Bilge Olgac, one of the first female directors of Turkey, who shot her first film in 1965, shaped her films according to the developments in Turkey. This thesis investigates how Olgac was affected by the events that took place in Turkey from the 1960s to the 1980s and how she reflected this impact on the representations of men and women in her films. The study seeks answers to the following questions;  *How has political, economic, and social changes in Turkey, influenced Bilge Olgac and her films from the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s to the 1980s? *How are men and women and their relationship represented and how is the gaze indicated in the films? These research questions are tried to be answered by analyzing Olgac’s films Lawless Land (1967), Dark Day (1971), Gulusan (1985) and Ipekce (1987). While analyzing women and femininity and men and masculinity in these films, Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory is used. Findings suggest that between 1965-1975, Olgac tried to keep up with the male-dominated cinema industry on the one hand and tried to impose herself in the industry on the other and directed melodramas in which women were represented as weak and passive and men were represented as strong and active. Olgac, who took a break from cinema in 1975, focused on female protagonists by presenting a different perspective to the audience in the 1980s. However, detailed analyses of the films also reveal that she could not get rid of the dominant ideology and the female characters in her films could not escape from traditional roles. In other words, Olgac’s films reflect patriarchy, similar to the Hollywood films Mulvey has examined.

This thesis offers a feminist perspective on the character development on Daenerys Targaryen in the TV-series Game of Thrones and Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. It mobilizes Laura Mulvey’s notion of the male gaze, which addresses the objectification of female character in classical Hollywood film, as well as Clarie Johnston’s critical take on the cinematic ideological construction of the image of woman. Another source of inspiration is the so-called Bechdel test, which was initially suggested by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, but the widely adapted by feminist cinephiles as a useful tool to study the representation of woman in film. Examining the character development of Daenerys and Rhaenyra Targaryen in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon on their journey towards claiming the Iron Throne, this thesis examines three episodes of Game of Thrones and two episodes of House of the Dragon.  The analysis shows that the male gaze is still present in the control, coercion and disciplining of the series’ female characters. Claire Johnston’s theorizations about the objectification of the female characters are echoed in the representation of two female characters’ struggle to lead a country as a woman. Moreover, not each of the series’ episodes would pass the Bechdel test.

This study examines the portrayal of the woman as monstrous in Daphne du Maurier’s short stories “The Apple Tree” and “The Blue Lenses” and investigates the abject emotions that female bodies induce within the main characters. The study also contrasts the habitual, objectifying gaze of the male focalizer with the reluctant gaze forced upon the female focalizer through a pair of lenses, argued here to represent the patriarchal suppression of woman, as the male gaze is key for mediating the abject in du Maurier’s stories. Additionally, the association of the natural world with the female body is discussed, as the subjugation of nature and women are closely connected in a patriarchal society, and these are both regarded as abject in du Maurier’s stories. It is concluded that gender is elemental to whether the main characters embrace or reject the abject feelings originating within themselves.

Denna studie undersöker problemområdet sexualiseringen av kvinnokroppen på sociala medier, eftersom det är en stor källa till visuella intryck idag. Syftet är att undersöka hur influencers, mer specifikt Fanny Lyckman och Amanda Ekström representerar kvinnokroppen i sociala medier utifrån ett postfeministiskt perspektiv, och där frågeställning lyder: Hur representerar Lyckman och Ekström kvinnokroppen i sina sociala medier utifrån ett postfeministiskt perspektiv i relation till sexualiseringen av kulturen? Studien genomförs med en kvalitativ semiotisk visuell analys där materialet undersöks enskilt samt kompareras. Teorin som appliceras är bland annat postfeminism, representation och gaze-teori. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att Lyckman objektifierar och sexualiserar sin kropp vilket skapar en tydlig koppling till mjukpornografin, och att den manliga blicken används. Ekströms bilder är också avklädda, men det finns ingen tydlig koppling till pornografins bildspråk, här är modellerna i stället subjekt och bilderna utgår inte från en manlig blick, snarare en icke-blick. Både Lyckman och Ekström representerar kvinnokroppen medvetet med en underton av empowerment, samtidigt som det finns kopplingar till hur kvinnokroppen stereotypiskt representerats genom historien och sexuella anspelningar, framför allt i Lyckmans material vilket skapar en dubbelhet i resultatet.

This essay explores and compares the depiction of the character Beverly Marsh in Stephen King’s novel IT and Andy Muschietti’s 2017 film adaptation. The literary analysis uses the theoretical concepts of Mulvey’s the Male Gaze, Bartky’s sexual objectification theory, and Kristeva’s abjection. The Male Gaze describes how women are constantly looked upon by an implicit male subject, whether it be characters within the narrative or the spectator outside of it. Sexual objectification refers to how the body can become fragmented into sexual parts when described in an oppressive way. Feelings of abjection can occur when the concepts of subject and object, cultural norms, or sexual differences are challenged. The initial hypothesis was that King’s novel would lean more on patriarchal structures in the way femininity is described. However, the results show that both the original novel and the film depict Beverly in a sexually objectifying way, although the methods differ.

