Feminist Film Theory and Audiences

Laura Mulvey is the theorist behind this theory and she wrote a book called visual pleasure and narrative cinema (1975).

Cinema reflects society

Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society

The Gaze:

• The ‘gaze’ of the cinema is the male gaze.
• The male gaze is active the female gaze is passive
• Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters
• The spectator is mad to identify with the male gaze, because the camera films from the optical, as well as libidinal point of view of the male character.
• Thus there are three levels of the cinematic gaze- camera, character and spectator- that objectify the female character (the triple gaze).
• Therefore the audience is constructed a though everyone was male.
• Women are forced to look at the text as though they are a male member of the audience.
• This occurs through the process of suture.

Agency:

- In the classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency- he is active and powerful.

- He is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds.

- The female character is passive and powerless- she is the object of desire for the protagonist and the audience.

Erotic Desires:

Laura Mulvey argues that women have two roles in films

1.           as an object of erotic desire for the characters
2.       as an object of erotic desires for the audiences