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WRITTEN WORK FEEDBACK FORM

MODULE TITLE/CODE: Introduction to Visual Studies/FLM1005

STUDENT NAME: Kelly Draper

STUDENT NUMBER: 40202345

SEMINAR TUTOR: Sian Barber

1st 2.1 2.2 3rd Fail

First Marker Comments:

There is a lot of research on-display in the essay, but it seems to be a simple reporting of statistics
and figures to illustrate the way The Virgin Suicides has satisfied the Three Fs criteria. There is
occasionally some good discussion points woven-in that make the occasional comment on gender
issues the film addresses, but the larger focus seems to be squarely on statistical analysis.
Otherwise the writing and grammar is generally good and there is a good amount of sources for
expounding on the material.

Second Marker Comments (where appropriate):

Write in a more fluid way and make sure that you support all your arguments with careful evidence.
Do not overstate and make claims that you cannot substantiate and make sure that you delineate
your central arguments – everything gets a little bit tangled up here.

External Examiner Comments (where appropriate):

GRADE:

First Marker: _62____ Second Marker: ______ External Examiner: ____

PENALTIES: Lateness: ________ Over/Under length: _____ (5% per day)

FINAL MARK: ________ (Conceptual Mark)

Focusing on The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999), explore the importance of gender

representation and with reference to its creative production.

Gender inequality amongst the film industry remains in a state of inertia. With reference to

The Virgin Suicides’ (Sofia Coppola, 1993) creative production, I will be discussing the

importance of gender representation within the film industry, on screen and behind-the-scenes

and the inter-link between them. Coppola, awarded Best Director at Cannes Film Festival and

Best Original Screenplay at The Academy Awards, is known for her strong, female leads

whilst additionally hiring female members on her crew from pre-production through to post-

production. She creates complex, multi-dimensional, female characters, directing her own

screenplays whilst undoubtedly passing the Bechdel Test and creating F-rated films. Since the

1970s, psychoanalytic theory has been a large part of feminist film theory (Hollows, 1995,

p152), thus, I will also discuss the portrayal of women compared to men within The Virgin

Suicides and the film industry and their effect on audiences.

Originally based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel ‘The Virgin Suicides’, the narrative is told

through a group of teenage boy’s eyes and their fascination and confusion with the

mysterious, five Catholic Lisbon sisters aged 13 to 17 (Eugenides, 2011). Coppola adapted

Eugenides’ book into a screenplay, directing it herself, creating her first feature-length film.

The film portrays the destructive nature of forcing females into submissive roles as the sisters

were ‘forced to be dutiful, subservient daughters and idealized, teenage fantasies’ (Sabato,

2017, p1), in which ultimately led to their suicide in order to escape their repressed roles. The

equality between the female cast and crew stems from having a female director, Sofia

Coppola, as this leads to an increase in percentages of women employed on a film project. For

example, 57% of protagonists were female with a female director, whereas only 18% were

female with a male director (Lauzen, 2017, p4). Thus, the gender misrepresentation on screen

shows a clear alignment with the lack of women behind the scenes.
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Furthermore, the Celluloids Ceiling’s 19 year research into female representation amongst

the film industry has enabled the public to statistically know the imbalance of employment

between males and females in the film industry. For instance, showing the lack of progress

for gender equality in film since 1998 as only 17% of the top 250 domestic grossing films

consisted of female producers, executive producers, directors, cinematographers, editors and

writers in both 2016 and 1998 (Lauzen, 2017). Female executive producers have also

declined from 18% in 1998 to 17% in 2016 (Lauzen, 2017) which not only adds to the lack of

progress amongst gender equality in the film industry, but also shows a decrease in female

employment, thus creating a greater imbalance between males and females in executive

producer roles in film. Willi Bär, a female executive producer on The Virgin Suicides,

fortunately had a positive impact on the percentage of female characters as ‘at least one

female executive (hired on a film project) consistently had more female characters (42% vs.

