1. Introduction

Amongst the discussion topics within feminist cinema, in the history of cinema, the representation and visual reproduction of female characters is a major issue. Traditional narrative film is largely male dominated, and within the visual culture, female characters are placed within the object position in visual terms of male desire, thus undermining the female subject. Laura Mulvey's concept of the "male gaze" reveals how cinema builds up images about women from one gender point of view, thus reinforcing the dominant position of men in society and culture [1]. This latter point again tries to reinforce the place held by men within society and culture. With an increase in the numbers of female film directors, the so-called female gaze in cinema has grown to become an influential force that resists such a phenomenon. Women filmmakers, by employing the female gaze in their films, have focused on redefining female roles and breaking traditional stereotypes of gender roles. They gave a new dimension to expressing feminist ideas in visual culture. The paper will discuss how the female gaze has deconstructed conventional gender roles created by female directors and analyze a few typical films to outline the way in which this visual expression has contributed to or enhanced feminist film theory globally.

2. Literature Review

Sofia Johansson argues that Laura Mulvey's seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" has wide-ranging consequences for media theory—more specifically, that Mulvey's theorization of the "male gaze" exposed how the role of cinema fits in with gendered power structures [1]. In classic Hollywood films, for example, the camera gaze generally coincides with that of the heterosexual male character, while women are objectified as objects of male desire to functionally perpetuate patriarchal relations of gender. In "A Male Glance at the Male Gaze," Daniel Goldin expands on this theory [2]. By reference to his own upbringing as a heterosexual male, the author discusses how the male gaze is internalized by men on a cultural and psychological level. Goldin conveys that not only the perception of women is influenced by the male gaze, but the male subject too [2]. This article gives an important background from which to understand how female directors have contested and deconstructed the male gaze in their films. As the technology of late-modern cinema developed, the women behind the camera could gradually move closer to 'inventing' a genuinely feminist visual language. In an interview of R. Sassatelli with Laura Mulvey, Mulvey insists that technological advances have provided new opportunities for feminist film-making. She argues that new tools, such as digital technology and non-linear narrative, emerged that made it possible to express feminist ideas through the capability of the female director, who broke the traditional paradigm of gendered narratives [3]. This allows readers to understand how modern female directors use new technologies to express the female gaze and reflect female subjectivity. The works of the fifth generation of female directors in China provide a valuable example for understanding the expression of the female gaze in different cultural contexts [4]. In Wei's study, she analyzes how the fifth generation of female directors in China reshape female subjectivity through their works in cinema. Wei shows that these female directors have contested traditional gender roles and social norms through their unique narrative and structures in cinema [4]. She shows readers the uniqueness of Chinese women's films and insists that these films are not just insurrections against the traditional Chinese forms of film work, but challenges in the mainstream work of fifth-generation male directors. This essay can let readers understand more about feminist film theory, especially its development in the non-Western context in a globalized perspective. A complex relationship between feminism and popular culture is explored by Diane Grossman in the book Feminism, Gender, and Popular Culture [5]. It argues that the current popular culture, despite the evolution in women's representation in cultural products, continues to be trapped in gender role stereotypes. According to Grossman, the research suggests that, despite the fact that cultural products have shown rebellion against traditional gender roles, they are still influenced by the male gaze at large [5]. The article serves to give the reader theoretical support to understand how female directors reflected and contested such stereotypes in cinematic works. Further delving into the mechanisms of misogyny, Schowalter, Stevens, and Horvath conducted a study related to reviews of cinemas where the main narrative was driven by women [6]. They have analyzed how gender stereotypes are created and maintained in movie review criticisms by belittling films dominated by women that appears as a banal evil that degrades the female film to the point of not being valuable, since their characteristics of denoting society and the female role were unattractive and unimportant. The study reveals how misogyny operates in the field of movie critique and furthers the reinforcement of negative stereotypes about female directors and female characters. Being a typical contemporary female director, Greta Gerwig captures great attention owing to her director career amid the #MeToo movement [7]. Her example is used to explore the ways such female directors express female voices and support feminist ideas through their cinema works. This research sheds light on the effect of the #MeToo movement, to women's filmmaking, specifically, on how female directors use film media to express female surveillance and contest gender inequality [7]. These articles help this paper to better understand the expression of the female gaze in cinema. Both in theoretical foundation, technological advances, as well as specific movie examples. Female directors challenge the traditional gender concept and renew the image of women in motion pictures with their unique visual language. These studies not only extend the application of feminist film theory, but also provide new perspectives for understanding gender expression in different cultural contexts.

