Lecture series: The love of the automobile. Gender analyses beyond stereotypes and neutrality
TU Braunschweig, 9 June 2015, organized by Corinna Bath, Göde Both, Vanessa Krogmann.
The automobile can be understood as a symbol, medium and stage for the meaning, transmission and performance of gender constructions.
This is particularly evident in cinematic representations, which this culturally oriented lecture aims to trace in three steps:
Firstly, the automobile serves the feature film as a means of staging hegemonic masculinity. This is particularly evident in the male-coded duels of cinematic car chases.
Secondly, however, the automobile is a highly ambivalent object that female film characters can use to reinterpret the prevailing gender order.
Cinematographic imaginations of female drivers also enter into a special relationship with the accident. The third section is dedicated to this topic.