Gathering Knowledge: The Female Gaze

[bookgazing]

Today I’m on a bit of a research trip. This year I’ve started reading a little about the female gaze in cinema and I’ve seen a few films that are said to include good examples of the gaze in action. I’ve started developing first unformed opinions about the feminist strengths of the female gaze approach to visual media and begun to wonder what social factors might limit and enhance the positive effects of this alternative gaze.

As it stands I don’t know enough to crystallise these first impressions into solid ideas, but I’m hoping some of you might be able to help. I’d love for you to recommend any resources you think might help me to understand more about the female gaze. If you’ve read a solid piece of theory on the subject, or know of a film/tv program that might expand my ideas I’d be so grateful if you’d share it with me. If you’d just like to chat it up in the comments I’d love to hear from you.

I’m especially interested in looking at:

Basic examples of the different ways the female gaze appears in tv and film

How the female gaze operates in films and television with casts that are exclusively (or close to) male

Whether films and tv programs with exclusively female casts make use of the female gaze in different ways than films and tv programs with mixed casts

How the female gaze currently differs from the male gaze in the way it presents sexual appraisal

Any analysis surrounding obstacles directors may meet when using the female gaze, to showcase a full range of female sexual interest

Thanks for helping me learn more.