Date of Award

12-1-2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Dr. Michael Sherer

Abstract

Feminists in the mid-1970s initiated attention to a longtime complaint shared by many women: the manner in which females are portrayed in films. America boasts a patriarchal society containing an ideological foundation that operates contrary to many female interests. A feminist examination of film exposes how scripts place female characters in narratives and textual interactions that involves a collaboration between the filmmakers and the film spectaters, constituting a patriarchal definition of femininity. Because they believe such a definition promotes unfavorable stereotyping, feminists seek to challenge such a collaboration, introducing instead female characters who exemplify a feminist voice, representing a more realistic version of women. Feminist film theory evolved from several areas connected to mass communication research, not the least of which is critical theory, an approach that involves notions of alternative and even improved model of society and media systems.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Communication and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright 2002 Steven Craig Eskew.

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