Week 1 : Day 2 : Gestating

Currently in the process of doing research for the documentary. Dug up 10 year old books from a women’s studies class taken during freshman year. Went through tomes such as “Feminism in Our Time” (ed. Miriam Schneir), “Women: a Feminist Perspective” (ed. Jo Freeman), “Women: Images and Realities” as well as Betty Friedan’s classic “The Feminine Mystique.” 

Compiled a list of must read books - that I must fetch from the American Library as soon as I return to Paris. Amongst them are Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” as well as Susan Faludi’s “Backlash” and Jean Kilbourne’s “Deadly Persuasion: Why Women And Girls Must Fight The Addictive Power Of Advertising.”

Feel like I’m in school again. There are pink, blue, and green highlighters, as well as pencils, a ruler, and an eraser scattered around my desk – a nice change from, say, spending the whole day staring at a monitor, editing and color-correcting. I even managed to dig up papers and articles from graduate school on cinema & psychoanalysis about the male gaze and the issue of the Oedipal myth in Hollywood films. Although I’m becoming persuaded that they may be a bit too brainy, “intello” for the subject at hand.

The most useful article found so far has been “Beauty is the Beast: Psychological Effects of the Pursuit of the Perfect Female Body” by E. Saltzberg and J. Chrisler, found in “Women: A Feminist Perspective.” 

Some interesting quotes:

Women often believe that if only they had the perfect looks, their lives could be perfectly happy; they blame their unhappiness on their bodies.

And:

If too many women are able to meet the beauty standards of a particular time and place, then those standards must change in order to maintain their extraordinary nature. The value of beauty standards depends on their being special and unusual and is one of the reasons why the ideal changes over time. When images of beauty change, female bodies are expected to change, too. 

The article goes over the history of women altering their bodies, from foot binding in China, to the use of corsets in Europe in the XVI century, to our days and the now normal practice of plastic surgery. Amazing article, overall. 

At any rate, because the subject of male chauvinism / female oppression in the media is quite a bit depressing (if you spend your whole day reading about it), I am keeping another book close at hand, which I read during breaks: Peter Biskind’s “Down and Dirty Pictures, Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film.” Makes you glad about the fact you’re not working in the (Hollywood) system – where everyone is seemingly abused and oppressed.