DOI:https://doi.org/10.65281/709977
Yejun Wu1Yanhong Duan1*
1 Tianjin University of Science and Technology
Abstract：There has long been a gender-biased mechanism in film and television culture. Traditional film symbols have consistently objectified female characters and neglected their subjective value. From the theoretical perspective of film semiotics, this paper focuses on the core topic of the construction of female subjective value in films. It explores the specific approaches to shaping female subjectivity through the analysis of cinematic language, metaphorical symbols, and anti-genre narrative symbols, examines the current situation of women, and empowers women’s subjective initiative. This study provides theoretical support for the reconstruction of female subjective value through film symbols, with the aim of adjusting gender power relations and promoting the development of gender equality in film and television culture.
Key words：Film Semiotics; Female Subjectivity; Cinematic Language; Metaphorical Symbols; Anti-genre Narrative Symbols
1. Introduction
Film has always played a pivotal role in the discourse of constructing female subjective value. The phenomenon of gender inequality is inevitably disseminated through film symbols, as a visual medium with signifying functions that imperceptibly shape people’s values and drive cultural change. However, a deeply entrenched gender-biased mechanism permeates film and television culture: female characters are frequently reduced to sexualized symbols, stripped of subjectivity, and positioned as objects to be protected, rescued, and admired. The camera rarely captures their intrinsic value, such as their wisdom and talents. In numerous male-authored films, from The Godfather, First Blood to the 007 franchise, the male protagonists control the entire narrative arc, possess the ability to solve problems independently, and are imbued with a strong androcentric tone. Men demonstrate their masculinity through their ambition and strategy, while women are forced to prove their worth through their beauty and reliance on men, compelled to suppress their inherent edge. Even if a female character expresses a desire for independence, the narrative invariably forces her into the position of the Second Sex.
Admittedly, with the improvement of women’s educational attainment, a growing number of filmmakers and audiences have begun to protest against the diminishment of female subjective value through film symbols. As Rosie Parker stated in Modern Women: The Sexless Ones: “All of us, men and women alike, whoever we are, deserve to be seen as human beings.” Women are the creators, judges, and masters of their own value, not anomalies bound by gender. This concept must be reflected in film symbols, which should break free from the limitations of defining women’s value as dependent and instrumental in traditional patriarchal society, depict the awakening of female consciousness in all dimensions, prioritize the shaping of their overlooked subjective value, weaken narrative plots featuring unequal gender power relations, and resonate with audiences both emotionally and intellectually.
2. Innovating Cinematic Language to Shape Female Subjectivity
2.1 Skillful Use of Lighting to Weaken the “Male Gaze”
Film symbols have long obscured women’s inherent courage and boldness. They are consistently framed as objects of beauty to please men, protected and rescued by male characters, leading audiences to chronically overlook their subjective value. It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Laura Mulvey put forward the concept of the Male Gaze, that it was clarified how film symbols excessively fixate on women’s appearance and body, reducing them to objects that satisfy men’s visual pleasure and desire. Men are defaulted as the subject, holding the power of the gaze. In film semiotics, cinematic language translates gender power relations into visual images through its universal visual communicability. The skillful use of lighting within cinematic language can, to a certain extent, undermine the Male Gaze and position women as the subject of the look.
Sigmund Freud argued that men are born with castration anxiety, which they seek to mitigate through the fetishization of others. For this reason, women’s appearances are often elaborately styled to alleviate men’s inherent anxiety: the fetishized female image, pervasive in cinema, is an amalgamation of male fear and fantasy. To defend against this anxiety, men wield the gaze to secure their power. Thus, only by returning this power of scrutiny to women can the unequal gaze relationship be overturned. Film semiotics can reverse the power dynamics of the gaze in two ways.
On the one hand, the Female Gaze can replace the Male Gaze, positioning male actors as the object of the look. First, a male character’s entrance can be shot with backlighting, where light is cast from behind the character to create a rim light around the body, outlining a broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted male physique, directing the audience’s attention first to the alluring silhouette of the male body. Hard light can then follow the perspective of the female viewer, gradually focusing on partial parts of the male body: from a strong jawline to toned, muscular arms, and then to defined abdominal musculature. Finally, the male character’s entire body is framed in full lighting, with soft light filtering out fine lines on his face and blemishes on his skin, creating a flawless appearance and reinforcing his function as an object of admiration. The female audience in the theater is lit with frontal light, capturing their body language of looking down at the male character and applauding, ensuring their expressions of satisfaction are clearly visible.
