Gender Studies, Essay Example

The psychological impressions that films can have on us, as well as the ideas that they reveal about our own mentality are something that makes them universally applicable to individuals within society.  This is particularly true in the way that women and minorities view these ideas.

The recognition that people have of this understanding is similar to the way that viewing oneself in the mirror can lead to profound psychological differences in understanding.  The reflection of a gaze or look presents insight into how a person perceives the world.  The ideas that a person takes in are larger presentations of individual or group psychological conditioning.

In this way, a person sees themselves as another.  This is the same as with films.  These particular cultural works are living glimpses into the minds of other people.  The end result of these ideas is present within the way that films are viewed and how they affect the views of others.  The gaze in itself is important here.  In many classical paintings, women’s gazes were depicted as downcast, or even sullen.  The effect that this has on women was to create an archetype of how they were expected to behave.

The idea of the movie as a glimpse into the psyche can be seen as presented by the way that African Americans viewed early films as representations of white culture and political thought.  In this sense, the movies were themselves extensions of the psychological conditioning that permeated culture at the time.