Editors: Heidi Basch-Harod & Molly Lower Vol. 2, No.

12, January 12, 2015

Feminist Films between Theory and Practice

by Rabii el Jawhari

Louis Althussers work on social apparatus and the subject-

object complex relationship makes the marriage between
feminism and Marxism possible. It is the same discourse
adopted by feminists, worldwide, who refer to patriarchal
hegemony as the signifier, and who determine the signified
as embodied in oppressed women, portrayed in various
social media and cultural tools, like cinema. Within this
context, the man actively shapes the object, as he is the
doer of the deliberate action of gazing. Likewise, the
woman passively reflects the image, which is the object of
the gaze.1 Laura Mulvey, in analyzing films, divides the
males gaze into three levels:

There are three different looks associated with

cinema: that of the camera as it records the pro-
Rabii el Jawhari speaking at the WVN Symposium in Meknes, filmic event, that of the audience as it watches the
Morocco, June 2013. final product, and that of the characters at each
other within the screen illusion.2
Feminist film theorists continue to question the minimized
image of women on the screen. They do so by analyzing the The subjectivity, as tackled by feminists, transcends its
relationship between films, the ideological and dominating context to overlap with the psychoanalytical field,
position of men, the audiences perception, and womens especially when feminists base their studies on Lacans
reactions. Although feminism now operates within the notion of the constructed unconscious as a system that
postmodernist era, highlighting the plurality of culture in functions like language meaning, being a man or a
general and arts in particular, feminist film theory woman, for Lacan, is a kind of social construction:
continues to adhere to its Marxist and psychoanalytic
roots. In practice, however, today feminist filmmakers the most controversial and contested area of
choose the avant-garde method of filmmaking. Lacanian psychoanalysis: the conceptualization of
Nevertheless, both the ideological background and the feminine sexuality. Lacans provocative slogans,
avant-garde alternative are limited in reaching women such as the woman does not exist and there is
consuming films, and thus fail to adequately challenge the no such thing as a sexual relationship, have been
negative representations of women worldwide. greeted with indignation and outrage as well as
prolonged and passionate defense. Lacans
Feminists, who still posit that the tenets of feminism are
rooted in Marxist theory and the psychoanalytic approach,
claim that no other approach yet proves it possible to act 1Laura Mulvey, Visual pleasure and narrative cinema, Screen 16
outside of them. Generally summarized, Marxism vis--vis (1975), 6-18.
the feminist project focuses on the conflict between gender
norms imposed by the structured order, and oppressed 2 Ibid., 18.
women seeking expressive liberty within a given society.

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 thinking on feminine sexuality is distinguished by postcolonialism and race.4 The irritation here, marked by
two main phases: first, he was concerned to some feminists like Jennifer Hammett, is how
distinguish sexual difference on the basis of the postmodernism tries to alienate itself from ideology while
phallus and here Lacan makes significance on the feminist film theorists are still using the two previously
basis of the phallus innovation regarding mentioned ideologies:
Freudian thinking. For Freud the question of
sexual difference revolved around castration Feminist film theorists continue to embrace the
complex, that is around whether or not someone assumption underlying post-structuralist theories
has or does not have a penis. For Lacan, on the of ideology: they assume that the fact that we
other hand, castration is a symbolic process that know the world only through our representation
involves the cutting off, not of ones penis, but of of it necessarily calls our beliefs about the world
ones jouissance and the recognition of lack. In into question.5
order to represent this lack the subject has two
possible alternatives that of having or being For Jennifer Hammett, feminists developed two methods
the phallus3 of criticism: the idealistic method, suggesting critical
distance; and the realistic method, referring to lived
On the bases of Althussers dominant social apparatus and experiences.6 Nevertheless, neither reaction is effective
Lacans instituted subconscious, feminist film theorists since both deal with one limited aspect of patriarchal
deconstruct the famous classic works that represent representation; therefore, both suggest a limited feminist
women as submissive and muffled objects of sex. If one alternative (feminist representation). Hence, a challenging
studies feminist criticism, s/he can notice the way it depicts approach, but not an ideological one, is still required to
classic films as reductive since they link power, absolute establish a solid feminist background.
truth, wisdom, and knowledge to men, while attributing
weakness, madness, subordination, and perplexity to Laura Mulvey, as a feminist film theorist, is the first to
beautiful women who should always be feminine to satisfy tackle the issue of patriarchy in films. Her most interesting
the males sexual desire in one way or another. The analyses address the relationship between the audience
feminist criticism here suggests that patriarchy aims to and the screen. For her, classic films make their viewers
produce films that represent women as commodities, an practice sexual acts from a distance through voyeurism,
idea that stems from the Marxist notion of cultural suggesting acts of sexual spying. This exists, for example, in
materialism. According to the psychoanalytical lens, the
same films offer these women as tools of satisfaction. 4 Stuart Hall, Cultural studies: Two paradigms, contemporary
literary criticism, literary cultural studies (New York: Longman,
Marxism and psychoanalysis, however, are no longer Third Edition, 1994).
considered trends within the postmodernist paradigm. Yet,
feminism, with its aforementioned roots, contributes to the 5 Jennifer Hammett, The ideology impediment: Epistemology,
postmodernist plurality that includes discourse on feminism, and film theory, in Film theory and philosophy, edited
by Richard Allen and Murray Smith (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001), 246.
3 Sean Homer, Jacque Lacan (New York: Routledge Taylor and

