what is a stereotype?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
you could say that a stereotype is a broad gesture,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a thick line-drawing done with a felt-tip pen,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
instead of soft pencil strokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a stereotype is a flat depiction<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of a person<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or a group of people,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
instead of a layered, nuanced portrait of a human being,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that contains, as they say, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
multitudes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
if a stereotype is a crude drawing,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
who<\/em> is holding the felt-tip pen? <\/p>\n\n\n\n who<\/em> is drawing the lines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n stereotyping is about enlarging certain characteristics,<\/p>\n\n\n\n while ignoring others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n a stereotype is about minimizing, keeping only one<\/em> characteristic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n but who decides which characteristic is being enlarged,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and which are being minimized?<\/p>\n\n\n\n think stereotypes, and you think of<\/p>\n\n\n\n damsels in distress,<\/p>\n\n\n\n gold diggers and cougars,<\/p>\n\n\n\n dumb blondes and ice queens,<\/p>\n\n\n\n sluts and bitches, <\/p>\n\n\n\n devoted wives and failing mothers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n a princess, a mean girl, a woman scorned,<\/p>\n\n\n\n a femme fatale, a crazy woman, a witch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n in other words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n think stereotypes, and you think of women<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n because for some reason, most stereotypes are specifically female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n think female<\/em> stereotypes, and you think of negative<\/em> stereotypes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n because most of them are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n these stereotypes portray women as hypersexual,<\/p>\n\n\n\n overly ambitious,<\/p>\n\n\n\n cold-hearted,<\/p>\n\n\n\n greedy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n vain,<\/p>\n\n\n\n manipulative,<\/p>\n\n\n\n crazy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n think of female stereotypes, <\/p>\n\n\n\n and notice that all of them are related to a man<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n think about it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n who<\/em> thinks the femme fatale is dangerous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n the man who is afraid of being seduced by her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n who<\/em> looks at a woman and sees only sex?<\/p>\n\n\n\n the man who wants to sleep with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n who<\/em> is scared of the woman scorned?<\/p>\n\n\n\n the man who scorned her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n who<\/em> is bothered by the childless cat lady? <\/p>\n\n\n\n the man who fears her independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n you don\u2019t even have to be a heterosexual man<\/p>\n\n\n\n to reduce a woman to her sexuality,<\/p>\n\n\n\n her mental health issues,<\/p>\n\n\n\n marital status,<\/p>\n\n\n\n or work ethic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n we have become used to looking at women <\/p>\n\n\n\n through the eyes of a heterosexual man,<\/p>\n\n\n\n a male gaze.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n we have become used to identifying with men instead of women,<\/p>\n\n\n\n in books, movies and art<\/p>\n\n\n\n that have been made by men,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and defined by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n history is shaped by men,<\/p>\n\n\n\n the images that surround us are rooted in their perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n is it even possible to change that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n or to go against it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n what to do with female stereotypes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n we can ignore them<\/p>\n\n\n\n by portraying women more realistically,<\/p>\n\n\n\n flaws and all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n as human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n we can create new stereotypes<\/p>\n\n\n\n that negate the ones that already exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n but we can also own<\/em> some of the existing stereotypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n we wouldn\u2019t reject them, but embrace them,<\/p>\n\n\n\n exaggerate them,<\/p>\n\n\n\n amplify them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n make them bigger, better, <\/p>\n\n\n\n raunchy, delicious, irresistible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n you want a crazy bitch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n well, here she is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n you want a dumb blonde? <\/p>\n\n\n\n a cougar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n a femme fatale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n you think women are dangerous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n well, you\u2019re right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n manipulative?<\/p>\n\n\n\n sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n here\u2019s a dainty princess \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n do you like her now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n here\u2019s a succubus from hell \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n what do you think of her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n the trick to owning a stereotype,<\/p>\n\n\n\n is to find pleasure in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n so how do you tell the difference<\/p>\n\n\n\n between a stereotype that is full of disapproval,<\/p>\n\n\n\n suspicion,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and hate,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and a stereotype that\u2019s fun,<\/p>\n\n\n\n pleasurable,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and maybe a little subversive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n well, you can ask yourself a simple question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n when you watch a character that is,<\/p>\n\n\n\n technically, a stereotype,<\/p>\n\n\n\n ask yourself this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n do I enjoy watching her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n it really is as simple as that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An essay in verse by film journalist and curator Basje Boer \u2014 a meditation on what a stereotype actually is, who draws the lines, and what the difference is between a broad gesture and a nuanced portrait. This piece accompanies the Girls of Plenty programme at LAB111 and asks the question that precedes all the others: before we can talk about the representation of women in cinema, we have to ask what we actually mean when we call something a stereotype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"page\/page-gutenberg.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cold-open"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1862,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions\/1862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebratingcinema.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}