Feminisms The Key Debates Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies Series Editors Ian Christie, Dominique Chateau, Annie van den Oever Feminisms Diversity, Difference, and Multiplicity in Contemporary Film Cultures Edited by Laura Mulvey and Anna Backman Rogers Amsterdam University Press The publication of this book is made possible by grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Cover design: Neon, design and communications | Sabine Mannel Lay-out: japes, Amsterdam Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 676 7 e-isbn 978 90 4852 363 4 doi 10.5117/9789089646767 nur 670 © L. Mulvey, A. Backman Rogers / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2015 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Contents Editorial 9 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction: 1970s Feminist Film Theory and the Obsolescent Object 17 Laura Mulvey PART I New Perspectives: Images and the Female Body Disconnected Heroines, Icy Intelligence: Reframing Feminism(s) and Feminist Identities at the Borders Involving the Isolated Female TV Detective in Scandinavian-Noir 29 Janet McCabe Lena Dunham’s Girls: Can-Do Girls, Feminist Killjoys, and Women Who Make Bad Choices 44 Anna Backman Rogers Destroy Visual Pleasure: Cinema, Attention, and the Digital Female Body (Or, Angelina Jolie Is a Cyborg) 54 William Brown The Intertextual Stardom of Iris: Winslet, Dench, Murdoch, and Alzheimer’s Disease 65 Lucy Bolton PART II Theory in Contemporary Contexts Imagining Safe Space in Feminist Pornography 79 Ingrid Ryberg Uncommon Sensuality: New Queer Feminist Film/Theory 86 Sophie Mayer 5 The Promise of Touch: Turns to Affect in Feminist Film Theory 97 Anu Koivunen Sound and Feminist Modernity in Black Women’s Film Narratives 111 Geetha Ramanathan PART III History and Practice The “New” Experimentalism? Women In/And/On Film 125 Jenny Chamarette Conditions of Activism: Feminist Film Activism and the Legacy of the Second Wave 141 Leshu Torchin US Independent Women’s Cinema, Sundance Girls, and Identity Politics 149 Veronica Pravadelli PART IV Contextualizing History: New Frontiers in Feminist Journals Suddenly, One Summer: Frauen und Film since 1974 161 Annette Brauerhoch (Re)Inventing Camera Obscura 169 Amelie Hastie, Lynne Joyrich, Patricia White, Sharon Willis PART V Discussions: Dialoguing Difference and Extremity in Contemporary Cinemas Film, Corporeality, Transgressive Cinema: A Feminist Perspective 187 Martine Beugnet and Laura Mulvey Disconnection Notices: Interview with Miranda July 203 Miranda July and Anna Backman Rogers 6 contents Notes 209 General Bibliography 239 Notes on Contributors 259 Index of Names 265 Index of Film Titles 273 contents 7 Editorial The original aim of the Key Debates series was to revisit the concepts and indeed controversies that have shaped the field of film studies. Our intention was two- fold: to clarify what was initially at stake in the founding texts and also to clarify lines of transmission and re-interpretation in what remains a hybrid field of study, which has “appropriated” and thus modified much of what it uses. The four volumes published to date take different approaches to this central mission, reviewing how early film theory adopted and developed literary theories of “strangeness” (ostrannennie); shifting concepts of subjectivity engendered by film; the variety of ways that film’s audiences have been conceived; and the per- sistence of debate around film as a technology. From the outset, we were conscious of another debate that played a vital part in shaping both modern feminist scholarship and film theory, which owed much to Laura Mulvey’s seminal essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” pub- lished in Screen 16/3 in 1975. It therefore seems highly appropriate that this sec- ond phase of the Key Debates series should start with a volume that takes stock of how nearly half a century of debate has surrounded and continues to link con- cepts of feminism and film theory. We are even more delighted that this is co- edited by Laura Mulvey, as one of the group who originally conceived the series, in dialogue with Anna Backman Rogers. When we launched this book series in 2010, after a phase of preparation which began in 2006, we felt that as scholarship in the history of film theory developed, there was a need to revisit many long-standing assumptions and particularly so in light of the changes in media devices and viewing practices. Further volumes are now in preparation, as we recognize that pervasive digital media have not made film, or the concepts and debates that it gives rise to, redundant. On the contrary, there seems more need than ever to clarify and refocus fundamental issues such as screen experience and narrativity in the light of our contemporary media environment. London / Paris / Amsterdam / Groningen Ian Christie, Dominique Chateau, Annie van den Oever 9 Preface We are living in exciting but highly challenging and troubling times. 