The Gaze part 1 - Feminism

"My idea of feminism is self-determination and very open-ended: every women has right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do."

Quoted by: Ani Difranco (American singer, song writer)

I personally think that feminism is a social movement that finds equal rights for women. Feminism is also a word that takes power away from women, not letting them speak for themselves and not even allowing them have there own voice. Instead of thinking of them (women) as a normal human beings, us male tend to discriminant them and separate them from us only because of our different agenda. Us males also tend to Objectify women as only objects which I think is clearly wrong. I remember this one time when I was watching Deal or No Deal when it use to be played on air, where The female models in Deal or No Deal, whose function in the show is to look pretty and to remain still until the moment the host allows them to "open the case". But how can women be objectified, some people argue, if they voluntarily portray themselves in sexualized ways? The women in Deal or No Deal aren't being forced to anything. I think through out history the female figure is used a lot. And In the 1950-70s the movement of Feminist carried on and had a a big part of the values of woman in Art.

In my country, Samoa is ruled by high chiefs in each village which are called Matai's of the Nu'u. Matai's (Chiefs) have all the power and the authority to over rule anybody and anyone. I can sort of relate feminism back to my homeland Samoa, where is in my culture; Samoan women have no right to speak over there husbands or even a man high status or matai's etc. Samoan females can only speak for themselves unless there are the daughter of a high chief of a village which is called Taupou. The Taupou female is highly respect amongst the Matai's from other villages because shes the daughter of high chiefs. She also wears a traditional distinctive royal headdress (Tuiga) and holds a knife, where she also part takes in leading the Samoan group.

Tutorial "Vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

March 23, 2010. If I can remember in class we watch a scene in Alfred Hitcock's film "Vertigo", where it takes us straight in his movie about a retired police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson , who is hired by this man (Gavin Elster) as a private investigator to follow his wife (Madeleine Elster) and uncover why shes been acting so strange. While watching that small segment in Hitcock's film we watched as the character John follows Madeleine to many different places around San Francisco, shes goes to visit a flower store, a grave yard then a museum where she stairs at a portrait of her dead great-grandmother. I think Feminism plays a big part in this movie because throughout the whole scene I watched the character Madeleine walk about without even saying a word, as detective John 'Scottie' follows her around. Hitcock: A male director, he clearly takes away the power of speech away from Madeleine's character in that scene I watched. That scene reminded me about the 'Deal or No Deal' models, and how they just stand there to look pretty and remain absolutely still, and which Madeleine's character did that exact same thing.

Narrative, Archetype, Mythology, Science Fiction: oringal Star Wars movie

Star Wars, a film for nerds like myself, i grew up watching this old classic film and i still loved it. I still buzz out on the whole special effect thingy that they used back in 1977 like wow that's still buzzing. Sadly i didn't get to watch this in class with the rest of my other peers due to sickness but lucky im a big fan of the Star Wars troilogy, i have a dvd collection of the Oringal trilogy. My favourite character in the oringal Star Wars troilogy has to be Luke Skywalker, because he's really cool and because his a hero figure and simply because he's just the main man to watch in the movie. In 2008, Empire Magazine selected Luke Skywalker as one of the top 100 Greatest Movie Characteristics of All Time, which is pretty damn awesome if i may add. In the movie Luke fulfills a number of the characteristics that you see, he plays as a young man and that has special powers and abilities that are brought out by a series of teachers. (Jedi Marsters) Ultimately, he was a determined character in all his trainings, he had to know and feel the force iwth emotion inorder to become a Jedi. In every movie there's always a good guy and bad guy, for me i always go for the good guys who always save the world and all, which i think is pretty awesome. In Star Wars Luke Skywalker is protrayed as the 'good guy' in this movie and Darth Vadar is obviously the bad guy in this movie as well, which is predictable in how every movie nowadays, always has the good guy beating the bad at the end. Watching this movie i've learnt that Luke Skywalker constantly faces alot of challenges that would test any mortal. The responsibility for either destroying the Empire's superweapon, the Death Star, or seeing it destroy the backbone of the Rebellion; learning patience at the hands of Jedi Master Yoda, yet having to choose between completing his training or trying to rescue his imperiled friends; facing the horrifying truth of his parentage, and then instantly deciding what path to take; and finally taking the nearly unimaginable risk that there was still some goodness deep within the dark soul of one of the galaxy's most evil warriors (Darth Vadar). Darth Vader's black cloak and helmet, or his estranged conflict with his son certainly fit that description. I certainly like his characteristic in the Star Wars movie as well, i like how as he's a bad ass and and how he's pretty ruthless and scary but at the same time. (use to get me nightmares when i was little lol) Luke Skywalker.. Though originally an immature, superficial youth, Luke is called by a strong sense of duty and a desire to be a part of something larger than himself, which gets him brownie points in the leadership category. Through the help of Yoda, Luke learned how to master his emotions and put the greater good above his personal gain or satisfaction. Another Character from another movie that had some of the same characteristics as Luke Skywalker is Rocky Balboa.
Rocky Balboa's characteristics were kind of similar to Lukes when it came to trainings. Rocky was another determined character in his trainings inorder for him to be the heavyweight champion. And what also made these two distinctive characteristics the same was there ability to become good listeners. Both of them had there ability to listen carefully to there trainers while they were given there task.
Here's a image of Luke Skywalker using the force to slowly put his lightsaber together. i got this image of illustionmundo.com by an artist named Frank Stockton (love his work)