Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.
Matt Walsh's controversial doc challenges radical gender ideology through provocative interviews and humor.
This documentary is about sexism and masculinity. It’s also a journey through reflections on male condition, an attempt to strip away beliefs, myths and prejudices about masculinity. Why is there violence against women? We try to answer that by the hand of a former pimp trapped by his past and an artist, son of a prostitute, who transforms his pain into provocative performances. In parallel, the class of a high school teacher and a team of publicists become debate scenarios on the same theme, while interspersed reflections of several influential men who address the issue of masculinity from multiple points of view. A rich and complex approach that invites us to reflect on our own gender related education and socialization.
Drag Queens and their cabaret shows are well-known in France, but Drag Kings still remain very much on the sidelines. Chriss Lag traveled all over France and met 22 Kings to bring them front and center.
Both a visit to a very peculiar exhibition at the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany, as well as an unprejudiced look at the artistic depiction of violence throughout history and the ways in which that depiction has been gendered.
The film follows the story of Jamie, a struggling butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film. The main plot is a romantic comedy between Jamie's male alter-ego, "Male Jamie," and Jill, a heterosexual woman on set. The film's subplots include Jamie's bisexual roommate Lola and her cat actor Howard, Lola's abrasive butch German girlfriend Andi, and Jamie's gay Asian friend David.
In the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into males and females. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” - men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned limbo between the two genders.
What happens when you bring gender training to an elementary school? In Creating Gender Inclusive Schools the Peralta Elementary School in Oakland, CA demonstrates the power of an open and honest conversation about gender.
In this modern, coming of age documentary, Naomi, Jojo and Arham grapple with economic divides, gender roles, and family dynamics while competing in the fastest growing high school sport in the country: girl’s wrestling.
Of Maine’s more than 5000 commercial lobstermen only 4% are female. The Captain celebrates that fearless minority through the lens of Sadie Samuels. At 27 years old, she is the youngest and only female lobster boat captain in the Rockport, Maine harbor. Despite the long hours and manual labor of hauling traps, Samuels is in love — obsessed even — with what she calls the most beautiful, magical place on the planet. Her love for lobster fishing was imparted early in her childhood by her dad Matt, who has been her mentor and inspiration since she was a little girl in yellow fishing boots.
A compelling feature length documentary about five young people who neither feel male nor female, but rather somewhere in between.
In a conservative Armenian family a 16 years old Karine dreams to become a veterinarian, but her family, especially her father, who is a well-known dog-fighter, is against it. They say it’s not a proper job for women. Karine needs to choose: to follow her dreams or to listen to her patriarchal family.
“It ain’t easy…being green” is the favorite expression of Stormé DeLarverie, a woman whose life flouted prescriptions of gender and race. During the 1950s and '60s she toured the black theater circuit as a mistress of ceremonies and the sole male impersonator of the legendary Jewel Box Revue, America’s first integrated female impersonation show and forerunner of La Cage aux Folles.
Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed lives in fear of her husband's finding out and of the shame such a revelation would bring to his career. But when the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband's esteem.
The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
American Reflexxx is a short film documenting a social experiment that took place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Alli Coates filmed performance artist Signe Pierce as she strutted down a busy oceanside street in stripper garb and a reflective mask. The pair agreed not to communicate until the experiment was completed, but never anticipated the horror that would unfold in under an hour. The result is a heart wrenching technicolor spectacle that raises questions about gender stereotypes, mob mentality, and violence in America.
'Mod' is an attempt by the filmmaker at communicating with the young men who hang out at the ‘notorious’ water tank in her neighbourhood in Pratap Vihar, Ghaziabad. The water tank is a space that is frequented by the so-called ‘no-gooders’ of the locality, a place where they play cricket, play cards, drink and smoke up. When she enters the space with her camera, the boys are curious and at the same time wary of it and her. They sometimes resist, sometimes protest, and at times, open up. As the film unfolds we get a hint of the lives the boys lead and the fragile world they create for themselves at the water tank.
Sparked by a public display of sexual harassment in 2012, GTFO pries open the video game world to explore a 20 billion dollar industry riddled with discrimination and misogyny. Every year, the gaming community grows increasingly diverse. This has led to a clash of values and women are receiving the brunt of the consequences every day, with acts of harassment ranging from name calling to death threats. Through interviews with video game creators, journalists, and academics, GTFO paints a complex picture of the video game industry, while revealing the systemic and human motivations behind acts of harassment. GTFO begins the conversation that will shape the future of the video game world.
Seven women and one non binary person share their personal experiences with masturbation through short anecdotes and a revolutionary washing machine.
Sara grew up in Yemen to a Yemeni father and a Scottish mother, and at age 17, finally decided to move to Scotland. Ten years later – 2011 – Sara returns to Yemen as a different person, geared up to face the home of her past and reconnect with her long-severed roots. But against all personal expectations, she returns to find her family and country teetering on the brink of a revolution.