Gender and Identity

Week 6

(Anti) Review of Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey

Given the situation in recent days with Sarah Everard and the general conversation surrounding the treatment of women in society, and being part of the 97% women that have been affected by this issue, I understandably am not entirely in the mood to read a chapter about how women are sexualised in media. This is me saying this after reading the first three paragraphs - I will continue to read it and give an opinion but I couldn't do that authentically without expressing my displeasure for it. This being said, I have decided to write my essay on the gender and identity question as I feel strongly about how the typical gender roles are depicted in media, and particularly children's media as I feel there's so much there to be changed and explored while educating the new generations. 
I don't want to be misunderstood and I can entirely understand the purpose of this reading we have been given, I don't want to come across as though I'm being angry or irrational just because I don't want to read something. I know full well everyone else will have just sat and read it and written a review as we were instructed to do - which is fine too. I fully understand the significance of the piece and I know why it was written but I'm living this life to be authentically me and nothing else - and when the routine sexualisation of women has gotten in the way of that at times - I refuse to let it happen again. I hope you see my point in reading this and I know it isn't the task we were set but hey, we're artists. We have to do our own thing sometimes.