Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
6-18-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Film and Media Arts
Advisor(s)
Emily Duke
Second Advisor
Laura Heyman
Keywords
female perspective;women’s stories
Abstract
Every era has its own form of female consciousness awakening. As early as the 1970s, under the influence of feminist movements, a wave of outstanding female-centered films emerged. Simone de Beauvoir stated in The Second Sex: “The representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.” (166) Perhaps as a direct challenge to this so-called “absolute truth” created from the male perspective, female directors often crafted female characters who sharply contrasted with the popular portrayals of women in mainstream cinema. For example, Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) presents the story of a working-class woman who can only survive by attaching herself to men, subjected to male violence and discipline. Compared to the rising trend of films promoting female independence and empowerment at the time, Loden’s work seems to mock the very slogan of “female consciousness awakening.” Through her female gaze, she portrays a woman incapable of resisting patriarchy. Even today, when women’s education has reached unprecedented heights and self-realization is actively encouraged, women across different cultural backgrounds are still constrained by inherited “truths.” How, then, could a woman in Loden’s era who has only an elementary education to speak of “female consciousness awakening”? Half a century later, history continues to repeat itself. In today’s film industry, most of female-centric films tend to revolve around a limited set of themes, such as struggles with motherhood or workplace inequality. Yet, in every era, a few remarkable female-directed films emerge—works that stand out like lotus flowers rising from the mud, offering audiences a sense of exhilaration. This thesis will examine the evolution of women’s role in both Western and Eastern cinema, comparing how male and female directors shape women’s role in classic films. It will also reflect on how these cinematic portrayals have influenced the creation of my short film.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Zeng, Yuping, "From Male Gaze to Feminist Vision: Exploration of Women’s Roles in Film" (2025). Theses - ALL. 921.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/921
