Hello!!!

I am currently in the research process for my dissertation that i am to begin writing in the next few months. I am trying to discover what my focus is going to be for the dissertation. I am hoping that any of you could help me to progress by just answering one or two questions. I would greatly appreciate any help.

1. is the lack of female film directors in the mainstream film industry related to merit or the glass ceiling effect (seeing the directing positions but not actually able to reach them. Gender is often seen as a problem here)?

2. theorists such as laura mulvey often claim that women are over objectified within mainstream cinema. To what extent do you think this is true? Is there a chance that the male gender face objectification issues too?

Any feedback at all will be greatly beneficial to me, thanks

Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Joleeene, Joooolene
Im begging of you please dont take my man.
Jolene, Jolene, Joleeene, Joooolene
Please dont take him just because you can.

You need to begin defining your terms and also explain what type of information you are looking for. Is this more of a focus group format. Do you need statistical evidence. Specific opinions based on actual experience or just personal beliefs?

Wow. It's an impressive project you are pursuing. Many moons ago -- for a Feminism class I took -- I did a class research project on the roles of women in film; specifically, I took a gander at all of the films released in 1982-1983 and did a cross section of the 'professional' roles they played as defined by the characters' employment (i.e. teachers, homemakers, hostesses, etc). I couldn't dig that up if my life depended on it (again, that's more a testament to my age), but it was pretty startling, especially when I did a comparison to the roles of males.

1. Personally, I don't buy the lack of female film directors contributing to anything other than a lack of exploration of what it means to be truly female. If a female talent came out of nowhere and produced a massive media hit (think MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING), then she'd get relative cart blanche as well as any male.

2. I don't believe the hogwash that women are overly objectified. I think ALL stars are objectified. If you were to say, however, that creative folks tend to give greater focus to women in certain aspects of the story, then I'd find little to argue with. I'm thinking here of the kitchen scene from THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE when Jack Nicholson said (I forget where I read it) that they filmed the seduction scene and subsequent 'sex' from both the male and female perspective and ultimately went with the focus on the female (Jessica Lange, not a bad choice!) that supports the notion.