Feminist Film Theory and Audiences

Laura Mulvey and her her essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1970).

• She beleived cinema reflects society. Therfore cinema reflects a patriarchal society. (patriarchal = a society lead by and for men)

HOW DOES A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY MANIFEST ITSELF IN CINEMA?

Example : Patriarchly and phallocentrism are linked.

• The phallus (male genitals) is the symbol of power.
• NOTE HOW GUNS ARE USED IN FILMS.

GUNS = PHALLUSS = POWER

eg. When a both man has a "mid-life crisis" they buy themselves phallic objects (sports cars).

THE GAZE

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

• The male gaze is active, the famle passive.
• Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters.
• The specators made to identify with the male look, becuase the camera films from the optical well as libidinal, point of view of the male character.
• Thus three levels of the cinematic gaze - camera, chracter and spectator - the objectify (sexual gaze/glorifies woman) the famel character (the triple gaze).
• Therfore the audience is constructed as though everyone was male.Women are forced to look as though they were a male audience member.

AGENCY

• In the classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency (he is active and powerful).
• He is the agent around whom the drmatic action unfolds.
• The famle character is passive and powerless - she is the object of deisre for the protagonist and audience.

EROTIC DESIRE

Mulvey argues that women have two role in film:

1. As an object of erotic desire for the characters.
2. As an object of erotic desire for the audience.