les dépenses associées aux toilettes et livre un discours en creux sur la condition masculine à travers la critique du mariage. Le corps des femmes des classes populaires est marqué par le travail, la précarité, la vulnérabilité, la solitude. Autant de circonstances qui font planer le danger de l'entrée dans la prostitution, signifiée aussi par la ritualisation du corps empruntée à la silhouette de la cocotte. La caricature de mœurs s'oriente vers le terrain de l'érotico-festif en multipliant les figures de cocottes boulevardières. Celles-ci manifestent le nouveau statut de l'image commerciale de la femme. L'épaisseur sociale du corps féminin disparaît. Aux scènes de séduction où le caricaturiste déjoue le jeu hypocrite du marché de la chair, succède une représentation de la séduction de l'image. La prééminence de la cocotte manifeste l'avènement des nouveaux usages de la consommation. Dans la pluralité des images de la femme qui circulent dans la deuxième moitié du siècle, les caricatures diffusées massivement occupent une place décisive. / Moral caricature definitely appears in Madrid in Gil Blas. It first focuses on the question of woman, scrutinising bodily differences. Caricaturists denounce the deceptive appearances of the bourgeois female body and uncover the male discourse about the spending on garments. Thus they indirectly offer a discourse on the male condition, through criticising marriage. The body of lower-class women is affected by work, precariousness, vulnerability and loneliness –circumstances meaning that the danger of prostitution is ever present. Prostitution is also indicated by the ritualisation visible in the body of the cocotte. Moral caricature becomes both erotic and humorous while showing more and more streetwalkers, who embody the status of the commercial image of woman. The social dimension of the female body disappears. Seduction scenes in which the caricaturist unveils the hypocrite game of the commerce of flesh are replaced by images which seduce. The predominance of the cocotte ushers in new habits of consumption. Among the many diverse images of woman that circulate in the second half of the 19th century, massively diffused caricatures play a decisive role.

Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar como certas práticas e representações das ciências influenciaram a concepção de corpo feminino presente nos primeiros livros brasileiros de Ginástica Feminina e Rítmica, objeto circunscrito, assim, pelas temáticas de gênero, corpo feminino e história da ciência. A ciência, considerada como elemento cultural na sociedade, tematizando, influenciando e sofrendo influência da cultura, pode tanto agir sobre a concepção de corpo como produzi-la, através de um discurso prescritivo. Antes tratado somente em comparação ao homem, o lugar do corpo feminino pode ser realçado a partir da Ginástica Feminina e Rítmica, prática corporal elaborada originalmente para as mulheres. A análise de cunho histórico dos primeiros manuais da modalidade no Brasil, de meados do século XX, incluindo a investigação de seus enquadramentos contextuais e de elementos das trajetórias de suas autoras, permitiu a compreensão da influência de algumas visões de ciência sobre expectativas a respeito do corpo feminino e das formas de intervenção sobre ele. Além de notar a presença de aspectos relacionados a ideias e conteúdos de determinadas ciências, como noções de evolução e experimentação, mostramos como os manuais analisados partem de uma certa visão de ciência para almejar sistematicidade, estruturar sua argumentação e empregar imagens. Nos manuais, a mulher, seu corpo e o feminino são representados como dotados de uma essência natural, mas que é passível de intervenção e cuidado por meio da Ginástica Feminina e Rítmica / The aim of this investigation was to analyze how certain practices and representations of the sciences influenced the conception of the female body in the first Brazilian handbooks of Womens and Rhythmic Gymnastics (an object thus circumscribed by the themes of gender, the female body and history of science). Considered as a cultural element in society, thematising, influencing and being influenced by culture, science can at the same time act upon conceptions of the body and construct it through a prescriptive discourse. Beforehand considered only in comparison to male bodies, the place of female ones can be highlighted within the universe of Womens and Rhythmic Gymnastics, bodily practices originally designed for women. The historical analysis of the first Brazilian handbooks of such practices, dating from the mid-twentieth century, including their contexts and elements of the trajectories of their authors, allowed us to understand the bearing of some visions of science on expectations about the female body and ways of intervening on it. In addition to noting the presence some ideas and contents related to certain sciences, such as notions of evolution and experimentation, here we show how the handbooks are based on a certain vision of science that leads to claims of systematicity, as well as structures their arguments and use of images. In the handbooks, women, their bodies, and the feminine are represented as having a natural essence, one that is nevertheless subject to intervention and care through Womens and Rhythmic Gymnastics

For a long time, most women believed they had to choose between their Muslim or Arab identity and their belief in social equality of sexes. It was almost impossible to choose between either betraying their religious beliefs or their desires for social, political and economic justice, up until an upsurge of a feminist sentiment started to grow among women who were seeking to reclaim the Islamic paradigm and the Quran for themselves in the late nineteenth century (Bardan, 2005). During that time, contemporary female artists from the Arab and Muslim worlds started to create their own tools in their fight against oppressive patriarchal societies in order to express their feminine powers and renegotiate their identities. In this thesis, I analyze the feminist tools used in paradigmatic photo-based artworks by three contemporary female artists from the Arab and Muslim worlds: Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat, and Lalla Essaydi.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T11:21:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ESDRA BASILIO.pdf: 4073998 bytes, checksum: 261a0d5895baf338b38b432cc8879e41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-22 / In this work we aimed to discuss the representation of woman, in order to be propagated in Jornal Daqui- regional newspaper in Goiania. In Gente famosa section and also Artista lá de casa section. It was intended to notice the profile of these women and the forms of treatment about the female body expressed in the newspaper.For the theoretical support, were used definitions about gender from Joan Scott, visual culture with Ulpiano Bezerra de Meneses and the concept of representation of Roger Chartier. The methodology used it is the analysis of images transmitted by the Jornal Daqui from editions of International Womens Day and Mothers Day, the years from 2009- 2014.Our analysis is guided from the perspective of gender studies according as we seek to reflect about certain dogmas and concepts established through roles for men and women. By analyzing the images transmitted by Jornal Daqui, in Artista Lá de Casa section, it is noticed a difference between the images conveyed in the previous section, Gente Famosa, we aimed to capture the conceptual and symbolic values that are passed to the newspaper consumers by the reading of these images.The way the Jornal Daqui exposes the image of woman, undoubtedly, influence the way the consumers men and women recognize and are recognized in the society.By exposing representation of the female body, in specific, the Jornal Daqui, participates of the creation of representations of these bodies in case of women. / Neste trabalho buscamos discutir a representação da mulher, propagada no Jornal Daqui jornal regional da cidade de Goiânia na seção Gente Famosa e também na seção Artista Lá de Casa. Pretendeu-se perceber o perfil dessas mulheres e as formas de tratamento sobre o corpo feminino expressas no jornal. Para o suporte teórico utilizamos definições sobre gênero a partir de Joan Scott, cultura visual com Ulpiano Bezerra de Meneses e o conceito de representação de Roger Chartier. A metodologia utilizada é a análise de imagens veiculadas pelo Jornal Daqui das edições do dia internacional da mulher e do dia das mães, dos anos de 2009 a2014. Nossa análise se pauta na perspectiva dos estudos de gênero na medida em que buscamos refletir sobre certos dogmas e conceitos estabelecidos através dos papéis destinados a homens e a mulheres. Ao analisar as imagens veiculadas pelo Jornal Daqui, na seção Artista Lá de Casa, percebe-se uma diferença das imagens veiculadas na seção anterior, Gente Famosa, buscamos então captar os valores conceituais e simbólicos que são passados para os consumidores do jornal através da leitura dessas imagens. A forma como o Jornal Daqui expõe a imagem da mulher, sem dúvida, influencia na forma que os consumidores homens e mulheres se reconhecem e são reconhecidos na sociedade. Ao expor representações do corpo feminino, em especifico, o Jornal Daqui participa da construção das representações desses corpos, no caso o das mulheres.

Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar como certas práticas e representações das ciências influenciaram a concepção de corpo feminino presente nos primeiros livros brasileiros de Ginástica Feminina e Rítmica, objeto circunscrito, assim, pelas temáticas de gênero, corpo feminino e história da ciência. A ciência, considerada como elemento cultural na sociedade, tematizando, influenciando e sofrendo influência da cultura, pode tanto agir sobre a concepção de corpo como produzi-la, através de um discurso prescritivo. Antes tratado somente em comparação ao homem, o lugar do corpo feminino pode ser realçado a partir da Ginástica Feminina e Rítmica, prática corporal elaborada originalmente para as mulheres. A análise de cunho histórico dos primeiros manuais da modalidade no Brasil, de meados do século XX, incluindo a investigação de seus enquadramentos contextuais e de elementos das trajetórias de suas autoras, permitiu a compreensão da influência de algumas visões de ciência sobre expectativas a respeito do corpo feminino e das formas de intervenção sobre ele. Além de notar a presença de aspectos relacionados a ideias e conteúdos de determinadas ciências, como noções de evolução e experimentação, mostramos como os manuais analisados partem de uma certa visão de ciência para almejar sistematicidade, estruturar sua argumentação e empregar imagens. Nos manuais, a mulher, seu corpo e o feminino são representados como dotados de uma essência natural, mas que é passível de intervenção e cuidado por meio da Ginástica Feminina e Rítmica / The aim of this investigation was to analyze how certain practices and representations of the sciences influenced the conception of the female body in the first Brazilian handbooks of Womens and Rhythmic Gymnastics (an object thus circumscribed by the themes of gender, the female body and history of science). Considered as a cultural element in society, thematising, influencing and being influenced by culture, science can at the same time act upon conceptions of the body and construct it through a prescriptive discourse. Beforehand considered only in comparison to male bodies, the place of female ones can be highlighted within the universe of Womens and Rhythmic Gymnastics, bodily practices originally designed for women. The historical analysis of the first Brazilian handbooks of such practices, dating from the mid-twentieth century, including their contexts and elements of the trajectories of their authors, allowed us to understand the bearing of some visions of science on expectations about the female body and ways of intervening on it. In addition to noting the presence some ideas and contents related to certain sciences, such as notions of evolution and experimentation, here we show how the handbooks are based on a certain vision of science that leads to claims of systematicity, as well as structures their arguments and use of images. In the handbooks, women, their bodies, and the feminine are represented as having a natural essence, one that is nevertheless subject to intervention and care through Womens and Rhythmic Gymnastics

This thesis examines the phenomenon of feminicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and the representation of female victims in U.S. and Mexican mainstream media and performance activism. Specifically analyzing representations of maquiladora workers and feminicide victims in film, fashion and photography, this thesis explores the simultaneous fetishization and devaluation of border women in patriarchal society. By broadening the base of pressure for justice, via performance and internet activism, misogynist governments and policies can and will change.

No description available.

In her article “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (1975) Laura Mulvey explains how film portrays the female characters as passive sexualised objects, on display for the male (erotic) gaze. Although, Mulvey did make amendments to the original article after it was criticised, her original article is still influential and referenced in academic writing on film. This dissertation investigates how the three selected mainstream American films, namely, Alice in Wonderland, Monster and Transamerica, have female protagonists who deviate from Mulvey’s initial standpoint and enact a new dynamic, whereby the female characters possess active bodies. In order to explain this new dynamic, the dissertation provides an overview of relevant theory in order to establish the necessary analytical tools to investigate the representation of the female body. These tools are taken from feminist notions of the body, most importantly Mulvey’s notions, in order to establish what constitutes an active female body that subverts the male gaze. This subversion is most notable when examining the iconography of the active female body. The dissertation also draws from the overview the importance of place and space, the embodiment of the characters’ inner workings in specific locations, and their relationship with the locations in which they are depicted. Since all three films include a physical journey on which the respective protagonists embark the examination of borders and border crossings is included. The dissertation shows that journeys bring with them the opportunity for the body to be active, as each female protagonist is on a journey to self-discovery. The changing settings in which the protagonists find themselves are an embodiment of their inner workings. Topographical borders mark the entering of new locations. However, concomitant symbolic and epistemological borders are also crossed. The female protagonists need to make choices concerning their lives and as a consequence alter the representations to reflect bodies that subvert the male gaze. These female bodies are active. However, they are active in different ways. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, delves into her psyche to emerge a changed and independent Victorian woman. Bree, from Transamerica, heals the relationships with her family and is able to have her gender reconstructive surgery to become a physical woman. These two female protagonists have positive representations of the active female body. The protagonist from Monster, Aileen, is represented in a constant state of abjection and her active body is portrayed in a negative light. Whether represented in a positive or egative light, these chosen films all portray an active female body that does subvert the male gaze, and hence represent a new dynamic different from the one Mulvey described. / MA (Language Practice), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014