3. Female Gaze from Female Director

First of all, the female gaze has been a good channel to successfully redefine and represent female characters by female directors in recent development. This tradition breaks down the usual male-narrative pattern and practice in filmmaking, which Greta Gerwig's Little Women can completely embody [8]. For this movie, Gerwig portrays the independence and self-awareness of female protagonists, but also reimagines their stories to expose emotional depth and personal growth [8]. In such a case, the technique breaks the overly male gaze with which female characters are portrayed in a traditional narrative [1]. Traditional narratives are biased in that women are simple and marginalized, while men tend to be the protagonists with complex identities. However, the female gaze in that movie shows the way women protagonists grow and develop in their life trajectories as complete and complex individuals. In Little Women, Gerwig succeeds in taking a non-linear approach to the narrative; therefore, she definitely presents the viewer with the ability for a more deepened understanding of each character's inner world and how they change and grow through the different stages of their lives. This narrative structure, Gerwig uses to disclose that the characters explore their identities, desires, and ideals in the face of a variety of challenges in life. Attention to emotional depth and personal growth contrasts sharply with the male gaze, which would constrain female characters to a shallow image of servicing male characters. Gerwig's female gaze is not only to give more subjectivity and action to the female character, but also underlines the multiple identity and internal contradiction inside the female role. In this movie, all the female characters are not one-sided; they are acting within different social roles. The leading role can be considered as a creator and the daughters, independent women can be the sub-leading parts. By revealing such multi-layered and complex dimensions in the characters, Gerwig gives females more realistic and powerful personalities. “The typical Gerwig woman is a mass – and frequently, a mess – of contradictions” [7]. This easily dismantles the narrative paradigm of traditional cinema-that objectifies female characters, relegating them to the level of mere objects of male desire. This new definition of women not only allows the female sex to dominate the storyline but also gives the audience a whole new perspective in learning and appreciating the diversity and depth of women characters. Gerwig's work utilized subtle emotional portrayals and complex narrative structures to show how women characters were meant to take the initiative in shaping their own destinies in their very life rather than developing as male characters. Supporting the contingency of this practice, the female gaze enriches not only the expression of the female character but also richly fosters innovation and development on a cinematic visual and narrative level.

4. Visual Misogyny

Misogyny also exists in the film industry. Visual misogyny not only manifests itself in the overt objectification of women, but also exists in more insidious ways, such as the trivialization of female-driven films in film criticism. Schowalter, Stevens, and Horvath explore how misogyny in film criticism can diminish the artistic and cultural significance of films featuring female protagonists by devaluing them, thereby perpetuating a culture of mediocrity that glorifies male-dominated narratives that while devaluing stories driven by women [6]. This critical approach not only reflects a resistance to female power, but also highlights the challenges that female directors face in breaking this narrative inertia. The male gaze internalizes the cultural manifestation of misogyny even more in film. The male gaze is not only an external way of viewing, but also a gender bias that is deeply embedded in culture and psychology [2]. Daniel Goldin has mentioned that “The ‘male gaze’ can be understood as objectifying women in two ways, by overgeneralizing and by splitting, and sometimes by combining the two strategies” [2]. This internalized gender bias profoundly affects men's perceptions of women, as well as their evaluations of women's films and women's roles. The female directors therefore have to fight against the external visual culture, but also have to cope with this internalized perception of gender when they redefine the female characters. That is the reason why many women directors create independent films challenging the stigmatization of female-dominated films within the traditional film criticism [4,7]. Warner points out, citing Gerwig's example: not only does her work redefine women's positions in the movies but it also opens up a new path of creativity for other women directors to transcend the tight boundaries of visual misogyny both culturally and psychologically [7]. The effects of visual misogyny have not only dwelled in the representation of women in the movies but also in the audience's reception and critical evaluation of such works. These challenges imply that addressing them, female directors have not only to redefine women's roles through the female gaze but also to extend feminist film theory within a broader cultural context. From this perspective, Roberta Sassatelli interviewed Laura Mulvey and further developed how the advances in the technology of filming have provided new tools for women to express their feminist ideas [3]. As technology evolves, women directors enjoy even greater freedom in visual creativity to construct a unique cinematic language, hence effectively challenging ingrained misogyny in visual media. This technological empowerment enabled female directors to break many traditional visual norms but also granted them more opportunities to display complicated and diversified images of women.

