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Erin Tobin - Dissertation.pdf (1023.95 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Campy Feminisms: The Feminist Camp Gaze in Independent Film

Tobin, Erin C
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594039952349499

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Camp is a critical sensibility and a queer reading practice that allows women to simultaneously critique, resist, and enjoy stereotypes and conventional norms. It is both a performative strategy and a mode of reception that transforms resistance into pleasure. Scholarship on feminist camp recognizes a tradition of women using camp to engage with gender politics and play with femininity. Most of the scholarship focuses on women’s camp in mainstream and popular culture and how they talk back to the patriarchy. Little work has been done on feminist camp outside of popular culture or on how women use camp to talk back to feminism. My dissertation adds to conversations about feminist camp by exploring a new facet of camp that talks back to feminism and challenges a feminist audience. I examine the work of three contemporary feminist and queer independent filmmakers: Anna Biller, Cheryl Dunye, and Bruce LaBruce to explore the different ways they subvert cinematic conventions to interrupt narrative, play with stereotypes, and create opportunities for pleasure as well as critique. I argue that these filmmakers operationalize a feminist camp gaze and open up space for a feminist camp spectatorship that engages critically with ideas about identity, sex, and feminism. In addition, I consider the ways in which other types of feminist cultural production, including sketch comedy and web series, use camp strategies to deploy a feminist camp gaze to push back against sexism and other forms of oppression while also parodying feminism, ultimately creating space for resistance, pleasure, and self-reflection.
Linda Mizejewski (Advisor)
Shannon Winnubst (Committee Member)
Treva Lindsey (Committee Member)
214 p.
Film Studies; Gender Studies; Womens Studies
camp; feminist camp; feminist; independent film; cinema; gender; sexuality; race; the gaze; feminist film theory; queer film studies; lesbian; black feminist theory; intersectionality; representation; spectatorship; stereotypes; cultural studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Tobin, E. C. (2020). Campy Feminisms: The Feminist Camp Gaze in Independent Film [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594039952349499

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Tobin, Erin. Campy Feminisms: The Feminist Camp Gaze in Independent Film. 2020. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594039952349499.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Tobin, Erin. "Campy Feminisms: The Feminist Camp Gaze in Independent Film." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1594039952349499

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1594039952349499
1,233
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.