Thesis
MeToo reframing women’s desire in the movies: an analysis of worst person in the world and bad luck banging or loony porn
University of Iowa
Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
Spring 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007400
Abstract
Situated in contemporary discourse where film critics and netizens alike debate the values of sex scenes and intimacy coordinators, this paper explores the impact of the MeToo movement on popular cinema. As a nearly endless stream of news stories about sexual assault continues to loom over the film industry, there is a heightened awareness of the use of women’s bodies and sexuality in films. This paper argues that the global feminist movement has informed storytellers’ (narrative, formal, aesthetic) choices. Reflecting the movement’s online component and a state of popular feminism (Banet-Weiser), audience judgements are brought in through discourse analysis, as well as close textual analyses of Worst Person in the World (2021, Norway) dir. Joachim Trier and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021, Romania) dir. Radu Jude. The former mentions MeToo explicitly in the script, but both evoke the central tenets of the feminist movement by imagining what consent-based desire entails. The paper draws on contemporary feminist media scholars (Benson-Allott, Gilmore, Srinivasan) as well as feminist film theory (Mulvey) and porn studies (Williams and Young) to aid in its analyses. Trier’s film exemplifies an attempt to frame a woman’s sexual desire in a way that challenges masculine, objectifying camera gazes. Jude’s film provocatively uses amateur pornography to situate a woman’s sexual habits as an object of cultural debate. Together, the films represent MeToo’s international travel and influence on global film industries, gesturing toward a need for structural, feminist change in filmic representation.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- MeToo reframing women’s desire in the movies: an analysis of worst person in the world and bad luck banging or loony porn
- Creators
- Samuel Bowden
- Contributors
- Christopher Goetz (Advisor)Andrew Owens (Advisor)Michael Cowan (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Film Studies
- Date degree season
- Spring 2024
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007400
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- v, 28 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Samuel Bowden
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/21/2024
- Description illustrations
- illustrations
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 26-28).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
- This paper questions how the MeToo movement impacted film and to what degree. In 2017, the breaking of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story and actress Alyssa Milano’s social media hashtag called direct attention to women’s disadvantaged position in the film industry. Much public debate has followed since then, primarily online, about topics like the role of sex scenes, the role of intimacy coordinators, and gender inequality on film sets. With this context in mind, this paper argues the global feminist movement has already crept into the way that filmmakers tell their stories and how audiences receive them. Specifically, instead of focusing on narratives about women’s trauma, MeToo has inspired filmmakers to include imaginations of healthy, consensual sex and to center women’s desires. As an online, global movement, this paper uses both analysis of online discourse as well as close readings of two films: Worst Person in the World (2021) dir. Joachim Trier and Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) dir. Radu Jude. To track the public discourse and reflect the current state of feminism, social media and critical reviews are brought in. Close readings of the two films, one from Norway and the other, Romania, illustrates global travel of the MeToo movement and reflects how women’s sexuality is one highly important theme in contemporary discourse. The films, despite individual differences, create vivid depictions of liberated, sex positive women, resisting traditions in cinema of objectifying women and suggesting possibilities for a more egalitarian future in the film industry.
- Academic Unit
- Cinematic Arts
- Record Identifier
- 9984647647102771
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