Francis Group, 2005), 95. 6 Ibid.

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films showing male characters looking through pinholes Accordingly, Laura Mulvey considers the spectator
and fissures in doors to discover fragmented7 or whole to be the male who derives his visual pleasure
bodies of women. Achieving sexual pleasure via looking is from the patriarchal representation of women.
what Mulvey refers to as scopophilia, reinforced by films Gaylyn Studlar (1988) opposes this idea and,
offering the audience visual erotic objects.8 This is, for instead, argues that since the audience consists
Constance Penley, a reproduction of Duchamps bachelor not only of males but also females some of
machines in 1913: whom feel sadistic while consuming the reductive
image of women the audiences pleasure is
to recognize how forcefully the idea of cinema
somewhat masochistic. Mulvey, eventually,
as a technological institutional, and psychical
reconsidered her article/manifesto in her
machine has shaped our current ways of
Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure and Narrative
understanding film. Just as influential, however,
Cinema11:
has been the theory of classical film narrative as
itself a machine, and an avowedly bachelor one.9
I still stand by my visual pleasure argument, but
would now like to pursue the other two lines of
Voyeurism and scopophilia come together to shape a
thought. First (the women in the audience
patriarchal subject that targets the viewer as the object, but
issue), whether the female spectator is carried
within this process, this object becomes another subject
along, as it were by the scruff of the text, or
who targets the woman depicted on the screen a kind of whether her pleasure can be more deep, rooted
transcendent mechanism for Constance Penley: and complex.12

The act of seeing is itself the primary cinematic This, for me, marks a challenging turning point in feminist
identification, that images themselves, that is film theory requiring serious academic research that may
what the images depict (even what filmic go further than the psychoanalytic approach and
processes they present) do not have that much to transcends the Marxist mode of interpretation. I believe
do with the fundamental form of cinematic there is a necessity for multidisciplinary research that
identification, the identification that establishes overlaps both different and suitable open theories to create
the spectator as transcendent subject.10 a clear vision that allows us to talk about a feminist film,
and therefore about a feminist cinema. While feminist film
7 Fragmentation is very suggestive within the feminist context as it
theorists conducting the majority of the research tackle
reflects the patriarchal representation of womens bodies to audiences perception, other feminists, like Jennifer
achieve erotic feelings; yet, fragmentation is significant as it shows Hammett, suggest a focus on how women want to
the reductive patriarchal stand towards women. represent themselves. Of course, women do not share a
mono-cultural, psychological, economic, political,
8 Laura Mulvey, Visual pleasure and narrative cinema, Screen 16
emotional, intellectual spiritual system. Women live
(1975), 6-18.

9 Constance Penley, The future of an illusion: Film, feminism, and 11Laura Mulvey, Afterthoughts on visual pleasure and narrative
psychoanalysis (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, cinema (Afc:_theliterature.com, 2007).
Second print, 1990), 58.
12 Ibid.
10 Ibid., 13.