5. Female Gaze with Feminism

Internally connected with feminist ideology, the female gaze also clearly proclaims the rupture with visual and narrative conventions that conventionally have marginalized women. By underlining the complication of the female experience, filmmakers like Greta Gerwig or representatives of the fifth generation of Chinese directors defiantly managed to get away from schematic and misogynistic images of women [4, 7]. This ideological shift is important, as one considers the misogynist backlash that successful, strong female films are prone to in the zeitgeist [6]. Diane Grossman also indicated that while there is some progress being made concerning issues with women in popular culture, there still remain many stereotypes rooted along gender lines [5]. These stereotypes allow for little expression by women and continue to relegate them into their accepted gender roles. It is by female gaze that female directors break not only all the description-occupied stereotypes but also propose a new type of feminist visual language. It rejects the objectification of women in traditional cinema and underlines complexity and diversity within female characters; it contributes to further development in feminism through visual culture. During this time, Greta Gerwig's filmmaking has been particularly striking within a post-#MeToo framework. Not only did Gerwig take up clear feminist discourses through her work, but she also declared her independent voice as that of a woman author [7]. Gerwig's movies-such as Little Women did much more than redefine the place of a female character in cinema [8]. Instead, they sought critical territorial recoveries subverting traditional gender narratives by underlining their inner growth and complexity. Warner further analyzes how Gerwig used her independent filmmaking to become the voice of a new generation of female viewers, giving a new direction to feminist filmmaking. Gerwig's feminine gaze not only shows the depth of women's roles but also constitutes a response to the gender inequality revealed by the #MeToo movement. Via her camera work, Gerwig puts women exactly at the center of the narrative and fills a female character with more subjectivity. This narration breaks the limitation of the male gaze and opens new possibilities regarding women's representation in films, thereby embodying a strong feminist stance in visual culture. Therefore, the female gaze is not a revolt against the male gaze but rather a tangible embodiment of feminist ideology in cinema. Through that gaze, female directors are hence able to invest female characters with more subjectivity and action, making them a strong force in the narration. As an independent female filmmaker who rose in prominence in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Gerwig has had not only artistic but also cultural importance in expressing feminism visually. This narrative strategy not only changes the audience's perception about female characters but also constitutes a powerful support for the dissemination of feminism in popular culture, further promoting visual expression on gender equality. Gerwig's work not only redefined the position of female characters in the cinema but also opened new creative ways for female directors to break free from visual misogyny at both a cultural and psychological level.

6. Transnational Perspective

It is not only in Western movies that the female gaze gets to be applied. The fifth generation of female directors in China also uses it skillfully in their unique cultural contexts. They have criticized norms in gender roles and reshaped the image of female characters [4]. The directors, while expressing their feminist ideas through local cultural films, not only questioned the traditionally conservative definition of gender roles but indeed took one further step forward in their contribution towards a globally advanced feminist theory. This global perspective has underlined the female gaze's applicability everywhere, evidencing how the gaze can be tamed for use as a powerful storytelling tool in varied cultural contexts. Even with differences in cultural contexts from location to location, the female gaze is gradually being mobilized all over the world to question and even subvert traditional gender narratives. One of the good examples of employment of female gaze in this global perspective is observed in the film Girlhood by Céline Sciamma [9]. While taking the viewers through a number of young black girls living in suburban Paris, the movie director masters the use of female gaze in the expression of intricacy of their lives amidst racial, gender, and socioeconomic pressures. This movie frames the struggle and also depicts the coming-of-age story of Marieme regarding growing up through her eyes. The movie breaks away with conventions of representation that have served to marginalize black female subjects but also stages the diversity and complexity of black girls' childhoods on the world stage [9]. The director is the personification of the new genre of Coming of (R)Age through his film, committed to dealing with contemporary narratives focused on growing-up accounts of black girls. Those stories bring out a reformulated version of black girls' identity by quintessentially showcasing anger and struggle against gross racial and gender injustice [10]. It is this kind of narration that gives voice to the anger, strength, and identity of black girls, which was previously ignored or devalued by other narrations. This is possible through photographic techniques and a mix of cultural contexts that allow female directors to work on the expansion of feminist narration boundaries across the world. In the highly à prédominance masculine context of both Western and non-Western film traditions, the female gaze has constituted a powerful tool for female directors in order to express within the films the critique of gender inequality. In perfect ways, Sciamma rendered how well the female gaze could reflect the complex experiences faced by black girls with Girlhood, while mainland Chinese female directors revealed the social status quo through their own narrations. Each of them eloquently expands the possibilities of feminist narratives. The advance in both film technology and feminism has also provided them with a new tool to freely and audaciously express the complexity of women and to redefine women's place and influence in visual culture.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, it is with these that the female gaze employs roles in cinema. This paper examines the way in which female directors have challenged the traditional male narrative paradigm by redefining female characters through the use of the female gaze. Greta Gerwig not only shows the independence and complexity of her female characters, but also empowers them with deeper emotions and personal growth using the female gaze. This approach challenges the male gaze and gives centrality to female characters in film narratives. This paper also shows the reader how widely the female gaze has been used around the globe: be it through directorial filming or reimagining women's images in other cultural contexts-the female gaze became a significant tool in order to fight back against the visual misogyny. It follows that the female gaze is not only a powerful counterbalance, but also a concrete embodiment of feminism in visual culture. Through the efforts of female directors, female characters have won more subjectivity and expressiveness in films, which provides new possibilities for further promotion of gender equality and feminist narratives. In the future, the female gaze will also continue to be a key player in the reshaping of visual culture and gender expression, for it will go on evolving.