Lori Jo Marso is Doris Zemurray Stone Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, Professor of Political Science, and Director of American Studies at Union College. She is author of
White Noise: Stasis
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Published:November 2024
In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir deftly describes patriarchy as a male sensorium encompassing vision, smell, touch, taste, and sound. This chapter focuses on how feminist directors specifically utilize sound in film and television to invite the discomfort of a feeling of stasis, or stuckness, that often follows sexual trauma as well as everyday sexism. Sleepwalking within and through the white noise of racialized patriarchy—the constant hum of mansplaining, catcalls, derogatory language, harassment—woman-identified subjects are often unable to hear the voices of other women or listen for possibilities of hearing otherwise. Three examples, Chantal Akerman’s Blow Up My Town (1968), Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman (2020), and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You (2020), show how a feminist media focus on attention to sound can reorient the ears of its audience to hear like feminists.
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