On the other hand, women need not be positioned as the evaluated in a subordinate role; they can be leaders in positions of authority, directing the masses. A female character can make her entrance in bright lighting: for example, as a corporate executive, she enters through the door, with light following her footsteps, settling on her as she takes her seat at the exact center of the frame, extending to her desk. High-exposure lighting is then used to focus on the details of her earnest expression and the movement of her hand as she writes. The male employees seated on either side are confined to large shadowed areas, with only their flustered facial expressions visible, waiting to be criticized and redeemed by her.
As Mulvey noted, when film audiences habitually accept this Male Gaze, they imperceptibly reinforce the inequality of gender power relations. Film symbols beautify this inequity, masking the essence that the gaze is power, and normalizing men’s scrutiny of women as natural. To prevent audiences from taking for granted these film symbols that sexualize women, the silver screen must reject this unequal gaze relationship, consistently use the Female Gaze to replace the Male Gaze, and avoid eroding the independent personality and agency of female performers. A woman’s appearance is never the determining factor of her charisma; women are complete human beings capable of actively creating greater value.
2.2 Strategic Use of Shot Scale to Emphasize Female Agency
In film and television dramas, men have long dominated the logic of the camera. Their behaviors are often depicted in depth to highlight masculinity, while women’s shots are frequently confined to the framework of the object: the camera focuses on men fighting fiercely on the battlefield, while women are merely shown waiting at home for their triumphant return; it meticulously records men’s brilliant careers in the workplace, while only giving a secondary shot to depict women as good wives and loving mothers after marriage, obscuring their unpaid domestic labor and the fact that they are forced to depend on men after losing economic independence. Rarely do subjective shots focus on women to depict their thoughts, feelings, and actions—all of which can prove that they are independent subjects.
Michel Foucault argued that when men hold the discursive power of cinema, women’s images and stories are often narrated by men. In this context, women’s subjective consciousness and perspectives are rarely presented in film; women can only perform within the framework set by men, lacking the opportunity and space to express themselves. Therefore, granting women subjective shots across different scales—close-ups, medium close-ups, medium shots, and full shots—can frame women as actively perceiving subjects with their own goals and the motivation to act on them, where their actions hold inherent narrative value.
First, in full shots, a female executive can be positioned at the visual center of the frame, standing in front of floor-to-ceiling windows with the entire office area behind her, showing the busy silhouettes of many male subordinates. On the battlefield, it is she who breaks through the encirclement from the vast dust, holding a weapon to fight, with the male soldiers around her blurred into the background. In medium shots and medium close-ups, the camera lingers on the female character’s firm eyes and confident smile as she shakes hands with a competitor in the workplace; on the battlefield, the female hero holds a spear with a valiant bearing, demonstrating her resolute determination, with the male actors in the background defocused and their facial details minimized. In close-ups, the camera can focus on the woman’s calm eyes, frowning expression of careful deliberation, the movement of her clenched fist as she makes up her mind, and the decisiveness of her bold writing as she works diligently, rather than diverting fragmented subjective shots to her tearful face waiting for comfort and assistance from others.
In the film Kim Ji-young: Born 1982, when Kim Ji-young returns to the workplace, close-up shots focus on the detail of her fingers gripping her resume, with hesitation and resolve visible in her eyes, grounding the subjectivity of choice in her hand movements. In the full and long shots of The Queen of Dumplings, Zang Jianhe pushes a tricycle full of flour through the crowded, noisy morning market at 5 a.m., highlighting women’s perseverance and resilience in the workplace. In medium shots, she directs workers in the dumpling factory, with skilled movements and a focused expression, embodying her dedication to her career. In medium close-ups, Ms. Zang negotiates with business rivals, arguing forcefully for her position, demonstrating her wisdom and courage in the commercial field. All of this breaks the traditional convention where subjective shot scales are dedicated to depicting men’s triumphant moments in the workplace.
To construct female subjectivity, the camera must center women as the core characters, film their interactions with others, highlight their identity as actors, and reflect their active judgment and control over their environment. Only through intentional shot scale design can audiences truly enter women’s world, and understand that women are not a passive, exceptional group. When subjective shot scales return discursive power to women, showcase the same qualities women possess as men, and capture their perception and reflection on macro-level issues, can they convey women’s sense of agency over the world around them.
