Analysis of theories and theorists

LAURA MULVEY

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness."

Biography:

• Born in Oxford on 15 August 1941
• studied history at Oxford University
• she came to prominence in the early 1970s as a film theorist
• much of her early work investigated questions of spectatorial identification and its relationship to male gaze
• the 1975 essay Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema helped establish feminist film theory as a legitimate field of study
• the most influential of Mulvey and Wollen collaborative films, Riddle of the Sphinx (1977), presented avant-garde film as a space in which female experience could be expressed
• She is now a Professor of Film and Media studies at Birkbeck college, University of London

Theories:

• Mulvey argues that in classic hollywood films in particular, women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men
• Her theory of the Male gaze was influenced by the works of Freud
• the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men
• This male gaze is both voyeuristic and fetishish
• Her concept of "to-be-looked-at-ness" exemplifies that women were merely shown on screen in classic hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have erotic impact
• Mulvey argued that the typical key protagonist within a classic hollywood film was male and the audience members where similarly typically expected to be men
• the typical male audience are alligned by the film's protagonist by identifcation, admiration and aspiration
• In a lot of Hollywood movies in which the target audience is male, events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a male's reaction to the events and she also believes that female viewer's must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification of a male.

A film that somewhat challenges the male gaze theory is 'Top Gun'. There is a scene in this film in which several male characters are seen playing volleyball on the beach. This scene does not serve any purpose in progressing the narrative further or provide anything useful for the audience. It is there simply for voyeuristic reasons to appeal to a female audience. In particular the camera shots have intentionally focused on the character's body's.

A film that represents Mulvey's theory is 'Fast and Furious' as the main aim of the women featuring in the movie is too simply look good and attract the male audience. The camerawork has intentionally allowed a firm focus on the women, which is an example of objectification. The film clearly has been constructed to be visually interesting for a male audience and the women are there to merely look attractive to the men.