# Feminist Media [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_film_theory) ( 1970s – present ) ## Description Feminist film theory and media, including [[Laura Mulvey]]'s theory of the gaze and visual pleasure, [[Judith Butler]]'s account of gender as performative, and participatory feminist media practice, with case studies ranging from early cinema's women workers to contemporary queer feminist film such as *Portrait of a Lady on Fire*. ## Key Tags #feminist-media #film-theory #gender ## Essential Works - Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" - foundational essay theorizing the male gaze in classical narrative cinema - Butler, Judith. *Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity* - foundational text on gender as performative - [[Riddle of the Sphinx]] - Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's experimental feminist film, subject of extended critical analysis in this bibliography ## Details ### Key Theorists - [[Laura Mulvey]] - theorized the male gaze and visual pleasure in narrative cinema - [[Judith Butler]] - theorized gender as performative, foundational to feminist media theory beyond gaze theory - Hélène Cixous - theorized *écriture féminine* in "The Laugh of the Medusa" ### Exemplary Practitioners - Céline Sciamma - director of *Portrait of a Lady on Fire*, subject of extensive feminist and queer film analysis gathered here ### Related Concepts - [[Genre Studies]] - overlaps in gender-and-genre film theory - [[Queer Theory]] - shared theoretical ground in the queerness/freedom readings of contemporary feminist film ### Creative and Technical Practices - [[Participatory Practices]] - practice-based counterpart to the participatory feminist media literature gathered here ### Associated Movements or Institutions %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Acland, Charles R., and Haidee Wasson, eds. “‘We Can See Ourselves as Others See Us’: Women Workers and Western Union’s Training Films in the 1920s.” In _Useful Cinema_. Duke University Press, 2020. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822394167-004](https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822394167-004). Bean, Jennifer M. “1909 Movies and Progress.” In _American Cinema 1890-1909_, edited by Andre Gaudreault. Rutgers University Press, 2020. [https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813546445-013](https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813546445-013). Berliner, Lauren Samara, and Ron Krabill, eds. _Feminist Interventions in Participatory Media: Pedagogy, Publics, Practice_. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2019. Butler, Judith. _Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity_. Routledge, 1999. Cixous, Helene. _The Laugh of the Medusa_. n.d. Genovese, Emma, and Tamsin Phillipa Paige. “Life as Distinct from Patriarchal Influence: Exploring Queerness and Freedom through Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” _Australian Feminist Law Journal_ 50, no. 1 (2024): 91–112. [https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2024.2328192](https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2024.2328192). “Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure.” n.d. “Mulvey-Visual Pleasure.” n.d. “Mulvey_visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (2).” n.d. _Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Unofficial English Translation._ n.d. “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire Transcript.” n.d. “Riddles of the Sphinx Mal Ahern.” n.d.