2.3 Innovative Shot Editing to Showcase the Power of Female Solidarity
David Buss, an American evolutionary psychologist, identified two primary forms of female intrasexual competition: self-promotion and derogation of rivals. Women tend to pay more attention to competitors’ physical attractiveness, ability to access social resources, and partner loyalty. They may enhance their own attractiveness by modifying their appearance, while criticizing other women’s age, appearance, and personality to belittle them, with the goal of gaining an advantage in the mating market or resource allocation. Film symbols often concretize this phenomenon of female intrasexual competition, which essentially depicts women competing for male attention and affection, a phenomenon dominated by male evaluative standards.
However, in the arguments of radical feminism, all gender relations are the result of institutionalized power relations, and there exists a universal sisterhood among women that transcends class, race, and nationality. Innovative shot editing that films women competing with men for resources for self-improvement, rather than focusing on meaningless rivalry between them over men, can amplify female subjectivity and strengthen their deep-seated bonds.
First, seamless editing can be used to connect the coherent actions of two women. For example, a woman on stage delivers an impassioned speech criticizing the overly harsh social standards placed on women’s appearance, and the moment she finishes, a woman in the audience immediately applauds in support. Such synchronized actions embody the tacit understanding between women, and their refusal to turn a blind eye to the suffering of their peers. In Thelma & Louise, for instance, rapid editing links the two women’s joint resistance to male verbal insults, symbolizing the deepening of their friendship. At the end of the film, the long shot of them driving off the cliff is interwoven with flashbacks of their past moments of mutual aid; in slow motion, the two look at each other and clasp hands, highlighting the warmth of female solidarity.
Second, montage editing can be employed: the first close-up focuses on a grandmother’s well-worn fountain pen, the second shot lands on the tip of the pen as a mother writes documents, and the third shot shows a daughter using the same pen to write plans for her future. The repetition of the same object symbol highlights the profound bond between women across generations, with each generation of women fighting for the female descendants that come after them.
The androcentric ideological system has long admonished women to rely on so-called gender advantages to become appendages of men, leading women to believe that only men can save them from their predicament, guarantee their livelihood, and endow them with greater value. In contrast, women supporting women is a form of resistance against this patriarchal domination. Parallel editing can be used to depict scenes of diverse women sharing experiences and providing mutual support with resources: for example, senior women in the workplace guiding younger female colleagues, intergenerational friendships between two women, and women from different backgrounds sharing survival strategies. These depictions can fully embody the spirit of mutual aid and solidarity among women.
3. Skillful Use of Metaphorical Symbols to Reconstruct Female Subjective Value
3.1 Linguistic Symbols That Emphasize Women’s Self-Determination
In cinema, linguistic symbols hold immense power, as they transmit diverse values and can imperceptibly lead audiences to accept the coding of women as the Second Sex. For example, in the Chinese linguistic context, the honorific title Xiansheng was originally reserved exclusively for men, and was later extended only to highly distinguished female scholars, implicitly framing masculine terminology as inherently superior. Constrained by androcentric translation conventions, the gendered modifier female is often prefixed to professional titles, such as female scientist, female monarch, and female soldier, inadvertently reinforcing the default assumption that men are the natural occupants of these fields. In traditional kinship terminology, the prefix meaning external is added to terms for grandchildren and nephews from a daughter’s line, a practice that prioritizes the patrilineal bloodline as the primary line of inheritance.
Sherry Simon’s theory focuses on the deep connection between translated language in film, gender, power, and cultural identity. She critiques the metaphorical binding of traditional translation discourse, arguing that such film symbols are a projection of power relations in patriarchal culture. The subordinate status of translation in this discourse mirrors the marginalized position of women in society, essentially confining translation practice within a subordinate gender order and masking the initiative of linguistic symbols as a vehicle for cultural transmission. Therefore, feminist translators must break the gender bias of linguistic symbols in film, make female subjectivity visible, and adopt strategies that balance cultural fidelity with the representation of female subjectivity.
First, the coding of linguistic symbols need not constantly emphasize the scarcity of women in various professions, as this only reinforces gender stereotypes among audiences. Nor should the names of distinguished women be appended with markers of their marital status; for example, Mrs. Thatcher and Madame Curie should be replaced with their full given names and surnames, Margaret Thatcher and Marie Curie, to restore their inherent identity. In the film Barbie, for instance, the term First Lady is revised to Madam President, where the former denotes a spousal identity, while the latter emphasizes individual achievement. This is a manifestation of linguistic symbols shifting from sexual attachment to political subjecthood, metaphorically demonstrating that female power need not be dependent on men. Another example is found in the film adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, where the phrase female scientist Ye Wenjie is directly translated as scientist Ye Wenjie, without the addition of the gendered modifier female, thus dissolving the gender discipline embedded in film symbols.