2014 was the year in which Time magazine included the word “feminism” in a poll of irri- tating words readers might like to have banned; artist Allen Jones was given a major retrospective at the Royal Academy; Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott dismissed a campaign against gendered children’s toys as egregious “political correctness”;1 Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian had their lives threatened and were forced out of their homes during the Gamergate scandal; students at Columbia University carried a mattress around campus in a show of support for victims of rape and sexual violence who were being dismissed and ignored; David Fincher’s Gone Girl was released to critical acclaim and feminist opprobrium over its use of rape as a mere narrative trope; comparatively scant attention was given by the media to sexual crimes perpetrated against women in areas of the Middle East and Iraq controlled by ISIS; the Hollaback video went viral but was met with backlash; actresses Shailene Woodley and Salma Hayek publicly re- jected the word feminist and the “Women Against Feminism” group was formed; the apologist hashtag “#NOTALLMEN” was created in response to the mass kill- ing spree of 22 year-old Elliot Rodger (a follower of the Men’s Rights movement) in Isla Vista, California; and Beyoncé took to the stage for a seventeen-minute set at the MTV Video Music Awards, which she performed in front of the word Feminist (causing bell hooks to denounce her as “an anti-feminist, that is, a terrorist” and Roxane Gay to defend her as “incredibly empowered. She is sexual, yes – but on her own terms”).2 And yet it was also the year in which Malala Yousafzai received the Nobel Peace Prize; Norway put in place legislation to ensure that fifty percent of every execu- tive board is female – and Germany, Iceland, Finland, Spain, France, and the Netherlands decided to follow suit; a report backed by UN Women on gender in international cinema was published; the Swedish Feminist Initiative party gained more traction; Rebecca Solnit, who coined the term “mansplaining,” published her book Men Explain Things to Me;3 members of the band Pussy Riot were filmed in conversation with feminist scholars Rosi Braidotti and Judith Butler; physicist Fabiola Gianotti was appointed the Director General of the CERN particle phy- sics laboratory; the pro-choice film about abortion Obvious Child was named independent film of the year and awarded best directorial debut by the National Board of Review; the launch of UN Women’s HeForShe campaign gained public attention due to a rousing speech given by the twenty-four-year-old actress 10 Emma Watson; film director Jane Campion was head of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival; the African Women in Cinema blog was created as a symbol of unity between African female filmmakers; actor Samantha Morton declared soli- darity with survivors of abuse across the UK in the wake of Operation Yewtree and the revelation of long-standing sexual abuse crimes by prominent public figures; and the end of 2014 also saw the publication of Jacqueline Rose’s Women in Dark Times,4 which calls for a radical and newly engaged form of feminism. When we started planning the contents of this book, we decided to produce a collection of essays that spoke to the manifold ways in which feminism is made manifest as both theory and practice in the field of film. In reflecting on progress or (the lack thereof) since the second wave of feminism, on current issues, and on what the future may hold, we realized that we would have to draw upon a diverse range of scholars for whom the term feminism might have different meanings. This book speaks to that difference and plurality of perspective and rejects a reductive form or definition of feminism. To reflect this, we have com- missioned essays that address historical debate as well as contemporary trends, that draw upon new and emerging theoretical models and, in some cases, exam- ine controversial debates such as pornography. Our aim, therefore, is not to limit the scope of feminism but to illuminate the number of fruitful ways in which, as both film theory and praxis, it has informed the recent past and continues to be a vital framework for viewing contemporary media phenomena. In choosing the title Feminisms, our aim is to acknowledge the sheer scope of feminism as a phi- losophy and as a form of activism that works in multiple and complex ways with- in modes of representation and expression.