35%)’ (Min, 2015). Hence, stressing the importance of female employment in executive

producer roles in increasing the percentage of female stories being told. Therefore, creating a

more fair gender representation as the increase in creative production behind the scenes

enables more women to become leads in stories, thus creating more complex, flawed female

roles instead of continuously portraying women as ‘powerless and ineffectual’ (Gauntlett,

2008, p48).

This representation of gender amongst film has an effect on the audiences whom watch

them, and thus the film industry has a responsibility to accurately portray genders. Michael

Morgan has stated that this gender imbalance is ‘very dangerous’ and ‘very damaging’

(Boboltz, Yam, 2017) and Nicole Martins of Indiana University stated “There’s this body of

research and a term known as ‘symbolic annihilation,’ which is the idea that if you don’t see

people like you in the media you consume, you must somehow be unimportant.” (Boboltz,

Yam, 2017). Thus, females whom do not relate to one-dimensional female characters in film

create an unhealthy sense of insignificance among their own character as they do not
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resemble the ideal, youthful beauty we see of females in cinema today (Gauntlett, 2008, p48).

Sharon Smith stated that:

‘The role of a woman in film almost always revolves around her physical attraction

and the mating games she plays with the male characters. On the other hand a man is

not shown purely in relation to the female characters, but in a wide variety of roles.’

(Gauntlett, 2008, p48)

Additionally, this common ‘one-dimensional female character’ (Suleiman, p246) is

damaging towards young women whom feel they need to become depthless in order to be

admired by strong males.

Exploring psychoanalytic theory alongside feminist film theory further examines the

effects gender bias amongst film affects its audiences. Mulvey claims that psychoanalytic

theory ‘offers a casual analysis of women’s oppression under patriarchy’ (Hollows, 1995,

p152) and she is concerned about the unhealthy impact the power of the cinematic, visual

pleasures of mainstream cinema have on the gendered spectator (Hollows, p152). For

example, the frequent sexualisation of females throughout cinema is adopted by audiences as

they become aligned with the male protagonist, thus subconsciously objectifying women too

(Hollows, p152). American feminist film critics in the 1970s argued that the female

representations in Hollywood were unreal and misrepresented depictions of female’s lives.

(Hollows, p156). Haskell and Rosen focus on the stereotypical archetypes of women in

mainstream cinema between 1920 and 1970 and discovered the common female role to be

that of a ‘non achiever’ and lacking ‘important societal positions’ (Hollows, p156-157) due to Commented [DB1]: I'm not sure this is the meaning you
intend by using this word, if you're pointing out that the
their blue-collar roles. The Virgin Suicides Lisbon sisters were youthful and were presented in inequality still exists - try 'stasis'.

school studying, however their lack of goals accurately portrays this stereotypical image of

females on screen.
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Socialist feminist historians work produces a more politicised feminist study of women’s

involvement in the construction of popular cinema. Their work further focuses on how

collective social activism to change future material which oppresses females is vital to help

realize the goal of gender equality (Hollows, p158). A popular film focus is on how females

are dominated rather than how females could resist domination (Hollows, p163). However, in

Coppola’s films such as The Virgin Suicides, The Beguiled (Sofia Coppola, 2017),

Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010) and The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola, 2013), the female

characters’ domination over the narrative is politically empowering for female spectators.

This is due to the creative production’s impact on the narrative, the characters and the

characters gender representation.

The creative production behind The Virgin Suicides contained multiple women working on

the project, with at least one or more female employed in producing, directing, editing,

casting, set design, costume, make-up and sound. This is due to the impact Sofia Coppola, as

a female director, has on creating more equal representations between the genders. For

instance, simply focusing on just one of the previous roles, such as Melissa Kent’s editing on

The Virgin Suicides, we can statistically see the impact Coppola has on the employment of

female editors on the film. For example, films with male directors only employ 17% of

female editors, whereas with female directors 43% of editors were female (Lauzen, 2017).

