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donnawomanfemme
Roma, Editrice coop. UTOPIA, 1986-
Looks and images, 1989, n. 8
EDITORIAL, Looks and images, pp. 5-10
MELLENKAMP Patricia
Troubling feminism. Cecilia Condit's exquisite corpses,
pp. 11-29
STACEY Jackie
Desperately seeking difference. Considerations on desire
betxeen women in narrative cinema, pp. 30-45
KENT Sarah
Men's bodies. 1. Returning the look. 2. Male erotic nude,
pp. 46-86
CURTI Lidia
Gender and genres on TV, pp. 87-100
FLAX Jane
Postmodernist thought and gender relationships in feminist
theory, pp. 101-119
EDITORIAL, Looks and images, pp. 5-10
A comparison with feminism in other countries opens with the presentation of this issue's corpus, in order to outline how and to what extent difference, and particularly which difference, emerges from the analysis of the essays published - sexual difference as a productive force, but also as meaning and product.
All essays investigate modalities of representation where women are object, subject, recipient (therefore simultaneously subject and object). This means they all investigate a crucial area in the construction/ perception of self and the world. The essays are placed in the context of a critical discourse, with specific reference to the relationship between feminist thought and philosophical postmodernist thought.
MELLENKAMP Patricia, Troubling feminism. Cecilia Condit's exquisite corpses,
pp. 11-29
Beneath the skin (1981) and Possibly in Michigan (1983) are two videofilms by Cecilia Condit, telling wonderful stories from the princess's point of view, at times unconsciously combining Freud and Sexton.
Through the analysis of these videofilms the author deals with the debate on postmodernism from a feminist perspective, especially those issues centered on the notion of "other". Feminism's strange situation is delineated as one of displayed marginality and unspoken centrality. In postmodernist discourse the "enchantress" is no longer the woman, as she was in modern thought, but rather feminism, in its quality of sole surviving and productive political and theoretical game.
STACEY Jackie, Desperately seeking difference. Considerations on desire betxeen
women in narrative cinema, pp. 30-45
Point of departure are Laura Mulvey's essays on the pleasure derived from viewing in a voyeuristic and fetishistic way, and the easier attitude of female public towards cinematographic production. The author's aim is to demonstrate the impossibility for women to distinguish between "desire" and "identification", a typical distinction of psychoanalytical theory on films. Two films are here analysed: All about Eve and Desperately seeking Susan.
KENT Sarah, Men's bodies. 1. Returning the look. 2. Male erotic nude,
pp. 46-86
The article is composed of two sections. The first is entitled "Returning the look" and the second "Male erotic nude". Men look at women; women see themselves through the act of being looked at.
This convention is at the core of women's images and of the relationship established between image and public. When this convention is questioned, as with the 1980 London exhibition "Women's images of men", scandal is immediately called. What is upsetting is not the exhibition of male sex, even though this too has its importance, but, rather, the sex of the person who looks on. In this situation, in fact, female sexuality has indeed its place as an active force, and not in response to male desire.
The analysis is centered on the "model"
man's behaviour as he is put in a pin-up's position: his non-passive attitude,
the difficulty of representing man's nudity, given that clothing - as an expression
of social status - is more important to a man than to a woman, etc. The entire
analysis is carried out on parallel with what the author calls art's "homo-eroticism",
and at the same time takes into consideration the lack of historical and theoretical
landmarks for female artists.
CURTI Lidia, Gender and genres on TV, pp. 87-100
The relationship between literary genre and sexual identity in television transposition is here analysed. Stereotypical male and (even more) female representation still resists, though some exceptions start to appear, as in Great Britain in the sixties, and more recently in Italy.
A new perception of women is also reflected in the iconography of television series, privileged research field in the present essay. On the whole the conclusions are positive, as the relationship between literary form on the one side and masculinity and femininity on the other redefines stereotypes which are no longer representative of contemporary popular culture from which television series stem.
FLAX Jane, Postmodernist thought and gender relationships in feminist theory,
pp. 101-119
The author's outset is the hypothesis that (1) feminist theory is to a certain extent part of the postmodernist philosophy current - challenging Western foundations of self-representation - and that (2) the analysis of gender relationships allows two ranges of reflection: a new definition of the concept of "gender", and the questioning of marxist, psychoanalytical and others' theorizing on what "relationship" means.
From a methodological point of view it's important
to underline that history, science, reason and progress can't save us from partiality
and differences; on the contrary ambivalence, ambiguity and multiplicity could
be the bases of an order and a structure meeting our needs, thus grounding our
relationships.