Laura Mulvey's Theory

Feminist Film Theory and Audiences

± Laura Mulvey

± Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

- The theory in the article develops as a logical argument from two assertions:

1. Cinema reflects society 

2. Society is patriarchal

- Patriarchy is a social system in which:

- Males had primary power

- Males predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. 

- Males dominate in the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children.

- It implies the institutions of male domination and entails female subordination. 

- Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage. 

The gaze: 

Laura Muvley's argument is based upon the assertion that :

                                          The 'gaze' of the camera is the male 'gaze'.

- The male gaze is active, the female passive. Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters. Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)

- The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze, because the camera films from the optical, as well as libidinal, point of view of the male characters. 

- Thus three levels of the cinematic gaze - camera, character and spectator- that objectify the female character (the triple gaze).

Audience -> Camera -> Sean Connery -> Ursula Andress

The audience is constructed in such a way that they are compelled to 'gaze' from a male point of view.

Woman are forced to look at the text as though they were a male member of the audience. This occurs through the process of suture.

Agency:

In the classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency- he is active and powerful. He is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds. The female character is passive and powerless - she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience. 

Analysis of music video:

This music video is one of the best examples that can be given to show the effect of Laura Mulvey's theory. This music video sung by Rihanna clearly shows that the males had primary power. This is an example of an illustrative music video which means that the lyrics of the song relate to whats going on within the music video. The themes of sex appeal and subliminal messages are hiding throughout the music video throughout. Rihanna is shown to be wearing clothing that reveals much more skin than it originally should which the media and society could see to be an attractive or sexual element. The attractive, sexual women throughout the music video are pretending to work on cars in a garage, however this does not look realistic as real mechanics would not pull off the moves that they have. The women are to be seen cleaning the cars with a cloth which does not require a lot of skill, which this can support Laura Mulvey's theory to an extent that they are doing this only for the pleasure and excitement for males. Males tend to be big lovers of cars in which this prop has been used to draw more attention to them watching the music video. Mostly all the way through the video the women are seen to be positioned in many positioned that have sexual implications to them which draws the eye to males, in which the females are looking from a males point of view known as 'the male gaze'.