Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship

by Jackie Stacey

In a historical investigation of the pleasures of cinema, Star Gazing puts female spectators back into theories of spectatorship. Combining film theory with a rich body of ethnographic research, Jackie Stacey investigates how female spectators understood Hollywood stars in the 1940's and 1950's. Her study challenges the universalism of psychoanalytic theories of female spectatorship which have dominated the feminist agenda within film studies for over two decades.
Drawing on letters and questionnaires from over three hundred keen cinema-goers, Stacey investigates the significance of certain Hollywood stars in women's memories of wartime and postwar Britain. Three key processes of spectatorship - escapism, identification and consumption - are explored in detail in terms of their multiple and changing meanings for female spectators at this time. Star Gazing demonstrates the importance of cultural and national location for the meanings of female spectatorship, giving a new direction to questions of popular culture and female desire.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 1993

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talks about appeal of female stars to female audiences, and includes surveys of British women about what they liked about women stars of the 40s and 50s. Wish there was a book like this about the silent era.

[lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up for research on a film piece but found it to be surprisingly insightful re: how we talk about pop stars in the 21st century. Also a great example of film theory that treats the spectator not as an abstraction but as a flesh-and-blood, often contradictory person. Recommended!

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow I must have been quite an intellectual when I was younger....I've had this book since my University days and this is the first time I've read it cover to cover. It is interesting but some of the theories make it a heavy read at times

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

reader-friednly, yet discussing movies which are not known to me

[MM · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book, excellent project, breathing life into theories of spectatorship. Makes me want to collect similar data from contemporary moviegoers.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Used this book for a term paper on feminist film. Great to see there's ample literature on women in relation to cinema and see things from different perspectives, the contrasts between the women on the screen and the ones watching them and how glamorous women empowered women who had to deal with rations and (post-)war scarcity.