Second, in translation, words traditionally associated with women, such as virtuous and helpmeet, can be appropriately applied to men, promoting social acceptance of diverse male roles. If words like beautiful and gentle are consistently framed as feminine labels, then handsome and chivalrous can similarly be tied to male identity. Traits such as considerate and kind are qualities that all people should possess, and should not be exclusively attributed to women, as this creates widespread gendered misconceptions.
In many cases, the gendered status of linguistic symbols is deeply intertwined with power structures, and is essentially an implicit deprivation of female subjectivity by the patriarchal system. Translators are core actors in eliminating gender discrimination, and should actively take responsibility for promoting gender equality through their work, balancing cultural fidelity with gender subjectivity, and avoiding reinforcing outdated gender stereotypes to cater to traditional expressions. Only in this way can film symbols truly become a force for advancing gender equality, rather than a magnifying glass for gender bias.
3.2 Behavioral Symbols That Weaken Stereotypes and Highlight Women’s Inherent Strengths
When traits such as ambition and assertiveness are attributed to men, they are almost universally praised; yet when women possess these same qualities, they are often condemned by society. As Simone de Beauvoir famously wrote: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Because men control the vast majority of social resources, they use education, culture, and social customs to discipline women’s behavior according to their own needs. The so-called feminine traits produced through this process are not inherent to women’s nature. Disciplined women gradually lose their subjectivity, internalize these so-called female flaws, conform to social standards to be obedient and docile, and become increasingly ashamed to express their true strengths. In film narrative, behavioral symbols are the most direct visual carrier of a person’s strengths: every glance and movement metaphorically reflects their true humanity. This requires multifaceted consideration: a career woman’s assertiveness should not be misinterpreted as a flaw; women’s occasional emotionality is in fact stigmatized empathy; the attention to trivialities in their work is actually underestimated attention to detail and control. These entrenched gender double standards bind women’s strengths to a single standard, narrowing their subjectivity.
The diminishment and even stigmatization of women’s behavioral symbols in film are essentially the result of the deprivation of their subjectivity by society, a value inversion perpetuated by the patriarchal system to consolidate its male-centered status. As Li Yinhe has discussed Western theories of gender identity fluidity and advocated for the dissolution of gender essentialism, she argues that society naturalizes gender traits through repeated performativity. The binary opposition of gender should be broken, allowing gender to be an expression of individual free choice. Gender identity should not be constrained by biological sex or social labels, and individual self-identification should be respected. Li Yinhe’s theory of gender equality incorporates sexual rights and diverse gender identities into the agenda of equality, and her practice has proven that gender equality is not only the liberation of women, but also the respect for the diversity of human nature.
Therefore, in the use of film symbols, women’s flaws should not be used as negative teaching materials, but rather as the diverse possibilities inherent to human beings; many of the male strengths celebrated by society may well be false masculinity. First, a woman’s dedication to her career without balancing family care should not be framed as a flaw to be criticized; her assertiveness demonstrated through her commitment to her career is inherently a strength. Behavioral symbols need not deliberately frame female characters as gentle, timid, and subordinate. Instead, the camera can focus on the sharp reprimands of women in leadership positions when issuing orders to subordinates: she can be decisive and stern, wide-eyed, use forceful hand gestures to emphasize her points, and angrily reject any unreasonable requests from male subordinates, leaving all male members intimidated, bowing their heads, and obeying all her orders out of awe for her authority. For example, Han Xiao, a powerful career woman in the film Kill Mobile, walks through the office building with firm, rapid steps and an upright posture, exuding confidence and decisiveness, as people around her step aside to make way. When working, her gaze is steady and direct, she rarely avoids eye contact, conveying a strong sense of authority and responsibility.