Therefore, the employment of female film directors, such as Coppola, create a more fair

employment of a variety of crew positions on set, which leads to more positions on screen,

leading to a positive effect on female and male audiences perception on gender.

Even though Coppola has enabled to give females more complexity, recognition and

stories, her films are filled with white actors. Cinema statistically remains biased towards

producing films from a white male and female’s perspective as in 2016, female characters

were 76% white with an additional 77% white male characters. (Lauzen, 2017, p3). Thus, the

representation of gender in the film industry is limited as the stories of Latinos, Blacks and
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Asians are not being heard. This affects how gender is viewed as audiences frequently, solely

hear the stories of white American protagonists instead of a variety of cultures. Lisa Taylor

stated that the inclusion of black women in feminist film theory is important in devising

‘politically effective strategies which might potentially change women’s relationship to film

theory and cinematic practice’ (Hollows, p155-156). Thus, the representation of gender is

one-sided as the spectrum is limited to one race, creating an inaccurate portrayal of gender

throughout film due to the lack of diversity.

Taylor also stated that not only does race portrayal heavily impinge on the messages and

values the audiences take from the film but also class, age and sexuality does too. Another

poor portrayal of females that Coppola has shown is the Lisbon girl’s lack of work-related

goals or leadership. This is common amongst the film industry as males have a higher

percentage (75%) than females (54%) to have work-related goals on screens and are also

shown more to be leaders than women (11% vs 5%) (Lauzen, 2017, p4). This significant

contrast between the characteristics of males and females on screen creates poor messages

and values for female audiences, demotivating them to achieve large-scale goals.

Executive director at San Diego State University Martha M. Lauzen for the Centre for the

Study of Women in Television and Film stated that “There is no evidence to suggest that

women’s employment has improved in key behind-the-scenes roles over the last 16 years.”

(Laham, 2017, p1). This lack of female employment in the film industry leads to a lack of

female protagonists in cinema. In the top 100 grossing films in 2016, only 29% of

protagonists were female, although this seems low, it is a 7% increase from 2015 creating a

recent ‘historical high’ (Lauzen, 2017, p1). However, it is still a poor representation of

women as 54% of males are protagonists in this study with an additional 17% being

ensembles. Even though the narrative is told from the neighbourhood boy’s perspective, the

focal point of The Virgin Suicides is primarily the five Lisbon girls. Additionally, audiences

had a higher percentage of knowing the marital status of female characters (46%) compared
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to male characters (32%). Females were more likely to have an unknown occupation than

males, with 22% of females having an unidentifiable occupation compared to only 14% of

males. The idea that women’s focus is marriage whilst men’s is an occupation are outdated

views of gender in history, however are still being portrayed in films.

Female characters were also shown predominantly in their 20s (23%) and 30s (32%)

(Lauzen, 2017, p3). Whereas male roles were primarily in their 30s (31%) and 40s (30%)

(Lauzen, 2017, p3). However, Mrs. Lisbon is not only middle-aged but she is also powerful

within the narrative as she is essentially the villain in the young girl’s lives as she forces them

to feel repressed and uncomfortable within their mature, adolescent bodies. This is not only

shown through her characters intimidating appearance but also through the set design. For

example, throughout the household the only photographs shown are the photos of the girls

before the age of 13, portraying her constant need for her children to not mature and thus

remain innocent, however this overprotection leads to the Lisbon girl’s joint suicide. Mrs.

Lisbon’s daughter’s also show immense fear of breaking her rules as Therese states “We’re

cooked” (Eugenides, 134) after Lux fails to meet curfew. Thus, showing power and authority

in the mother of the girls instead of the father, stating Mrs. Lisbon’s female dominance and

control over her daughter’s actions prior to their suicide.

