Cinema's pleasures for men

I wasn't sure how to take this article, but I was able to learn a lot from it. Within the first part of the reading, it states "The public come to demand certain stars and desire certain genres. Producers try to satisfy their public and develop marketing strategies to this end" (p.11). I found this to be an interesting way to start off the reading because of the word "the public." With the reading being on women and film, and the concept of fetishism and semiology, I would have thought the sentence would have used "men" instead of "public."

One part of the reading I found interesting was in section 9: The Gaze. The idea of scopophilia really made me think about movies I have seen recently and how the audience reacted. In the section it notes, "the fact that the spectator is watching moving images rather than either static ones or live actors, all help to make the cinematic experience closer to the dream state" (p.14). The connection between the cinema, scopophilia, and being able to get closer to the dream state fascinates me, but doesn't surprise me in the least. These things could be connected to fetishism by allowing the individual to experience the dream state as well. When you see a female on the screen who is very attractive and is depicted in seductive clothing, many individuals (especially men) will start to enter the dream state and imagine what this woman could be doing.

Going along with what I just said, the idea of their being different levels of signs or connotations fits in perfectly to make the experience of the cinema preferable for men. A woman might be portrayed as her self, but she would be put onto the next level of connotation (myth) (p.18). "She is presented as what she represents for man, not in terms of what she actually signifies" (p.18). I understand in a lot of ways we still live in a partriarchal society, and this is most likely why this occurs, but besides trying to satisfy the public, I believe the producers are tryng to give individuals (well, really men) the opportunity to get away from reality, and dream the dreams they want to make reality be.