Laura Mulvey Essays

  • Analysis Of Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema

    1109 Words  | 5 Pages

    Laura Mulvey’s article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema was published in 1975, has set out the concept of visual pleasure and explains it under a system looks in cinema. Her theory points out that men looked at women, men are the subjects of women, and to look at the object position; (women) accept their role of being looked at and creating visual pleasures for men as well as in the social reality. Her approaching is to use the same “political weapon” (“psychoanalytic theory”) that “the unconscious

  • Laura Mulvey's The Male Gaze And Objectification Theory

    2394 Words  | 10 Pages

    The Male Gaze and Objectification Theory In her highly influential essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey proposed the film theory, The Male Gaze. It refers to the way film is generally structured around a masculine viewer and how the feminine view is notably absent even when women view fellow women in film. Describing the tendency in visual culture to depict the world and women from a masculine point of view and in terms of men 's attitudes, she argues that “the most insidious

  • A Feminist Perspective Of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    1460 Words  | 6 Pages

    Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain who is known for her essay on visual pleasures in narrative cinema. Being inspired by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s ideology combined with psychoanalysis, Mulvey comes up with the ‘Male Gaze Theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media. The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and the literature portrays women and world from a masculine point of view presenting women as objects of male pleasure regardless of being

  • Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema Summary

    1125 Words  | 5 Pages

    Response Paper 2 In the article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Laura Mulvey argues that the pleasure produced by narrative cinema reproduces an unconscious patriarchal structure of sexual divisions. It does so by appealing to our pleasure in looking – scopophilia (Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, p. 16) and to narcissistic primordial impulse to see our lives reflected in idealized ways that are in fact diliated, but important. She talks about emotions and how they work on us

  • Feminist Perspective In Hitchcock's Vertigo

    892 Words  | 4 Pages

    this week. Laura Mulvey’s theory that we are in a sense forced to watch movies through a male perspective as objects for their pleasure, was written at the height of the feminist movement, noted as the “Male Gaze,” ran prevalent throughout this movie. It is unfortunate that Mulvey, while taken seriously, as her writing still resonates today, was unable to change the ways in which the film industry still views women.The entertainment industry and advertising have only become worse. Mulvey, in a sense

  • Essay On Rear Window

    934 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Laura Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she writes about the relationship between voyeurism, cinema, and gender. She begins by describing the concept of scopophilia, which means to gain pleasure from looking. She writes that scopophilia is inherently active/masculine, and that pleasure is derived from looking at other people as mere objects. On the other hand, the passive/feminine is derived from the experience of being looked at (pg.188). Mulvey sees this binary relationship

  • Dreamworld 3 Analysis

    788 Words  | 4 Pages

    to get more viewers. Sexuality, in women, became a necessary part to a music video which reflects each culture. Dreamworld, written and narrated by Sut Jhally, reflect the use and the representation of woman in music videos by man. First, for Laura Mulvey, “male gaze” is the pleasure of looking at women with their appearance related to an erotic impact. They are used as sexual object to fulfil man’s desires. Similarly, Dreamworld 3 shows women in music videos as a key for sexuality. Men are there

  • Mad Men Gender Analysis

    1254 Words  | 6 Pages

    Furthermore, according to Mulvey, when women are displayed on screen, they possess a quality called “to-be-looked-at-ness,” which means that a woman’s appearance on screen is constructed to be put on “visual display” and she is expected to“exhibit herself to our gaze.” Ultimately

  • Our Bodies Film Analysis

    1948 Words  | 8 Pages

    story forward. As the audience identifies with the male spectator in the film, they indulge in their perspective, giving that male control of what is perceived as an object, and in the case of a woman, how that woman is periodically portrayed. Laura Mulvey suggests that the female figure also has a deeper problem. “Her lack of a penis, implying a threat of castration and hence unpleasure.” The sexual difference between male and female is what makes the woman an icon, giving the male a gaze of something

  • Disney Princesses Analysis

    1183 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many girls dream of their knight in shining armor, a perfect wedding, and a happily ever after ending. Disney princesses give them hope to find love and happiness along with emphasizing their want for the beauty and grace princesses illustrate. Authors of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” and “The Princess Paradox,” Peggy Orenstein and James Poniewozik respectively, agree that most girls like princesses. However, these articles convey differing parental opinions on lessons girls learn from princesses