On the other hand, the representation of the males within the narrative are not conventional,

as they appear ‘trapped’ by the females due to their obsessive fascination with the Lisbon

sisters. They become ‘trapped in their immanent position of bearers of the gaze’ (Hovenden,

2014, p1) after the Lisbon sisters suicide. They become captivated with the idea of

understanding the mysterious girls and begin to emphasise with them with the knowledge

they discover about the girls as they stated “we felt the imprisonment of being a girl”

(Eugenides 43). This is a poor representation of the males as their only motive in the film is to

understand the girls, we do not learn their previous backstories or personal lives, we only

witness the effect the girls have on their characters. Coppola has reversed the roles on screen,
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as typically a female’s only purpose in mainstream cinema is to serve the male and

simultaneously lack character depth. However, Coppola decided upon a male narrator, and

thus told the story from the boy’s point of view which added more alignment with the males,

creating more powerful characters over the narrative. Therefore, creating a more even balance

between the gender representations of the film as both the girl’s and the boy’s hold power

over the narrative.

Power among gender was also portrayed through the cinematography, Coppola hired a

male cinematographer, Edward Lachman, whom has worked with numerous female directors

such as Susan Seidelman, Mira Nair and Stacy Cochran. Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory which

consists of the idea that cinematography in cinema sexualises the female characters, thus

creating a ‘strong visual and erotic impact’ (Mulvey, 1999, p837) as the camera mimics the

males desire (‘gaze’), satisfying his sense of domination over the female. This derives from

cinema’s ‘voyeuristic separation’ due to the significant contrast between the screens light

against the dark cinema (Goodman, De Gay, 1998, p270). The Lisbon sisters obtain power

over the male’s perceptions of them through their joint suicide, thus preventing themselves

from full subjectivity (Hovenden, 2014, p1). Lux appears ‘sensually deluxe’ (Shostak, 2009,

p822) as she explores her sexuality throughout the film, for instance, when she meets Trip

and has sexual intercourse with him, wears makeup to church and wears shorter skirts to

school. Coppola has exercised the ‘female gaze’ in her most recent films such as The

Beguiled, thus representing the sexual lust female characters have towards a male interest

equally to the common male lust for females on screen. This unconventional theme of female

sexual pleasure is explored throughout The Virgin Suicides, thus rebelling against the ‘double

standard’ (Shary, 2012, p107) films have between genders as films generally ‘promote female

sexual practice while denying female sexual pleasure’ (Shary, 2012, p107).

A common misconception among executives, which causes the lack of female employment

within the film industry, is ‘that movies about women don't make money’ (Seger, 2003, p112)
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at the box office. However, this statement has been proven incorrect as in 2017, female-led

films Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017) ($412,563,408), Beauty and the Beast (Bill

Condon, 2017) ($504,014,165) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, 2017)

($620,178,595) positioned top three in the highest grossing box office films of 2017 (Box

Office Mojo, 2017). Clearly proving there is an audience for female driven films as more

audiences are paying to attend these films over male driven films. Thelma and Louise (Ridley

Scott, 1991) writer Callie Khouri too illustrates her indignation towards the derogatory

connotation that having a female audience has on a film, as it becomes known as a ‘women’s

picture’ (Seger, 2003, p112). However, Seger proves women pictures are in demand further

by stating most women she interviewed said that they ‘do want diversity, an opportunity for

their lives, their experiences, (and) their identity as a woman to be expressed on screen’

(Seger, 2003, p112). However, these stories usually can only be expressed through low-

budget, independent films.

Coppola has expressed her preferability to shoot independent films compared to Commented [DB2]: preference

mainstream due to the lack of creative control directors have working on studio, big-budget

films. For instance, Coppola resigned her position to direct The Little Mermaid due to

‘creative differences’ (Merry, 2015). Studios repeatable hire males to direct their

blockbusters, thus even given this rare opportunity Coppola chose the creative side of

filmmaking over financially successful box office takings. She stated “For me, when a movie

has a really large budget like that, it just becomes more about business, or business becomes a

bigger element than art” (Erbland, 2017). This instantly explains Coppola’s resignation on

The Little Mermaid as she proved herself to be dedicated to creating character-driven,

authentic, art-house films as she has more control over the representation of gender

throughout her independent films.

