Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" Part Two: Identification
TLDRThe video analyzes Laura Mulvey's concept of the 'male gaze' in cinema. It outlines the two key components - gazing at women as erotic objects, and identifying with the male protagonist. It then explores how classical Hollywood films are structured around male desires and perspectives. The video highlights Vertigo and Rear Window as exemplifying these qualities. Finally, it suggests avant-garde films may escape the male gaze by having women look back at the viewer, lacking narrative structure, and moving the camera robotically without a masculine presence guiding it.
Takeaways
- 😀 The male gaze has two components according to Laura Mulvey: looking at women as objects, and identifying with a male protagonist
- 👀 Mulvey connects identification with male protagonists to Jacques Lacan's mirror stage theory of development
- 🎥 Classical Hollywood films revolve around a male point of view structurally and narratively
- 🎞 Rear Window and Vertigo exemplify Mulvey's theory of the male gaze
- 😡 Films 'punish' women to overcome the threat they pose by signifying castration and lack
- 💖 Fetishistic overvaluation of women also serves to mitigate this threat
- 👀 Jeff only finds Lisa interesting when she enters the voyeuristic 'movie space'
- 😠In Vertigo, Scottie sadistically forces Judy to conform to his fetishized image of Madeleine
- 🎥 Avant-garde films can thwart the male gaze by having women look back, avoiding narrative, etc.
- 🤔 Mulvey calls for avant-garde films as an antidote to the problems of Hollywood's male gaze
Q & A
What are the two components of the male gaze according to Laura Mulvey?
-The two components are: 1) Looking at women as erotic objects or spectacles, and 2) Identifying with the male protagonist in the narrative.
How does Mulvey connect the male gaze to Jacques Lacan's mirror stage theory?
-Mulvey sees an analogy between classical Hollywood spectators identifying with often white, heterosexual male protagonists on screen, and Lacan's theory about how children first recognize themselves in a mirror image.
What does Mulvey mean when she says that women signify castration in film narratives?
-Mulvey argues that women pose a threat to male power in patriarchal society. Their appearance in film is both erotic (gaze) and threatening (castration anxiety) from a psychoanalytic perspective.
What are the two narrative solutions Mulvey identifies for overcoming the threat posed by women in film?
-The two solutions are: 1) Sadistic voyeurism - punishing the woman, like in Vertigo, and 2) Fetishistic scopophilia - overvaluing the woman's visual perfection to make her less human, like in Sternberg films.
How does Rear Window exhibit fetishistic scopophilia according to Mulvey?
-Mulvey argues that Lisa's character is obsessively interested in fashion and visual style, exhibiting herself as a passive image. When she enters Jeff's voyeuristic space, becoming an object to be looked at, she becomes interesting to him.
Why does Judy allow Scottie to treat her so abusively in Vertigo?
-Mulvey sees Judy's acceptance of Scottie's abusive behavior as a kind of masochism that allows her to compromise her autonomy out of her love for him.
How does the avant-garde film La Soufrière differ from the qualities of the male gaze?
-Unlike films exhibiting the male gaze, La Soufrière has the female protagonist look back at the camera/audience, lacks a clear narrative structure, and has a camera that moves without respect to a masculine perspective.
What does Mulvey argue is the purpose of making avant-garde films?
-Mulvey wants feminist and other filmmakers to make avant-garde films that subvert and suppress the male gaze found in classical Hollywood cinema.
How does Rear Window's narrative resolve Jeff's problem according to Mulvey?
-The narrative resolves Jeff's dissatisfaction with Lisa and fears of marriage when Lisa enters his voyeuristic space, becoming an erotic object for him to look at with renewed interest.
What does subjective camera mean and how does Vertigo use it?
-Subjective camera means the camera's perspective represents that of a character. Vertigo uses subjective shots aligned with Scottie's point of view throughout the narrative.
Outlines
😞 Mulvey's key idea: male gaze has two components - eroticizing women and identifying with men
Paragraph 1 introduces the key question: what are the two components of the male gaze per Laura Mulvey's theory? The male gaze is often simplified as just men objectifying women, but Mulvey argues there are two crucial parts: 1) looking at women as erotic objects, and 2) identifying with the male protagonist in films. She connects this idea of identification to Jacques Lacan's mirror stage theory of how children develop self-identity. In classical Hollywood films structured around male leads, the audience is encouraged to identify with the man's perspective, desires, and story arc.
😢 Narratives resolve threat of women via sadistic punishment or goddess-like overvaluation
Paragraph 2 continues exploring narrative implications of Mulvey's theory. Since women on screen are both erotic spectacles yet also signify threat of emasculation, classical narratives have two approaches: 1) Sadistic punishment of women (e.g. Vertigo), or 2) overvaluing women as flawless goddesses (e.g. Von Sternberg films). Rear Window does something similar by framing Kelly's character Lisa solely as an object to be looked at, only interesting when she enters Jeff's voyeuristic space.
🎥 Avant-garde films can subvert structure of male gaze
Paragraph 3 concludes by noting Mulvey advocates for avant-garde films that subvert these narrative patterns sustaining the male gaze, giving the example of an experimental feminist film La Souriante. Key techniques include: women confronting the camera gaze directly, lacking conventional story structure, camera moves that avoid a masculine perspective. Such films thwart qualities of mainstream movies that perpetuate gender power imbalances.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡male gaze
💡objectification
💡voyeurism
💡sadistic
💡masochism
💡scopophilia
💡avant-garde
💡castration
💡punishment
💡identification
Highlights
The male gaze has two components: looking at women as objects, and identifying with a male protagonist
The mirror stage is when a child recognizes themselves as an image in a mirror
Classical Hollywood films revolve around a male point of view through subjective camera and narrative design
Women appearing on screen often halt the story's action and are presented as erotic objects of the male gaze
Stories overcome the threat posed by women through sadistic punishment or overvaluing them
Rear Window exhibits fetishistic scopophilia in its idealized depiction of Lisa
In Vertigo, Scottie voyeuristically spies on Madeleine before meeting her
Scottie forces Judy to conform to his fetishized image of Madeleine
Judy exhibits masochism in accepting Scottie's punishment
The nun punishing Judy's death embodies the sadistic narrative design
Mulvey calls for avant-garde films to subvert the male gaze
La Chamade has a confrontational female gaze directed at the audience
La Chamade lacks a masculine narrative structure
The camera moves robotically without a masculine perspective
La Chamade defeats voyeurism through the woman's gaze back at the audience
Transcripts
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