Initially, my developing body of work aimed to redesign the traditions of representational painting, specifically the female nude, to depict the contemporary notions of lesbianism and femininity in an honest and empowering manner as a form of identity and not as vehicle for voyeurism. As an artist who paints the female nude and identifies as a woman and a lesbian, I examine the preexisting notions of the male gaze and the effect of socialization as it pertains to my work. The act of looking from the point of view of a woman, which is not synonymous with a "female gaze", or from the point of view of a lesbian, is not a birthright, but a conscious effort to constantly question the way we see and produce pictures and realizing that the male gaze permeates most images of female nudes. By the nature of my sexuality and my exposure to existing male-produced images, do I see the female nude through the male gaze or is there a gaze that is essentially female? Does it matter either way if the image is aesthetically compelling? My paintings neither attempt to conform to the male gaze or debunk it, nor do I attempt to prove the existence of a female gaze. Like Edgar Degas, I wish to look through a keyhole-a form of voyeurism-to see people outside of their public facade.

The aim of this essay is to examine how Lara Croft, Bayonetta, Emily Kaldwin and Billie Lurk have been portrayed in their respective games. The questions at issue have examined how these four characters have been portrayed by their appearance on the cover of their games and how they’ve been depicted in gameplay. A comparative study has been used to compare how the design on the characters have been differentiated not only from each other but also from the male characters in each game. The essay has also examined what the sex and gender identity have been of the character’s creators and if they’ve motivated their character designs. An analysis has been made to establish if there has been a male gaze present in the design process and the game and if this has led to the character’s being sexualized. Judith Butler’s performativity theory has been used for this essay along with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze as well as an intersectional approach according to Kimberlé Crenshaw. Lara Croft, Bayonetta and Emily Kaldwin are shown to break gender codes while still upholding some of them; Billie Lurk is the only one that totally breaks with them and creates a sort of a “new woman”, as she not only breaks the Madonna-and-the-Whore-complex in which each of the other three can be put in. Billie Lurk and Emily Kaldwin are the only female characters which can be seen as not sexualized or steered by the male gaze, but instead they give the gamer an opportunity to live the characters’ stories through them with the first-person-shooter-view. Lara Croft from the games before Tomb Raider (2013) and Bayonetta are clearly sexualized female characters that are controlled by male desire and the male gaze. As these two games are played from a third-person-view it gives the gamer the power to control these women, putting them under the gamer’s will.

Modern media patterns show feminist narratives being used to market different consumer products in the name of female empowerment and emancipation. Typically, the industries targeted have historically been dominated by male perspectives and aim to perpetuate a capitalist consumer culture. The newly legalized cannabis industry in North America, has seen an increase in female participation both in production and consumption. This thesis takes Broccoli, an all-female produced magazine about cannabis, as a case to textually analyze how feminist narratives are used to appeal to their majority female and non-binary audience to a cannabis consumer lifestyle. In the analysis I have found that the magazine is critical to postfeminist notions of consumer culture, while simultaneously working within them in order to act as pioneers, holding a female-oriented space within the industry.

The traditional notion of the Male Gaze, first conceptualized by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975, focused on the objectification of women through depictions structured to gratify a male heterosexual perspective. In this chapter we will revisit this concept and investigate how that gaze may have shifted away from a primarily heterosexual perspective to a socially dominant male perspective (maleness here referring to dominance rather than specific gender, just as “whiteness” might refer to privilege rather than race). With gender roles in an increasingly global and mobile society becoming more fluid and complex, opening up visibility to LGBTQ communities, along with a substantial post-feminist backlash, we will consider how the male gaze is shifting and how subsets of objectifying “gazes” might overlap. I will explore whether the traditional heterosexual male gaze has shifted due to power backlashes and other developments. New gaze developments may take the form of the “bromance” as well as athletics and advertising. Included in an investigation of this “dominant gaze” will be an exploration into the possibility of a lesbian and transgender gaze – does each subculture have the propensity to fall into this pattern of objectified looking and if so, where is the evidence and what are the implications? That evidence will be explored through photography, film, dance, and other visual media as this subject is expanded through the emergence of variant sexualities and gender identities.

Si la littérature et la critique se sont abondamment intéressées aux figures du clown et du saltimbanque depuis le XIXe siècle, force est de constater que les artistes féminines n’ont connu ni la même gloire ni la même légitimation. Tandis que leurs homologues masculins peuplent les romans, les femmes saltimbanques sont peu mises en scène dans les œuvres littéraires et n’ont en général qu’un rôle secondaire. À sa publication en 1901, Lulu, roman clownesque, de Félicien Champsaur, change cette donne en plaçant au centre de son récit un personnage féminin fort. Le roman relate alors l’ascension et la gloire sans précédent de Lulu la clownesse. En nous attardant plus spécifiquement au traitement du corps de l’artiste féminine dans le roman, nous dégagerons le rôle essentiel que joue l’enveloppe charnelle dans la réussite du parcours de la saltimbanque, ainsi que dans les rapports qu’entretient cette dernière avec le public. Nous verrons dans un premier temps que le corps s’impose dans l’œuvre comme un puissant outil d’agentivité. Par la suite, nous constaterons que ce travail est mis à mal dès lors que la chair du personnage féminin devient l’objet du spectateur masculin. Lulu n’est plus définie selon ses actes, mais plutôt selon les termes de celui qui l’observe. Nous montrerons que le corps féminin constitue un enjeu primordial et ambigu dans le roman de Champsaur dans la mesure où il se situe au cœur de la construction du personnage romanesque et de son parcours.