ENG2300

In the reading for this week, Jane Gaines’s essay White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory disputes different feminist theories, which she makes a point to state how some do not fully recognize the discrimination against women of color. Her reading also touches on women in film are made subject to the male gaze and how they play a bigger role in more than just “eye candy”. She states, “…women’s sexuality evokes an unconscious terror in men, then black women’s sexuality represents a special threat to white patriarchy; the possibility of its eruption stands for the aspirations of the black race as a whole” (p. 303) In the film Strange Days (1995), the audience gets to see and appreciate a powerful women of color. There were countless times when Mace came to Lenny’s rescue but one that stands out the most is when Philo sent him to the basement of his home and Lenny starts getting beat by three of his people. Mace comes in and single handedly fights off the three attackers and saves Lenny. Not at a single point was her character made to be sexualized by the male gaze. She just exuded raw strength and power. She exuded the “heteronormative” character we usually see played by men. She kept saving Lenny’s life, she had her emotions on lock, and she was the rational thinker. Mace embodied the idea Gaines had for a black women’s sexuality representing a special threat to white patriarchy.

In Jane Gaines’ “White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory”, she argues that women’s sexuality is focused in the experiences and form of the white woman and almost always in the context of man versus female in film. The view of spectators outside of the white heterosexual male gaze is overlooked and not considered. The subject/object conflict between white men and women in film also leaves out large portions of society. Women of other genders and sexualities like lesbians and individuals of other races, in specific black males and females are not considered for their viewing pleasures and relatability to the screen. This idea can be seen in Katheryn Bigelow’s film Strange Days (1995) which reinforces the white heterosexual gaze, even though it was directed by a woman. Though this film does include a strong black female lead, the only sexualized figures in the film were white women and they were present throughout the film.  This film also highlighted the subject/ object relationship between Faith and Philo which can be seen in the scene where Lenny approaches Faith and Philo in the club. Philo makes it a point to say that he ‘took’ Faith from Lenny which reinforces the idea that she is an object to be taken. This subject/ object relationship between the males and females is not a gaze that can be related to by groups like lesbians, but plague almost every movie.