Exploration of the Historical and Social Significance of One of the First Cinematographic Devices Based on Gender Roles in the Andalusian Environment

Abstract

In 1914, El Noticiero Sevillano and other Spanish newspapers published a piece about the Cinémhymen, a cinematographic device designed to capture and sell images of prospective wives. This article explores why this advertisement was not considered derogatory and examines the construction of a patriarchy during a time when the term “feminist” was already appearing in the Spanish press. In our methodology, we analyzed the name of the device and the business, both based on the word Hymen, used a bibliographic review of Spanish feminism of those years, and researched the film technology of the time. The Manzano’s pyramid of oppression served us in establishing the control operations underlying the advertisement. Our study reveals the patriarchal principles of Cinémhymen, which stigmatized women once they conformed to the expected role. The objectifying gaze present in Cinémhymen provides insight into the progression of patriarchy in a visual world that subjugates women. The camera could see through the female masquerade (as Joan Rivière explained) and explore the “true” body underneath, the very core of the female (or what is considered to be). In some ways, Cinémhymen serves as a precursor to the current subjugation seen in online pornography and represents a distorted evolution of the panopticon principle as applied to women.