There was a sentence in my histories of cinema reading this week that I found really interesting and relatable to this class. The context of this quote comes from the first chapter of Kuhns novel, Women’s pictures: feminism and cinema. Annette Kuhn asserts that “it seems important to emphasise that the text is but a single element in a series of social relations of cultural production, all of which need to be taken into account in any work on presentation”. This statement reinforces the nature of a text and how its meaning extends beyond the control of its initial intention. Once published in a public sphere it is open to a wide range of different interpretations. When and where a text is shown becomes more important than the actual content of the work given the impact spectators have on placing meaning on different texts. What was interesting about this discussion is the way that Kuhn connects femininity to the disruption of institutionalised cinematic conventions and social values. By disrupting cinemas ingrained beliefs and work processes there is a feminine quality that arises by undoing the masculine tendencies that the film industry give privilege too. In our media works, we are effectively undoing the conventions of cinematic narrative in favour of an alternative process, therefore prescribing to a set of feminine ideals that go against systems that have become inherently masculine.

I have never thought of femininities potential of undoing the established cinematic systems we have grown accustomed too. However, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense that in order to think of alternative ways of making films, we must look at the opposite, misunderstood link that lies beneath a mainstem value. I thought perhaps this idea of feminity could be introduced into aspects of our work. By including a direction in our work that relates to a broader set of feminine relations, this could lead to an interesting outcome that comments on the current shift we are experiencing in cinema.

I would like to explore this area further in another blog post that goes into more detail, however, for now, this is just “food for thought”, something I will be mulling over for the next few days!