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different lives and therefore experience different plights, traditional paradigm feminists quickly seek refuge under
quests, and pursuits. Consequently, we must take into the avant garde-ist shelter:
account that, Once we recognize that we know the world
only as a series of representations, we are better able to The alternative cinema provides a space for a
represent it differently.13 In that vein, the way women cinema to be born which is radical in both a
perceive the self can change the audiences perception, political and an aesthetic sense and challenges the
which would naturally challenge patriarchal ideology. basic assumptions of the mainstream film. This is
not to reject the latter moralistically, but to
Today, it is clear that the issue is no longer whether we are highlight the ways in which its formal
able to escape the ideological effects of (patriarchal) texts, preoccupations reflect the psychical obsessions of
but how.14 Postmodernist feminists begin by not utilizing the society which produced it and, further, to
Freudian psychoanalysis since they view it to be an stress that the alternative cinema must start
ideological tool used against women. They attack specifically by reacting against these obsessions
traditional psychoanalytic ideas about women because of and assumptions. A politically and aesthetically
their phallocentric mode and imposed penis envy theory. avant garde cinema is now possible, but it can still
The psychoanalytic approach, as introduced by Freud, can only exist as a counterpoint.15
no longer meet the feminists pursuit since it reinforces the
mainstream and muffles womens voices by imposing For me, however, the panacea avant-garde term has been
psychoanalytic-ready conclusions fragmenting womens exhausted. It covers over aesthetic and ideological diversity
experiences. I stress here the plural s to indicate the theories that at least try to find various definitions:
limited psychoanalytic way of dealing with women with neorealism, surrealism, absurdism, Dadaism, etc. As far as
different experiences and therefore different positions the notion of elitism is concerned, the avant-garde
worldwide. movement opposes the canonized art and culture. These
movements try to open themselves to plurality, which
Unable to identify a distinguished school or trend that can means a kind of deconstruction of the institutionalized
offer an alternative mode of analysis, a crisis arises in canon and therefore a way to question the elitism excluding
feminist film practice. With the failure of the paradigm of minorities and masses. Paradoxically, the term avant
structuralism, including psychoanalysis, Laura Mulvey, garde is used now to describe films which fail to be
along with other feminists, escapes to the avant-garde-ist popular. The very limited audience consuming these films
ready solution. Since the term avant garde can mean is depicted as the special elite who can decipher what the
anything against the traditional Aristotle plot classicism, masses cannot!
structuralism, historicism, positivism, hermeneutics,
anthropology, political mainstream, and the long list of the Let us examine an example of an uncut, 10-minute-long
shot. Characterized by redundant dialogues, fixed frames,
and stagnant situations, many people find these long shots
13 Jennifer Hammett, The ideology impediment: Epistemology, to be boring. This tends to be so because these scenes do
feminism, and film theory, in Film theory and philosophy, edited not portray the fast life and the amount of information
by Richard Allen and Murray Smith (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001), 249.
15Laura Mulvey, Visual pleasure and narrative cinema, Screen 16
14 Ibid., 245. (1975), 6.

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people can get in our era within only a few minutes. Of first level should guarantee an understood technical aspect
course, I do not deny that the first absurdist, Dadaist, and applied to scripts; the second level should suggest
la nouvelle vague filmmakers were successful in using unlimited artistic dimensions applied to the ways artists
these scenes because they reflect the same redundant, construct characters psyches, themes, framing, points of
absurd, and nonsense existence they want to convey. view, etc. Developing the two levels will allow widespread
However, everybody now imitates this way of filming just viewing of these films and at the same time avoid
to declare her/his adherence to the avant garde. Though minimized and superficial representation of women.
some critics in international festivals feel bored while
watching pseudo-avant-garde films, they cannot express Rabii el Jawhari is a Moroccan filmmaker with a
their thoughts for fear of being classified as non-elite. This masters in communication in contexts from
reminds me of the fairy tale of the naked emperor whose Moulay Ismail University in Meknes. He has
dressmakers convince him and his people that the clothes directed and produced several films and
he wears cannot be seen except by the intelligent. Though documentaries in Arabic, English, French, and
the emperor sees himself as naked, he does not dare Italian, working with such companies as Al
mention his nakedness, and when he goes out to meet his Jazeera and Casanova Entertainment. Rabii has
subjects, no one else dares mention it so as not to be served as moderator and judge at multiple film
thought stupid. Yet, a small girl speaks up: Wow, the festivals, and was selected to be part of the U.S.
emperor is naked! And after the girl utters these words, State Departments highly competitive
the others start murmuring about the truth she exposed. As International Visitors Program, with a focus on
such, feminists have not yet suggested a practical manifesto documentary filmmaking, in 2011.
to launch the discussion of feminist cinema.

In tackling the issue of women representation in films, I do

not aim to oppose the feminist approach. Instead, I seek
new, effective, and challenging tools that can allow
practitioners to produce films respecting different images
of women in the world. To reach the masses, films
representing women should neither adopt an elitist
approach nor opt for a mundane, superficial, and banal16
way of conveying themes. If feminist film theorists want to
operate interactively within societies, they should abandon
the ideological perspective since the masses in the world do
not have the same ideological, cultural, or religious
backgrounds. The filmic discourse could then reach
pluralities. This can be done by working on two levels: the

16 Meaghan Morris, Banality in cultural studies, in

Contemporary literary criticism: Literary and cultural studies,

edited by Robert Con Davis and Roland Schleifer, third edition
(New York: Longman, 1994).

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