  • The Handmaid's Tale And The Bloody Chamber Analysis

    1647 Words  | 7 Pages

    realities of oppressive patriarchy through the female body, Carter utilises the construct of the Marquis in the eponymous story ‘The Bloody Chamber’ as a grotesque embodiment of patriarchal control. In her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ Laura Mulvey coined the feminist term ‘male gaze.’ She argues that men are the audience and women are to embody the male perspective of women as objects of satisfaction. This is particularly apt when considering Carter’s use of gustatory imagery ironically

  • Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers Movie Analysis

    1947 Words  | 8 Pages

    In Kathleen Karlyn’s third chapter of Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers, she states how Girl World is ambivalent. Not only is Girl World unruly because the films place female desire as a focal point in the film, thereby validating the existence of female desire, while also being manufactured by the ideologies of patriarchal and postfeminist cultures with female power stopping at basic normative femininity. The film The Devil Wears Prada (2006) finds itself in agreement with both of these ideas. On

  • Miss Piggy Kenya Brennan Analysis

    743 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many ideas as to what makes a feminist icon. Samantha Brennan discusses about a childhood female character that represents feminism and a body-confident role model. In her article "Miss Piggy's Feminism, Redefining Human Relationships through Martial Arts" Brennan creates an educational diction through viewing how Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show has the potential to be a feminist icon. Writing with a proud and didactic tone throughout her article, she shows how Miss Piggy's character is

  • Relationship Between Pop Culture And High Culture

    770 Words  | 4 Pages

    What is the relationship between popular culture and high culture? In this essay I intend to explore the terms popular culture and high culture and I will also look at how the relationship between these two terms has become distorted and blurred over time. In order to reinforce what I am saying about popular and high culture I will

  • Essay On Gender Representation In Mass Media

    2285 Words  | 10 Pages

    The representation of gender in mass communications has been a hugely debated topic for years and will continue to be one for many more years to come. The media plays a big role in how they want to portray a gender to the public. 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. Media is so important in today’s society, people spend hours and hours each day watching TV, browsing the Internet and reading

  • Temptation Of Saint Hilarion Analysis

    716 Words  | 3 Pages

    The oil painting “Temptation of Saint Hilarion” by Octave Tassaert was painted in 1857. When examining this art for the first time, the viewer is thrown into a world of color and emotion. As our eyes grow accustomed to the image, we start to understand the message behind the madness. In the next few paragraphs, we will analyze Tassaert work by looking in depth at the form, technique of the subject matter and the historical elements behind them. To begin, the art piece, “Temptation of Saint Hilarion”

  • The Way Up To Heaven Roald Dahl Analysis

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    What makes people kill? Is it what people do or say? The author’s name is Roald Dahl. There are many similarities and differences between the “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Way Up to Heaven.” The lamb is the weapon that slaughters or kills the husband and the elevator is the highway that rides up to heaven or to death’s door. Roald Dahl intrigues readers with two distinct stories about murder that share similarities in various ways, revealing that things are not always what they seem. The stories

  • Bread And Roses Analysis

    1668 Words  | 7 Pages

    The movie “Bread and Roses” really gives the viewer a clear sign of what it is like being employed in a minimal paying job, while belonging to the lower class. It is sometimes effortless to discern the social economic status that an individual belongs to, based on their income, appearance, and sometimes even race. However, just because it may be easy to recognize, how it came about is a lot more difficult to explain. The occurrence of the events in the movie “Bread and Roses” can be explained by

  • Female Empowerment In The Film 'Maleficent'

    1999 Words  | 8 Pages

    A film may be considered as a commercial enterprise whose business is the selling of entertainment. However, certainly it offers more than that, it tells a story, a reflection of the way a society works and how its people function in relation to ideology and culture which are constantly developing and changing. Given that, Maleficent is one of the movies which show this shifting trend, it moves from an unrealistic plot of women waiting to be saved by a man to an era of portraying women as heroes

  • Out Of All Them Bright Stars Literary Analysis

    1175 Words  | 5 Pages

    Language is used everyday in lives. We use it to communicate with each other to show how we feel or think. Comfort can drift away from us if we do not have the ability to communicate with others. Barriers can present themselves when trying to communicate inhibiting language. 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. At first she refers to him as “it”, but once she