“Please the women or die”: silent cinema and the construction of female desire

IF 0.1 4区 社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Laraine Porter
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT By the mid-1920s, the top echelons of the film industry on both sides of the Atlantic were almost entirely dominated by men. Despite women becoming the majority consumers for cinema culture, male studio bosses, producers, directors and publicists mediated women’s tastes and expectations through the silent and early sound period. Taking Iris Barry’s claim that cinema ‘exists for the purpose of pleasing women’ (Barry 1926, 59), this article considers how women became increasingly significant, not only as audiences for films but to the burgeoning consumer cultures surrounding cinema including magazines, novels, fashion, beauty and leisure. Additionally, Lisa Stead’s assertion that ‘The movies, and going to the movies, were for many British women an integral part of their experience of modernity’ (2016, 1) is examined in relation to how women’s tastes and patterns of consumption, helped steer the expansion of the cinema industry and its associated fan cultures. This article also addresses how young female cinemagoers and entertainment seekers were dismissed as ‘flappers’ and often excoriated by Britain’s intellectual elite. It examines how cinema’s stubbornly persistent male power base was forced to accommodate and address women’s cultural tastes due to their numerical significance as consumers.
“不讨好女人就去死”:无声电影与女性欲望的建构
到20世纪20年代中期,大西洋两岸的电影业高层几乎完全由男性主导。尽管女性成为电影文化的主要消费者,但男性工作室老板、制片人、导演和公关人员通过无声和早期的声音来调节女性的品味和期望。艾瑞斯·巴里(Iris Barry)声称电影“是为了取悦女性而存在的”(巴里1926,59),本文考虑了女性如何变得越来越重要,不仅是作为电影的观众,而且是围绕电影的新兴消费文化,包括杂志、小说、时尚、美容和休闲。此外,丽莎·斯特德(Lisa Stead)的断言“电影和去电影院看电影,对许多英国女性来说是她们现代性体验的一个组成部分”(2016年,1),与女性的品味和消费模式如何帮助引导电影业及其相关粉丝文化的扩张有关。这篇文章还讲述了年轻的女性电影观众和寻求娱乐的人是如何被视为“花心女郎”而被英国的知识精英们唾弃的。它考察了电影中顽固的男性权力基础是如何由于女性作为消费者的数字重要性而被迫适应和解决女性的文化品味的。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Early Popular Visual Culture
Early Popular Visual Culture HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
0.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
50
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