Beth Agar A2 Music Video: Audience Theory (Laura Mulvey: Theory of the Male Gaze)

Laura Mulvey: Theory of the Male Gaze (Feminist Film Theory and Audiences)
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

- The theory laid out in the article develops as a logical argument from two assertions:
1/ Cinema reflects society
2/ Society is patriarchal

Patriarchy: a social system in which:-

1/ Males hold primary power;
2/ Males predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property;
3/ Males dominate in the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children.

- Patriarchy 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.

- Laura Mulvey argues that cinema, television, and other media cultures reflect a patriarchal society.

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

- Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters.

- The audience 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 character. Thus the three levels of the cinematic gaze; camera, character, spectator.

The Triple Gaze:

Audience

Camera

Male Protagonist

Female "Protagonist"

- The Following examples from 'Dr No' and 'Die Another Day' clearly demonstrate the male gaze in action:

- The final example from 'Transformers' follows the gaze of Shia LeBouf's point of view:

Audience:

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

- Women are forced to look at the text as though they were a male member of the audience.

- This occurs through the process of suture

Equal eye-line matches in Casino Royal shows a change in emphasis (the male gaze is no longer dominant and instead the camera's gaze is androgynous):

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 the protagonist and the audience.

Female Agency:

- Riply - Aliens

- Katiness Everdeen The Hunger Games