Laura Mulvey analyzed how mainstream films appeal to the "male gaze" through the representation of women and the act of spectatorship. She argued that most films are made from the perspective of male directors for a male audience. This results in active male characters and passive female characters who are presented for visual pleasure. The male spectator can gain narcissistic pleasure through identifying with male heroes and voyeuristic pleasure through objectifying and fetishizing female characters.

1. Laura Mulvey
Feminist Film Theory and
‘The Male Gaze’


2. Pleasurable Spectatorship
 Laura Mulvey analysed the way men and
women were represented in films, and
speculated about how this would appeal to a
spectator.
 She mixed psychoanalytic film theory (the ideas
of Freud and Lacan) for a ‘politically feminist’
end.
 She said that ‘spectatorship’ and the act of
looking itself provided a form of sexual
gratification

3. Scopophilia and Voyeurism
 Scopophilia = Freud’s phrase for when
we get sexual pleasure from looking at
other people
 but Mulvey also noted that Freud said
people feel guilty when getting
pleasure in this way.

4. Scopophilic pleasure
 Mulvey suggested that cinema was the
ideal place to get ‘scopophilic’ pleasure
because
1. the people in the film aren’t aware the
spectator is watching
2. no-one else can see the spectator getting
pleasure because the theatre is in
darkness, plus everyone else is watching
the screen.

5.  Mulvey said the cinema provides
voyeuristic pleasure: pleasure achieved
through watching others who don’t know
they’re being observed

6. ‘Mirror Stage’
 Jacques Lacan was a psychoanalyst who expanded and
developed Freudian ideas.
 Lacan said this is a stage in child’s development where they
recognise themselves in other people with similar features.
 Child develops sense of ‘self’ and ‘Other’ that influence it’s
thinking for the rest of its life.

7. Link back to Mulvey
 Mulvey used Lacan’s idea
about the importance of
seeing your self ‘visually
reflected’ to explain why
people like films.
 When we see a character on
the screen like us, we identify
with it – and this helps
reinforce our sense of self.

8. Mulvey’s Conclusions
 Most mainstream films are made by male
filmmakers for male spectators
 This results in ACTIVE (Hero) male characters
and PASSIVE (Object) Female characters

9. How do these appeal to the (male)
spectator?
 Mulvey said that mainstream films appeal to the
‘Male Gaze’
 Women are presented as something pleasurable
for the male spectator to look at;
 In her own words, popular films “are obsessively
subordinated to the neurotic needs of the male
ego”.

10. Narcissistic identification
 Narcissus was a figure in Greek mythology, a boy who
was so attractive he fell in love with his own reflection
 Narcissism = loving your own image
 Narcissistic identification = male spectator sees male
hero on screen and gets pleasure by both feeling similar
to the hero and admiring/loving the idealised image of
masculinity

11. Voyeuristic Objectification
 Voyeuristic objectification =
when the male spectator gets
pleasure by desiring the
female character, and feeling
he owns her because she is
passive (like an object) and
because he can look at her
with out guilt (because she
doesn’t know she is being
watched)

12. Fetishisation
 Mulvey also noted that sometimes there were active female
characters, especially those portrayed by a female star.
 However, she said that these weren’t characters that were
presented for the female spectator to identify with..
 … instead their power seemed to be based around their
beauty.

13. Fetishisation cont’d
 She said that female beauty was fetishised
 A fetish is when a source of fear becomes a source of
pleasure.
 Humans don’t like feeling scared and anxious – so,
psychologically, they sometimes turn a source of fear
into something that gives pleasure
 So… a male spectator, made anxious by a female
characters empowered actions, can turn her into a
source of visual pleasure by concentrating on her beauty
and sexiness.

14. Problems with Mulvey
One main problem is that she didn’t do any audience research, she
based all her ideas on her own analysis of films.
Completely disregards female audience
No reference to gay/lesbian couples (narcissistic identification)
out-dated because there are more videos promoting female
empowerment and gay relationships.