Theoretical Perspectives: Mulvey

Context:

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist theorist and professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London; she was also a filmmaker with 7 films under her belt. Her most famous work would probably be her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" written in 1973, then published in 1975.

Male Gaze:

'The Male Gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents woman as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male view'

In her paper (as mentioned above), Mulvey proposes that sexual inequality (the unbalanced social and political power between women and men) is a leading factor and social force when it comes to filmmaking and the cinematic representations of women within film/media as a general. Within media and feminist theory, the male gaze is conceptually derivative from characteristics of voyeurism, scopophilia and narcissism. The men are seen as the active role and the woman are to be looked as a passive; they are under control of the male gaze and therefore only exist for visual pleasure.

The main thesis is that film is shot from a heterosexual, male perspective; it was made through/for men. Women are objectified rather than an engaged protagonist within the film narrative. So films like James Bond, where there is constant action with a male lead that will end up with a beautiful, sexy girl. The term 'Bond Girl' is the appropriate example of this, as nowadays we even associate the women in the films as Bond's girl  rather than their own character; this mixed with the ideal visualisation of a 'perfect woman' further shows her point. The woman is meant to be an 'erotic object' like an 'object of fantasy'.

She even relates her points to Freudianism with the idea of scopophilia which is the 'pleasure in looking'. This can then be brought back to the initial idea of freudianism and Lacan in which nature and pure inherited sexual desire controls the narrative of human decision. This relates to film in a literal way of that they're meant to be enjoyed by an audience, and by filming through this sexual objectifying framing, they are fulfilling a need of the audience.

Opposing Arguments/Theories:

Of course when Mulvey had written her paper, perspectives of women in society and film were different to how they are nowadays. Though the 21st century is not a massive improvement and still could be considered as living in a patriarchal/men dominated society, there are now more female dominated films, programmes and general media outlets.

The Female Gaze is another feminist film theoretical term; it is the same as the male gaze, but instead is shot from the female perspective. The concept is that it is a refreshed and different view in a film compared to the view of the subject from a male's subject. Examples of this can include films like Wonder Woman (2017) or the soon to be released Captain Marvel. However earlier films of this concept like 27 Dresses or The Devil Wears Prada quickly evolved the theory into 'chick flicks' which whilst shows the 'typical desires of a woman', can also stereotype and ignore women's strength as most films of this genre focus around a heterosexual romance.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_gaze
https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/how-do-we-define-the-female-gaze-in-2018.html

http://www.luxonline.org.uk/articles/visual_pleasure_and_narrative_cinema%28printversion%29.html

https://www.slideshare.net/christimothy12/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze-26381318

https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486

http://www.studentnewspaper.org/laura-mulvey-and-the-male-gaze-in-the-21st-century/

https://www.filminquiry.com/film-theory-basics-laura-mulvey-male-gaze-theory/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdyRGUtfT8