Feminist Film Theory and Pretty Woman

In Feminist Film Theory and Pretty Woman, Mari Ruti traces the development of feminist film theory from its foundational concepts such as the male gaze, female spectatorship, and the masquerade of femininity to 21st-century analyses of neoliberal capitalism, consumerism, postfeminism, and the revival of “girly” femininity as a cultural ideal. By interpreting Pretty Woman as a movie that defies easy categorization as either feminist or antifeminist, the book counters the all-too-common critical dismissal of romantic comedies as mindless drivel preoccupied with trivial “feminine” concerns such as love and shopping. The book's lucid presentation of the key concerns of feminist film theory, along with its balanced reading of Pretty Woman, shed light on a Hollywood genre often overlooked by film critics: the romantic comedy.

Mari Ruti is Professor of critical theory at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is the author of several books, most recently The Singularity of Being: Lacan and the Immortal Within (2012), The Call of Character: Living a Life Worth Living (2013), and Between Levinas and Lacan: Self, Other, Ethics (2015).

Introduction
Section 1: Feminism and Feminist Film Theory
Section 2: Feminist Film Theory and Pretty Woman
Conclusion (5,000 words)
Filmography
Bibliography
Index