Representation of the female gaze and sexuality in Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

One of Francis Coppola's most famous movies Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) is an example of how female sexuality in Victorian era is visualised and put on display. Coppola's film version is one of the masterpieces which is full of visual imagery and symbols. That's why I will be looking at the different visual techniques used...

Assassin’s Creed: The Construction of Historical Reality

Assassin's Creed is a video game which can contribute to a better understanding of historical events due to its 'realistic' representation of the historical past which gives an illusion of authenticity. Even though, there is a high degree of historical accuracy,  historical realism is still constructed in such video games. Therefore, it creates an illusion...

The Netherlands: The Embodiment of Progress

‘The impression it made on every Dutchman, to see his industry so scantily represented, was painful, especially when one would compare the tiny corner occupied by the Netherlands, to the other European states.’[1] As the above quote illustrates, the representation of the Netherlands and its industries at The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry...

Women of Britain, Come to Work!

What can the visuality, and the use, of Second World War propaganda posters tell us about the British government’s attempts to recruitment women into the workforce? The contemporary discourse of the working woman in World War II Britain can be found through analysis of popular and state images found on posters, photographs and in magazines....

The double gaze in Ex Machina (2015)

The female gaze seems to be thriving on television. Does this gaze prosper on the big screen, as well? This analysis takes a look at the appearance of the gaze, and its' apparant gender, in Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

Photography as an instrument to set a dominant discourse

The popular photo exhibition and photo book "Before they pass away", made by Jimmy Nelson in 2013, was an enormous success. The beautiful pictures showed tribes from all over the world, still living in a traditional setting. But are they still alive? The book has got major criticism, for showing people who don't live like...

Soldaat van Oranje, an historical musical in Black and White?

The musical Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange), is the most successful and longest running Dutch musical till date. With more than 2,5 million visitors since the first show in 2010, the musical based on the war experience of Dutch resistance fighter and member of the Dutch Free Forces Erik Hazelhoff Roelfsema, is a tremendous...

What else is there to worry about than making pudding? The depiction of women in German commercials of the 50s.

With the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) in the 1950s, video commercials became more popular than before. Starting in the cinema, and from 3rd November 1956 also in TV at home.   The first visual aspect that can be noticed while watching commercials of the 50s is probably that the picture is much calmer than nowadays. No...

You Mean a Woman Can Open It? Sexism and Gender in Advertising: Then and Now

You mean a woman can open it?! You mean a woman can actually do something that would normally require strength with her delicate hands and fragile body? You mean she does not need her husband to do it for her? Luckily, we have become very good at mocking these sorts of retro advertisements. This 1953...

Rape at the movies: Straw Dogs (1971).

From acting as a footnote between other forms of violence (American History X 1998, Pulp Fiction 1994) to serve as arguably the most gruesome act men can do to an individual (De Maagdenbron 1961, Irreversible 2002), Rape is portraited very differently in movies. In the most cases the message of the cruelty of rape becomes clear...