Undoubtedly, The Virgin Suicides overall passes the Bechdel test. This test examines if a film

has at least two female characters whom interact with each other about topics unrelated to a
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male love interest (Maya, 2016, p19). An example in the film is of when Mrs. Lisburn orders

Lux to burn all her records. Coppola’s film is also a triple F-rated film, where a film is both

directed and written by a woman whilst additionally featuring significant women on screen.

In conclusion, the lack of gender equality amongst employment in the film industry

negatively affects the representation of females on screen and the percentage of female

protagonists in cinema. This is known to sociologically impact the way audiences view

women as they identify with the lead male protagonist within the film. The inequitable bias

towards male-driven films caused by the misconceptions of female movies being

unsuccessful at the box office, has caused a misrepresentation of females within film.

Mainstream cinema creates an ‘unrealistic representation of female characters’ (Suleiman,

p246). However, Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides creates unconventional archetypes and

explores rare themes explored in cinema. This is due to the large figures of females employed

on the film which help create a fairer, realistic, complex female roles within the film. Gender

representation is incredibly important in film behind the scenes and on screen as the large

effect media has on its audiences creates a moral responsibility for the film industry to take

account for. Thus, creating equal employment in the film industry to create equal gender

representations in film.
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Filmography

Condon, Bill, Beauty and the Beast, 2017.

Coppola, Sofia, Somewhere, 2010.

Coppola, Sofia, The Beguiled, 2017.

Coppola, Sofia, The Bling Ring, 2013.

Coppola, Sofia, The Virgin Suicides, 1993.

Jenkins, Patty, Wonder Woman, 2017.

Johnson, Rian, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, 2017.

Scott. Ridley, Thelma and Louise, 1991.

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Huffpost, 24 February 2017.

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Gauntlett, David, Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, Routledge, 18th March

2008.

Goodman, Lizbeth, De Gay, Jane, The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance,

Psychology Press, 1998.

Hollows, Joanne, Approaches to Popular Film, Manchester University Press, 1995.

Hovenden, Hilary, The Role of the Male Gaze in The Virgin Suicides: Examining how

the Lisbon sisters reject the role of the passive female and trap the male narrators, The

Undergraduate Awards Library, University College Dublin, 2014.

Laham, Martha T.S, ‘The Film Industry’s Problem of Gender Inequality Is Worse than

You Think’, Huffpost, 17 August 2017.

Lauzen, Martha, M, The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women

on the Top 100, 250, and 500 Films of 2016, Google Search Engine, 2017.

Mayer, Sophie, Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema, I.B.Tauris, 2016.

Merry, Stephanie, Sofia Coppola leaves the live action ‘The Little Mermaid’, The

Washington Post, 2 June 2015.

Min, Lilian, A new study shows what we all know: Women hire more women. Hello

Giggles, 2015.

Mulvey, Laura, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Film Theory and Criticism:

Introductory Readings. (eds.) Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, New York, Oxford UP,

1999.

Sabato, Michelle, A Not So Subtle Feminist Tale: THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. Film

Inquiry, 9 May 2017.

Seger, Linda, When Women Call the Shots: The Developing Power and Influence of

Women in Television and Film, (ed) iUniverse, 2003.

Shary, Timothy, Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen, Columbia University Press,

2012.

Shostak, Debra, ‘A Story we Could Live With’ Narrative Voice the Reader and Jeffrey

Eugenide’s The Virgin Suicides. Modern Fiction Studies 55.4, JSTRO, 2009.

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Perspectives, Harvard University Press, 1986.