Notes on Laura Mulvey, "The Gaze" and
"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
(1975)| Thornham "Feminist Media and Film
Theory (1998)
LINKS
A definition of "the Gaze" | Some Good explanatory notes | A Summary
Notes on "The Gaze"
The Piano and the Gaze
The Gaze, pp. 427-9
What is "the gaze" exactly? -- describes the act of looking; began as
the study of the objectification of women in visual texts.
How does it impact women in particular?
What are some of the issues involved in discussing "the gaze"?
the objectification of women-- seen as objects
the commonalaity of female nudity -- display implies subordination
internalization of the gaze, changes women's perceptions of
themselves and makes them think of themselves as objects
shift to objectification as a source of pleasure (for both the looker
and the looked-at)
men as the dominant group have been the looker (the subjects;
women the objects)
ties back to another aspect of teh feminist critique of Freud-- the
degree to which Freudian theory iis based on visual dynamics
Laura Mulvey Vvisual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
438 I. INTRODUCTION
a) A Political Use of Psychoanalysis
Film reflects the langauge of partriarchy by being bound up in the same story
of sexual difference that all patriarchy is founded on. In film women is seen
as Other, as an object not a subject. In a way she represents the unconscious
of the male because she is always the object he is looking at and never is able
to speak for herself.
Phallocentrism -- a world view which sees the penis (symbolic and otherwise) as
the defining center of meaning. In other words-- there is a central, stable
meaning to things; that meaning is defined largely by men who associate their
power to name and define and control reality with their masculinity.
Symbolic Order -- the realm of meaning controlled by the Law of the Father
(in Lacan's theorizing): the language of partriachy. As opposped (by Kristeva)
to the Imaginary -- the primal language of connectiona sscoiated with pre-
Oedipal bonding with the mother.
b) Destruction of Pleasure as a Radical Weapon
Hollywood film reflects the dominant ideology of their culture. We get our
pleasure from films from this presentation of the erotic. If we learn to make
films which do not encode these ideologies, a lot of people will lose their
pleasure in looking at film.
Mise-en-scene means staging an action. It is historically to do with directing
plays, and became later to do with film to express how the material in the
frame is directed.
440 II. PLEASURE IN LOOKING/ FASCINATION WITH THE
HUMAN FORM
a) Film satisfies this primal pleasure we all get from looking at other people.
scopophilia - - the pleasure we get from looking, in seeing other people as objects. We get a
sense of power from being able to do this. With John Berger she believes the one who looks
has the power.
Voyeristic scopophilia --
b) Narcissistic scopophilia is looking at other people as seeing them as surrogates for
yourself. We also identify with people in movies. So there is a tension here between the
sense of power we get from observing others as separate from ourselves and the pleasure we
get in imagining that we are the people we are looking at.
the mirror stage:
c) tension between these impulses-- to see others as separate and to identify with them
442 III. WOMAN AS IMAGE, MAN AS BEARER OF THE LOOK
a) Split between male, active gaze which looks and female passivity which is looked upon.
Women are always on display in film. Seen as objects of sexual desire; this is trasnsformed
into exhibitionism. Visual presence of female tends to stop the stroy line to dwell on the
image.
diegesis -- "In a narrative film, the world of the film's story. The diegesis includes events
that are presumed to have occurred and actions and spaces not shown onscreen. " source
Buddy pictures
Why are so many women in film showgirls, strippers, etc.
b) Gender split carries over into narrative of film--men carry the story, make things happen,
while woman remains icon.
c1) Problems with woman as icon:
444 c1a) voyeurism -- sadistic desire to punish woman for her lack
c1b) fetishistic scopophilia -- builds up beauty of womanin order to compensate for
anxiety
C2) Examples: Sternberg's Dietrich films show festishism. Hitchcock--
447 SUMMARY
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Thornham "Feminist Media and Film Theory"
Who is Betty Friedan and what is "the feminine mystique"
What are the methods and values Thornham describes as typical of first generation
American feminist mimetic criticism?
What is the British critique of early Images of Women crit?
What is ideology and how does it work?
What shift did Mulvey's essay make?
What are some of the issues left unresolved by Mulvey's approach?
What is cultural studies?
What are some of the ways that the female spectator can escape being trapped by
dominant ideologies?
What are the four central issues she identifies at teh end of the article?
