The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 41, No. 2 & Volume 42, No. 1 - 48

rority Row (2009) and other similar ﬁlms since
horror ﬁlms do not emphasize romance, which
is a common element in chick ﬂicks (Ferriss
& Young, 2008). The only college movie with
a female lead excluded from this sample was
Mona Lisa Smile (2003) because the ﬁlm centered on Julia Roberts as an instructor.
These parameters led to the identiﬁcation
of eight ﬁlms released between 2000 and
2012. Listing the ﬁlms in chronological order
by release date, Table 1 identiﬁes key information about each ﬁlm, including lead female
characters and gross income earned by each
ﬁlm as of early 2012 (Box Ofﬁce Mojo, n.d.).
Five of the ﬁlms were produced and released
by major motion picture companies; however,
three of the ﬁlms (New Best Friend, Pumpkin,
D.E.B.S.) were on independent labels and presented more complex and diverse representation of college women.

Framework of the Objectifying Gaze
The conceptual framework of the objectifying
gaze (Mulvey, 1975/1999) was used in this

study to examine how ﬁlms present college
women and how society views them. Developed by Mulvey (1975/1999), the concept of
the objectifying gaze deﬁnes ﬁlms as a way
that men help to observe, deﬁne, and control
women. Supported through mainstream
media, the gaze helps to sexualize all women
regardless of what they wear, how they behave,
or what they do within these images or in real
life (Mulvey, 1975/1999). Indeed, media applications of the gaze make it so powerful that
no woman can escape its sexualizing inﬂuence (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997; Mulvey,
1975/1999). As such, the emphasis that the
gaze attaches to sex and physicality means
that a woman's beauty and appearance are
the extent of her value. Women who do not
appear in ways that appeal to the objectifying
gaze suffer from negative commentary and
criticism from both men and other women
suggesting that they have no value (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997). Accordingly, the objectifying gaze functions as a male observation
that exerts power over women both through

Table 1
Films Centered on Female College Students
Film

Main female character(s)

Rating

Release year

Legally Blonde (LB)

Elle Woods

PG-13

New Best Friend (NBF)

Alicia Campbell

R

2002

$46,375

Pumpkin (PUM)

Carolyn McDuffy

PG-13

2002

$308,552

D.E.B.S. (DEBS)

Amy, Lucy Diamond

PG

2004

$97,446

First Daughter (FD)

Samantha Mackenzie

PG

2004

$9,055,921

The Prince & Me (PM)

Paige Morgan

PG

2004

$28,176,497

Sydney White (SW)

Sydney White, Rachel Witchburn

PG-13

2007

$11,892,400

The House Bunny (HB)

48

Shelley Darlingson, Natalie

PG-13

2008

$48,237,389

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

2001

Domestic gross total
$96,520,674

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