Second, women are actors: they are the saviors of people in crisis, and the redeemers of their own predicaments. Women should not be forced to be constantly deferential and obedient to men in marriage; they can resist, struggle, and speak out their opinions loudly. Beauvoir emphasized that marriage can be a prison for women, as it consolidates unequal relations between the sexes, reinforces the imbalance of division of labor and power in gender roles, confines women to domestic affairs, deprives them of the possibility to pursue their own value, and forces them to become passive sacrifices and appendages of men. Film’s behavioral symbols should reflect women’s resistance to unpaid domestic labor in marriage: they can roar at their husbands to vent their pent-up anger; they can righteously refuse to become housewives; they can strive to gain control of the family’s financial power; they can boldly encourage men to return to the family and become a support for their wives. In Kim Ji-young: Born 1982, when Kim Ji-young, suffering from postpartum depression, is still told by her husband to act normal, she suddenly smashes the coffee cup in her hand. This outburst of emotion symbolizes the collapse of the good wife label imposed on her.
The diminishment of women’s strengths through film symbols is essentially the suppression of women’s diverse values by the patriarchal system. Equal recognition of human diverse abilities can only be achieved through competition that is not unidimensional, with men as the benchmark. As women, they must clearly recognize the constraints on their subjectivity, oppose insults and injustice targeted at them, emphasize the fluidity of strengths and individual uniqueness, and choose to grow freely.
4. Anti-genre Narrative Symbols Centered on Women’s Stories
4.1 Anti-genre Narrative of Gender and Identity to Expose Women’s Predicament
Due to the long-term erosion of patriarchal culture, women have long lacked subjectivity, leading to increasing self-doubt in their cognition and behavior. They experience anxiety and lose assertiveness due to gender stereotypes, define themselves through the evaluations of others, and gradually internalize self-denial. Society has chronically overlooked the structural predicament of women, and men, as the dominant actors, cannot truly empathize with women’s experiences. If film exposes this situation through anti-genre narrative symbols of gender and identity, it can not only prompt women to reflect on the root cause of their lack of subjectivity, but also help them clearly recognize that their abilities are in fact equal to those of men.
A study published in the journal Science showed that gender stereotypes are formed as early as childhood. Dr. Lin Bian from the University of Illinois and Prof. Andrei Cimpian from New York University conducted a series of tests on 400 children aged 5 to 7. They first told the children a story about a highly intelligent person, without mentioning the protagonist’s gender. The results showed that 5-year-old boys and girls were equally likely to assume the protagonist was of the same gender as themselves; however, by the age of 6, girls were significantly less likely to choose female than boys were to choose male. This indicates that gender stereotypes are formed around the age of 6, and may further influence their career choices and other aspects of their lives in the future. Such images of women lacking subjectivity are pervasive in film narratives: they silently endure invisible gender discrimination, and have their ability to compete equally with men buried.
In light of this, screenwriters can dramatically create a matriarchal society, with a group of women with strong subjectivity, stripping away the androcentric framework of cinema and reversing the traditional social rules. In this society, mothers who give birth to daughters teach them from an early age to be self-reliant and not to place their hopes in anyone else; social resources are consistently tilted towards women, who believe they have absolute gender advantage and strive for success in the workplace, while men stay at home to care for their wives and children; women conquer men through their career success, while men consume beauty to please women; men face widespread sexual harassment in many situations due to their perceived physiological disadvantages, and are deprived of the right to inherit property and pass on their family name.
This is exemplified in the film I Am Not an Easy Man, where women hold absolute discursive power in both the workplace and the family by virtue of their gender. They offend and belittle their male subordinates, claiming that their gender makes them unqualified for the job; a female supervisor leaves tampons on her desk to flaunt her feminine prowess. Such anti-genre film narrative symbols of gender and identity reverse the long-entrenched disciplinary model of patriarchy, reducing men to objects and positioning women as independent and autonomous individuals. They allow women to recognize that their lack of subjectivity is in fact the result of social injustice, rather than an inherent flaw.
The institutional rules of society have endowed men with subjectivity, leading them to tend to overestimate their own abilities. Even within this social and cultural context, women should rationally avoid being constrained by traditional social standards and thus losing their subjectivity. Film symbols must break this prejudice of gendered ability monism, center women’s experiences, wisdom, and voices as an important part of the world, and encourage women to fully develop the same personalities and abilities as men, and pursue self-development. Only in this way can women achieve essential transformation, awaken their subjective spirit, continuously weaken gender stereotypes, and bravely take responsibility for any choices they make.
4.2 Anti-genre Narrative of Theme and Values to Empower Women’s Subjective Initiative
Film narratives are filled with scenes of men actively enjoying sexual pleasure, while women are consistently depicted as passively meeting men’s needs. It has become a narrative template for men to take the initiative when releasing sexual desire. This rigid cinematic logic has long ignored women’s most primal desire—sexual needs. Women possess autonomous sexual consciousness, including diverse forms such as clitoral orgasm, the need for emotional connection, and the drive for self-exploration. Yet the silver screen rarely depicts women’s subjective initiative in releasing their sexual desires.
