The Pink Bag series, yet again, had a full house this week with Dr. Janet Haedicke’s talk “Dolls in Modern Drama”. The talk focused on presentation of female roles in American dramas and the effect that the restricting setups have on the viewers’ perspective.

According to Dr. Haedicke, women have always been portrayed as the passive, lacking half: an object rather than a subject in American dramas. She talked about the 50’s “accepted” family structure which assigned the father an instrumental role and the mother, an expressive role.

Kallie Etheridge, a junior English major said, “The males have suffered, too, because of the binary divisions which require them to be super powerful, while we are powerless. There’s no equality in that. I really like how she (Dr. Haedicke) emphasized this.”

Even though the talk focused on American dramas, the problem of “male gaze” very much affects modern day movies and their viewers.

“People should go see whatever they want to go see. But just be aware you’re not totally seduced by the image and by that boundary that makes us polarized. No matter what course I teach, I always teach that we’ve got to get beyond those oppositions,” Haedicke said.

Rebekah Barnes, a second year English graduate student, said that she sees evidence of “dolled up perspectives” in much of what she reads.

“After reading “Visual Pleasure” my initial reaction to film was compromised because it is quite easy to see the objectification of women and the uncontrollable want to connect to the (usually) male protagonist,” Barnes admitted.