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

Soap – Deans Keppel

House – Ann-Sargent Wooster

Lesson I: Trouble in Paradise – Barbara Broughel

Lesson II: The Frigid Heiress – Barbara Broughel

With Love From A To B – Nancy Buchanan

With Love From A To B – Barbara Smith

Why I Got Into TV and Other Stories – Ilen SEgalove

Vault – Bruce Yonemoto

Vault – Norman Yonemoto

Possibly in Michigan – Cecelia Condit

Mother – John Knoop

Mother – Sharon Hennessey

The Adventures of a Nurse – Eleanor 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 Woman – Dara Birnbaum

Modern Times – Max Almy

Paysage, Paysage – Theresa Cha

VItal Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained – Martha Rosler

France/Tour/Detour/Deux/Enfants – Jean-Luc Godard