In the 1940s and 1950s, American sexologist Alfred Kinsey and his team conducted the first large-scale, systematic empirical investigation of human sexual behavior in history. The results, published in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, revealed for the first time with scientific data that women are not asexual or sexually passive objects, but subjects with autonomous sexual desires, sexual pleasure, and sexual needs. Women’s sexual arousal, orgasm, and sexual frequency are far from the traditional notion of a passive existence serving reproduction, but rather have independent physiological and psychological drivers.
Similarly, in film and television dramas, film symbols should emphasize that the core of women’s sexual needs is self-pleasure, not satisfying men. There is no need to confine female actors to narratives of passivity and shame according to traditional values. First, women can take the initiative, control the overall narrative arc, put forward their own sexual needs to men, express their desire to conquer men with good looks and physique, and praise men’s physiological value without reservation. Moreover, this instinctive need need not be tied to love or marriage. Women need not be constrained by conservative educational concepts or be ashamed to talk about sex; film symbols should transform implicit expectations into explicit communication. In film shots, the depiction of women’s timid psychological activities should be reduced, and instead, frank words and open expressions should be used to show women breaking through secular constraints. For example, in the film No Strings Attached, Emma, who is too busy with her career to manage a romantic relationship but is aware of her sexual needs, proposes to Adam to maintain a sexual relationship without romantic involvement. When Adam tries to cross the boundary and demand a romantic relationship, Emma firmly refuses; when she later realizes she has fallen in love with him, she takes the initiative to propose adjusting the relationship model.
Second, women are the carriers of self-cognition, and can show their experiences during sex according to their own situation, whether it is pleasure or indifference. Film symbols should vividly depict women’s real expressions and movements, completely subverting the passive and shameful images in traditional sex scenes. Women need not fully cater to men’s preferences, and should take the initiative to propose sexual movements that make them more comfortable, asking the male protagonist to adjust his posture to cooperate with her, rather than only shooting the male protagonist’s satisfied expression and passionate movements.
In the film Send Me to the Clouds, when Sheng Nan learns that she has ovarian cancer and may lose the opportunity to experience sexual pleasure, she takes the initiative to propose sex to multiple men and domineeringly releases her sexual desire. The camera also unflinchingly shows her disdain and coercion towards the male protagonist. Finally, in the anti-traditional value narrative, women do not necessarily need a male protagonist to satisfy their sexual needs; they can fulfill their own desires. A film can be shot with only a female protagonist, where she masturbates to relieve work pressure, or confronts her sexual desire during the confusion of adolescence. As stated in The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, women can fully achieve sexual pleasure through masturbation, without the need for heterosexual penetrative sex, and orgasm is not a burden to please a partner. Shere Hite encourages women to explore their own bodies, arguing that understanding their own physical potential is the only way to truly enjoy autonomy. She also advocates that sex is an act of self-care, not dependent on external judgment. As women, they must resolutely reject all sexual activities that do not align with their own wishes, and must not submissively yield to all men’s demands. Modern film symbols should not only shape women with strong subjective consciousness, but also create male characters who respect women’s wishes: men who do not trample on women’s dignity to satisfy their own desires, but who can understand women’s true aspirations out of responsibility and love.
5. Conclusion
In summary, from the perspective of film semiotics, the construction of female subjective value is a task of profound academic and social significance. The gender-biased mechanism in traditional film and television culture has reinforced androcentrism through various film symbols, objectified women, and severely neglected their subjective value.
The innovation of cinematic language can effectively reject the Male Gaze, demonstrate women’s strength and solidarity, and shape female subjectivity. The skillful use of metaphorical symbols, through the optimization of linguistic and behavioral symbols, can highlight female subjectivity, weaken gender stereotypes, and showcase women’s inherent strengths. The deconstruction of traditional narratives through anti-genre narrative symbols, via the anti-genre narrative of gender, identity, theme and values, can expose women’s realistic predicament and empower their subjective initiative.
Future film creation should further apply the core concepts of film semiotics, continuously explore new approaches to constructing female subjective value, reduce the dissemination of gender bias, and promote the development of film and television culture in a more equal and diverse direction. Ultimately, film should truly become a powerful tool for displaying the full humanity of women and advancing gender equality.
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