[Commlist] Conference call: ‘Fight Clubs, American Psychos and Girls Interrupted’

*International Conference ‘Fight Clubs, American Psychos and Girls 
Interrupted’*

**

*14-15 December 2024, University of Salford*

**

In the 1970s Anglo-American feminist scholars in a variety of 
disciplines began to explore the problematic representations of women in 
Hollywood cinema, issues and concerns over female spectatorship, as well 
as the history of women’s cinema in Hollywood and beyond. Two seminal 
works Marjorie Rosen’s 1973/Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the 
American Dream/, and Molly Haskell’s 1974/From Reverence to Rape: The 
Treatment of Women in the Movies/, pointed to stereotypical portrayals 
of women mostly in Hollywood films. The conclusions were epitomised by 
Haskell when she said, “You’ve come a long way baby … and it’s all been 
downhill.” Meanwhile, at the same time in Britain several female 
scholars developed ideas grounded in psychoanalysis, semiotics and 
Marxist ideology, some offering a pessimistic account of female 
representations on screen, while others were more optimistic. Such 
accounts raised questions about female spectatorship and the male gaze, 
but they also questioned the female gaze and the male body.

At the end of the millennium, for cultural commentators like Susan 
Faludi (1999), it was curiously Western masculinity that had apparently 
reached an apocalyptic state. Its apparent/traditional/markers (a 
breadwinner status; social dominance; emotional self-efficacy and 
regulation) and that men should be adventurous, and risk seeking, even 
if this means the endorsement of (or participation in) violence – had 
been pathologised.In the wake of this cultural evolution, old jobs were 
lost; so-called masculine spaces once filled with miners, dockers and 
engineers were left barren or converted to penthouse homes and 
middle-management sites for the newly saturating white collar (so went 
the rhetoric), while the modern western male was increasingly under 
pressure to conform to commercial cultures of style, celebrity, and 
consumption. Ros Coward (1999) asked: when looking back on the 
achievements of feminism, “Is it now holding us back?” Is it demonising 
men and denying them the right to understanding and equality in a world 
that is perhaps far harsher for them than ever before?

These questions of course were not entirely new. In fact, media 
diatribes on underachieving boys, deserting fathers, Viagra, the boom in 
male plastic surgery and cosmetics, the apparent explosion of young male 
suicide, crime and youth delinquency, were dominant themes of the 
90s.Hollywood soon joined the tirade and by the final year of the 
millennium seemingly had its biggest outpouring of ‘masculinity in 
crisis’ cinema. From/Fight Club/and/The Matrix/, to/American 
Psycho/,/American Beauty/,/Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me/and 
Kubrick’s/Eyes Wide Shut/(amongst many more), Hollywood seemed to turn 
its lens on the rhetoricof apparent despair.Away from this (though in 
ways that have yet to see any sustained kind of analysis), a number of 
films featuring overtly strong (“career”) women were also making waves 
on the big screen in 1999 and early 2000 (see/Election/,/Drop Dead 
Gorgeous/,/The Bone Collector/,/Erin Brockovich/,/Gloria/,/Cruel 
Intentions/,/Dick/,/Stir of Echoes/,/Double Jeopardy/,/The Messenger: 
The Story of Joan of Arc/, and/Girl Interrupted/for example), providing 
collective accounts of dangerous and threatening girls and women.

*Now, exactly 25 years after this outpouring (and exactly 50 years on 
from Haskell’s seminal/From Reverence to Rape/), we are looking to 
explore this cinema and its legacy.*

**

We invite contributions that deal with the above issues from a broad 
variety of perspectives. From researchers and scholars, from outreach 
initiatives to practice-based research among others, we welcome a 
diversity of approaches on how film is grappling with contemporary 
portraits of gender in contemporary cinema in and beyond Hollywood.

**

*Topics may include, but are not limited to:*

**

  * The status of cinematic masculinity nowadays
  * The status of cinematic femininity nowadays
  * Challenging male or female dominance on screen
  * The female spectator then and now
  * The female gaze then and now
  * The male gaze then and now
  * The male spectator then and now
  * An exploration of (this/ selected) cinema made 25 years ago at the
    end of the millennium
  * Interpretations of the end of millennium social and cultural moment
  * The more recent appropriation of some of these cinematic texts into
    the “manosphere” (by individuals such as Andrew Tate) and/or far-
    and alt-right communities
  * Advances in cinematic technologies and time fracturing in this end
    of millennium cinema (or of later cinema influenced by/indebted to
    examples in this canon)
  * Equality in contemporary cinema
  * The evolution of gender and sexual diversity over the last 25 years
  * Toxic masculinity as a cinematic theme
  * Gender and empowerment on screen
  * Gender and social change on screen
  * Women’s and/or men’s weaknesses on screen
  * Women’s and/or men’s strengths on screen

*Please submit abstracts for individual papers (max 250 words) with 
presentation title, up to 5 key words, your full name, affiliation, 50 
word biography, and email address to**(menandwomenonscreen /at/ gmail.com)* 
<mailto:(menandwomenonscreen /at/ gmail.com)>**

We support the presentation of practice-as-research, with papers and 
screenings. We also welcome abstracts from early career and postgraduate 
researchers.

All or a selection of papers will be considered for publication.

*Submission deadline for abstracts: Friday 20^th September 2024*

*Registration fee: £75*

**

*Conference venue: Media City, University of Salford, UK*

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