Title: The Last Summer
Released:May 3, 2019
Produced by: Mike Karz
Access on: Netflix
Netflix Summary: Teens from a Chicago high school grapple with their dreams, relationships and identities in a transformative summer before they leave for college.
Gaze Theory: This film is mostly told from the male characters’ perspectives. The teenagers just graduated high school and are deciding what to do for their last summer vacation before they go to college. Most of them focus entirely on love and sex. One male character creates a list of girls in his town that he would like to have sex with before the summer ends. Although this is not a form of gaze theory, it depicts women as objects for male pleasure. In one scene, a girl from his list walks up to him and the audience sees her from his point of view or through his male gaze. As she walks up to him the video is in slow motion and highlights her boobs bouncing up and down as she walks. Similarly, as he gazes upon another girl on his list as she rubs lotion on herself. The audience sees shots of just her boobs and legs as she touches herself which is an example of gaze theory as well as feminine touch (Goffmanian Analysis). Another female character is sexualized by an older man. Despite being much older than her, he shows romantic interest in her. This also portrays the sexualization of teenage girls because she is fresh out of high school. We also see this occur with one of the male teenage characters who sleeps with an older woman. In both cases teenagers are sexualized and objectified. Overall, the entirety of the movie focuses on teenagers love interests and their sex lives. The male characters experience some sexualization but nowhere near the amount that female characters do and unlike female characters they are not objectified.
Effects: This film tells teenage girls and boys that it is okay to overly sexualize each other. The male character who had a list of girls he wanted to sleep with ends up getting laid which tells boys this type of behavior is okay and rewarded. As for teenage girls watching, it tells them that this type of behavior is okay from boys and should be rewarded with sex. Once again, this film portrays teenagers as entirely focused around love and sex when there are other important aspects during this period of life such as college.
Shared by: Olivia Smidel
Image Credit: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7957694/