| dc.description.abstract | Feminism is highly dominated by white women and white women’s issues. Also in cinema, blackness has always been problematic. My thesis combines these two problems by examining a black female character compared to a white female character in The Hunger Games, based on Laura Mulvey’s feminist film theory. Since media products are shapers of cultural identities and concepts, it is relevant to study them in relation to the black feminist critiques and feminist film theory. I want to find out what the implications of feminist film theory mean for the representation of both white and black women, whether they experience the same benefits from it or not.
For my research I used a feminist film analysis applying a critical race theory lens. I started my thesis by researching relevant literature, which I summarized in my theoretical framework. The framework brings forward the representation and power of media, black women’s representation in media, black feminist critiques on white feminism and feminist film theory. The central concepts derived from Laura Mulvey, Anneke Smelik, Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Kimderlé Crenshaw and bell hooks. With this basis, I started my analysis of Katniss (the white female protagonist) and Rue (the black female sidekick), on the grounds of camera movements (especially POV shots), narrative and characteristics, based on the handbook of Bordwell and Thompson and Yale Film Studies webpage.
The analysis of Rue and Katniss shows the differences in characters: Katniss is active, powerful, strong, complex, a female warrior and fundamental to the story, while Rue is less developed, relatively weak (and often unable to rescue herself) and only important for the effect she has on Katniss. Rue does not represent the imagery of a female warrior. Katniss is fought free of any gaze, while Rue is still subjected to the white female gaze. Even though The Hunger Games seems to have incorporated feminist film theory on Katniss to a high extend, these differences in characters resembles feminist film critiques very much. If, in the problems described by feminist film critics, ‘male’ would be replaced by ‘white female’ and ‘female’ would be replaced by ‘black female’, they are still accurate for The Hunger Games. Instead of a male dominance over women, we now see a white female dominance over black women.
This conclusion leads me to think that film can work very well with feminist critiques while at the same time be excluding to black women. If this can go hand-in-hand, it would mean that black women are still not a fundamental part of feminist thought, and that the feminist film theories are not fit to tackle black women’s issues. More research has to be done to support this claim. | |
