2. LAURA MULVEY – MALE GAZE
Laura mulvey uses psychoanalysis to discover where and how the
fascination of film is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination
already at work within the spectators. She says that using the
psychoanalytic theory is like using a political weapon.
3. Mulvey says that mainstream narrative cinema manipulates visual
pleasure by coding the erotic into the language of the dominant
patriarchal order, introducing the male gaze; becaise of the active
male and passive female, women are forced to see music videos and
other forms of media through the perspective of a male, for example
in the music video of Rihanna – hate that I love you and Katy Perry –
california girls where the target audience is female although the
video is clearly shot for the male gaze…….
4. SCOPOPHILIA
Sigmund Freud introduced scopophilia (the pleasure of looking) into
Laura Mulveys theory of the male gaze. Figural looking which is the
most pleasureable at looking at the human race and form.
However…
This only happens for the male gaze, so the male get pleasure of
looking at females through the media, and it is very rare that music
videos in particular will shoot it through the female gaze (watching
through the female perspective of attractive men).
5. FETISHISTIC SCOPOPHILIA
There is an issue with fetishistic scopophilia that men percieve the women as
threatening with fear of becoming feminine.. The fear however is resolved
through demystyfying her mystery or reassuring the male audience that she is
only a sex symbol by revealing parts of her body through close up shots to
break her down before showing her whole self which takes away her power
and allows men to feel superior.
6. Freuds theory of figural looking therefore makes it acceptable for the male
gaze and for males to enjoy watching women.. But should there be more
boundaries, is it really acceptable for women to gyrate in their underwear
simply for the male gaze?....
Opinions..
7. Laura Mulvey goes as far as to say that women do not develop the narrative of
a movie and instead just freeze it. This can be seen in the James Bond movies
and The Transformers. Mulvey claims their purpose is to simply please male
spectators and act as a sex icon to the other characters
8. CONCLUSION
The male gaze is still dominant in our society although it is not as patriotic as
when Laura Mulvey created her theory, this is therefore showing that the
media is going to carry on being dominated by the male gaze and that as our
society develops artists are going to have to do more and more and become
more erotic because the way it has been accepted into our culture and even
when females are watching these music videos they don’t even question the
fact that they are taking pleasure in watching other women, however if it was
male watching male they would be threatened by their masculintiy because of
the way society has constructed the view on scopophilia and what is
acceptable for how people view each other.
