In her essay “Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity,” Griselda Pollack uses Robert Doisneau’s photograph Sidelong Glance to support her argument that women are denied a visual representation of their desire, as well as to present the theory that women who actively look at what they desire, instead of reaffirming a masculine gaze, are denied being an object of desire.
I use Pollack’s analysis of Sidelong Glance to analyze how the directors of The Love Witch (2016) dir. Anna Biller and The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) dir. Amy Holden Jones interrupt the male gaze in their films by having female characters vocally express their desires while in situations visually associated with male desire.
About the presenterVincent Bec
Vincent Bec is a writer, and scholar, focused on how gender and sexuality is presented in horror films.