Critical Writing Index

Feminist Video: Reiterating the difference

by Marita Sturken

Afterimage, Apr. 1985, v. 12, no. 9, pp. 9-11

A review of two recent shows that attempt to define feminism in video. Difference took a psychoanalytic approach, will Revising Romance emphasized approaches to romance in videos by women, divided into Domestic Drama, Revisionist Romance, The Double Blind and Video Picaresque. Revising Romance emphasizes feminist takes on pop culture forms like the soap opera and the film noir, but the programme suffers from having too many pieces of uneven length. Difference emphasizes the ways in which women are constructed as desirable and "other" bodies in television and cinema while extending the umbrella of feminist otherness to include gay men. The author is pleased that both exhibits include works by men, but notes that video, unlike cinema, has developed outside of male hierarchies, and is therefore a medium that shares its outlook more equally among genders.

ITEM 1985.087 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

SoapDeans Keppel

HouseAnn-Sargent Wooster

Lesson I: Trouble in ParadiseBarbara Broughel

Lesson II: The Frigid HeiressBarbara Broughel

With Love From A To BNancy Buchanan

With Love From A To BBarbara Smith

Why I Got Into TV and Other StoriesIlen SEgalove

VaultBruce Yonemoto

VaultNorman Yonemoto

Possibly in MichiganCecelia Condit

MotherJohn Knoop

MotherSharon Hennessey

The Adventures of a NurseEleanor Antin

L'Image du Cinéma (The Image of the Cinema)Raymond Bellour

L'Image du Cinéma (The Image of the Cinema)Philippe Venault

Technology/Transformation: Wonder WomanDara Birnbaum

Modern TimesMax Almy

Paysage, PaysageTheresa Cha

VItal Statistics of a Citizen, Simply ObtainedMartha Rosler

France/Tour/Detour/Deux/EnfantsJean-Luc Godard