Laura mulvey essay. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" by Laura Mulvey 2022-10-21

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Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist and cultural critic who is best known for her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," published in 1975. In this essay, Mulvey discusses the ways in which traditional Hollywood cinema constructs the gaze of the spectator and the role of women as objects of that gaze.

Mulvey begins by discussing the concept of the "male gaze," which refers to the way in which Hollywood films are typically shot and edited in a way that presents women as objects of desire for a male audience. This includes close-ups of women's faces and bodies, as well as camera angles and shot compositions that emphasize the female form. Mulvey argues that this male gaze is a product of the patriarchal society in which these films are made, and that it serves to reinforce traditional gender roles and reinforce the dominance of men over women.

Mulvey also discusses the way in which Hollywood films use the female form as a narrative device, using women as props to advance the plot or as symbols to represent certain themes or ideas. This objectification of women not only reinforces the male gaze, but also reinforces the idea that women are inferior to men and exist only to serve their needs.

In order to challenge this male gaze and objectification of women, Mulvey suggests the use of a feminist counter-cinema that presents women as active subjects rather than passive objects. This could involve techniques such as shooting from the perspective of a female character or using non-traditional narrative structures that challenge traditional gender roles.

Mulvey's essay has had a significant impact on feminist film theory and has influenced the way in which films are analyzed and understood. It has also sparked important conversations about the representation of women in media and the role of the spectator in shaping our understanding of gender roles and power dynamics.

Laura mulveys article visual pleasure and narrative cinema

laura mulvey essay

In examining the opening sequence to Rear Window, the complexity of the gaze can be observed. Classic Hollywood narratives traditionally focus on a male protagonist with an assumed male viewer. The common form of media that promotes these social views is film, and it promotes a patriarchal society. Mulvey builds her critic on mainstream cinema on Freud 's and Lucan 's psychoanalytic theory, in which the key component of her arguement is that there is a difference between viewing of When Mulvey talks about Patriachy and film forms in her article, we can view that her form is seductively direct. It is also discussed that, perhaps, men are unable to even receive the gaze, suggesting them to be hypocritical beings.

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Laura Mullvey Cinema Analysis

laura mulvey essay

If a film can show different individuals and we can recognize how social forces shape and constrain the individual according to classifications of gender it narrates an experience where we experience the film as gendered viewers. The way the camera records and event 2. Believing that her certain sex is superior is a quality that men share and understand and in turn respect. The male protagonist usually drives the action of the film, and he is the one who pauses to enact this objectification of the female character. Anthony's Temperance Movement Marquette Jones Susan B. Laura Mulvey places this fact very strongly in her writing Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, and asserts that this has made a victim of the female gender.

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Laura Mulvey: Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema

laura mulvey essay

Looking past the obvious presence of gender roles male and female that just so happened to be a part of the social norm during that time, Hitchcock sought to represent women with having more depth, realism, and independence than ever before in women in Hollywood. This same pleasure and scopophilia, can be observed through images in film. Some of these movements attained their main goal ā€” the social change. Film reflects and generates out own experience of gender over and above out own recognition and observation of it. When examining this art for the first time, the viewer is thrown into a world of color and emotion.


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Laura Mulvey's The Male Gaze Essay

laura mulvey essay

But without showing grounding themselves in reality, these movies would not have the effect they did. In regards to sport and how female athletes are represented by the media, there is often a lack of diversity to the way in which women are screened. It lowers the value of the women because people just appreciate their body and not appreciate their intellectuals. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. The female character Ellen Ripley leads strong, independent and professional women character.

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Summary Of Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema

laura mulvey essay

The Male Gaze Theory, a feminist theory by Laura Mulvey, was developed in 1975. Codes of Gender unveils methods used in photography to perpetuate the idea that females are dehumanized subordinate objectified figures. Therefore gender are the chief determinant in the process of looking and being looked at in films, where men will have the dominant perspective forā€¦ Male Gaze Analysis The male gaze is a concept that was first coined by Laura Mulvey, in her book 'Visual and Other Pleasures', in which she suggests that angles and lighting in movies are used to objectify and hyper-sexualise female bodies in order to make them more appealing to male viewers. Not only are men portrayed as the dominant and powerful members of the household, women are portrayed as the strong yet submissive ones whom hold together the domestic ground. This is a problem because it affects how people view women in sports.

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Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema

laura mulvey essay

Women still live in a society of discrimination and male dominance, though less apparent, but they possess the power to either challenge or accept the image society and media assigns them, and create their own uniqueā€¦ Women's Empowerment In Teeth The fact that women have breasts and a vagina, unlike men, has brought up the question throughout the week whether these different body parts allow women to feel a source of empowerment, or if it allows men to have power over women through objectification of these body parts? Is it what people do or say? Typically unaware that she is being looked at, the filmic narrative pauses as Bond observes her; her body, her hair, and the revealing or figure-hugging and highly elegant way she presents herself is at the forefront of her representation. At one point she breaks from him and runs to the church tower. Advertising agencies surround us with this stuff day in and day out. This misleading and warped view of men advocates that men are stronger, and aggressive, and any man that has feminist qualities is shamed. However, just because it may be easy to recognize, how it came about is a lot more difficult to explain. Gender Trouble: The Role Of Gender Identity In Cinema 2304 Words 10 Pages The media has long been recognized as important source of gender related information, television and cinema specifically influences its audience in a considerable way. With regards to the concept of gender cinema can offer a space where ambiguities of identities are played out; understanding the play of the categories of femininity and masculinity is very important in evaluating our own understandings of gender and how we react to different representations of it Tasker 2002.


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What is Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory?

laura mulvey essay

Once Jeff is on the phone, he gazes out the window, returning to the same voyeuristic vantage point at the beginning of the scene. In theā€¦ Don Jon Analysis The gender construction follows very closely with the traditional expected roles of men and women in a young, middle-class society. This portrayal of women releases the character of Ripley and eventually feminism. President Wilson did not approve of this or support them. They create certain stereotypes through the role of a gender in order to attract a large audience and interest to sell a product, brand or image. In order for one to change, we must address and change theā€¦ Representation of Women in Horror Since the inventions of television and film, media influences have become extremely important in modern society with people constantly being inundated by images and messages that come from film, television, magazines, internet and advertising. Thus, people grow and learn by watching and doing as they see, and the common way to learn these constructions is through media.

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Laura Mulvey Essays

laura mulvey essay

It is sometimes effortless to discern the social economic status that an individual belongs to, based on their income, appearance, and sometimes even race. The comfort and control that the gaze offers is satisfied in the introduction of the bond girl. Mulvey works with the premise that film is a reflection of the dynamics at work in everyday life. In the short story Out of All Them Bright Stars by Nancy Kress, she puts an alien in a normal dinner and everyone is uncomfortable with his presence there except his waitress. Mulvey argues that the distinctive key protagonist within a classic Hollywood film was male and the audience members where similarly typically expected to be men. The developments in feminist film criticism, recent and not so, point to the investigation of the effects race, ethnicity, class, and sexual preference and the differences between women have on the progress of film.

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