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Viewing Women (P3047)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

This module looks at how women are represented in film and how female audiences engage with those representations.

You’ll study:

• early feminist ideas about women in film, such as Laura Mulvey’s concept of women being shown as objects of the male gaze, shaped to fit male desires
• how female viewers relate to specific film genres like melodrama, “women’s films,” and horror, creating their own meanings and pleasures despite being positioned by the films in certain ways
• more recent trends, like how mainstream films reflect postfeminist ideas and how films made by women respond to these cultural changes.

The module will trace these shifts and debates, exploring the relationships between films, their cultural contexts, and their female audiences. You’ll dive into feminist film research to better understand how films portray and position women.

You’ll also analyse a range of films featuring women on-screen and behind the camera. The module emphasizes diverse perspectives, promoting intersectional and global feminist views that challenge the Western and white-dominated focus of earlier feminist approaches.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 66 hours of contact time and about 234 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.