I sought inspiration from the 2008 article ‘Post Feminism and Popular Culture’ by Angela McRobbie (McRobbie, 2008), the article explains how the women’s rights movement has evolved overtime in relation to the progresses made. It decodes the ways modern women present themselves, explaining how new fashions are a purposeful stance that go directly against outdated gender standards. This is one of the ways in which women are starting to explore and embrace both their gender and sexuality by choice, for their own enjoyment, rather than it being something expected of them to maintain the male gaze. Western women are now in a place where they can go as far as to capitalise from their own being, compared to previously where women were objectified and dehumanised via shaming and lack of opportunities.
It also explores how the women’s movement is an ever-evolving fight and that we can never really be in a ‘post-feminist’ society, as there are many ways in which we can continue to make improvements; thus, the different ‘waves’ of feminism that we have today.
The theme of my short film is heavily influenced by this article and the post feminism theory, I took the topics it covers and represented them via my own visual interpretation in my experimental short film.
Another point of inspiration for me was ‘Invisible Women’ by Caroline Criado-Perez (Criado-Perez, 2019), the book looks into the ways in which the past patriarchy that built the bases of todays society now leaves women running short of genuine equality and equity, as women’s lifestyles and needs were not accounted for at the time as a result of misogyny.
The book explores various ways in which the world we live in today was designed to cater to men, and how, due to a lack of updating the way in which we live, modern women have the short straw in day to day life. Although womens rights and therefore abilities have progressed, gender standards still impact the way women live their lives – for example, women are still the main caregivers for both children and elderly and they do so without pay under the premis of responsibility.
I took inspiration from this towards the end of my short where the two different states begin to overlap, representing women adapting and finding a way to make things work for their own benefit despite this process not being a simple one.
Lastly, I took inspiration from American film graduate Maddie Dragsbeak. In 2020, Maddie released her first short experimental film called ‘Aphrodisia’ (Aphrodisia, 2020), which explores the double standards surrounding the different ways men and women are viewed and treated when it comes to the topic of casual sex. I used this as inspiration for my films as I enjoyed the way in which the two conflicting binary representations were shown throughout the film.
‘Aphrodisia’ Link: https://vimeo.com/339258144
Bibliography
Aphrodisia. 2020. [Film] Directed by Maddie Dragsbaek. USA: Vimeo.
Criado-Perez, C., 2019. Invisible Women. 1st ed. New York: Vintage Publishing .
McRobbie, A., 2008. Post‐feminism and popular culture. 1st ed. NA: NA.