Radical Feminism Depicted In Douglas Sirk's Rear Window
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According to Mulvey, Lisa by Grace Kelly in Rear Window too representing “a passive image of visual perfection,” solidified in her obsession with dress and style. (Jason Fraley, 2011) Lisa is a gorgeous independent career woman who constantly asked to be looked (southwestern.edu, n.d.) with designer dresses to highlight her flawless beauty and it attracted Jeff’s interest as shown in the conversation between Jeff and Stella, “She’s too perfect. She’s too talented. She’s too beautiful... She’s too everything but it is what I want”. (Nicholas Harl, 2010) In term of the relationship between Jeff and Lisa, Mulvey commented: When she crosses the barrier between his room and the block opposite, their relationship will re-born erotically due to her sexual interest towards him. (Laura Mulvey, 1975)
Another classical film by Douglas Sirk in 1959, Imitation of Life, is also a great example on male gaze’s theory. The story set in the fifties, just before radical feminism ignited a political and social ground war between the sexes, with two female protagonists, one of whom is white and another one is black. The pancake business in beginning of film is a commercial adaptation of women's domestic role and, to an audience seemingly prejudiced with middle-class housewives. However then, female protagonist Lora…show more content… When Annie, black mother starring Juanita Moore, found her daughter Sara Jane by Susan Kohner, making a living as an erotic dancer in night club to entertainer male audiences, the sexualized nature of Sara from the view of motherhood gaze makes the scene lustful, inacceptable and disturbing. Similarly to Lora, both of these female characters tried hard to flourish themselves, as if that is the only career suited for a white woman. But Annie denies this while attempting to convince with Sarah Jane to get her