Browse Hierarchy FILM7009: Gender Performance in Film

Hollywood film established a set of gender stereotypes that would become widely influential in twentieth century popular culture. This module analyses the ways in which gender images were created, through plot conventions, genre, performance style and star image. Such images explicitly reinforced conservative images of gender (the mother, the earnest breadwinner, the 'loose' girl, etc). On the other hand, attention will be paid to the cracks in the system that challenged such conservatism and allowed for more transgressive forms of identification (for instance, the 'bad' girl in 'film noir').