LAURA MULVEY’S THEORY

SAEED MOULAI

WHO IS LAURA MULVEY?Laura Mulvey (born 15 August 1941, 75 years old) is a British feminist film theorist. She went to university at St Hilda’s college in Oxford. At the moment, she is a professor of film and media at Birbeck, University Of London. Before this, she worked at the British Film Institute for many years.

WHAT IS MULVEYS THEORY?• In the 1973 book “visual pleasure and narrative cinema”, Mulvey wrote an essay about the “Male Gaze

theory”. This has gone on to become a very well known and well discussed theory.

• Her theory states that in film and Television, the “male gaze” occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male, for example a scene may focus on the curves or breasts of a woman, putting you the viewer in the eyes of the male.

• However, it is only the “male gaze” theory if these curves are highlighted with specific conventions such as slow motion, deliberate camera movements and cutaways.

THE 9 MAIN FEATURES• There are 9 main features to Mulvey’s theory, these are:

• The representation of woman in a sexual fantasy and from a heterosexual males point of view

• Scopophillia - the pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies

• Patriarchal society

• Objectification of female characters

• Active male and passive female

• Men - controlling subjects

• Women as an image

• Needs of male ego

• Men do the looking and the woman are there to be looked at

CONTROVERSIES OF “MALE GAZE”• Although some women others believes it makes them feel more sexy and womanly in themselves, many

people believe that it is wrong that the woman is portrayed in this way, and that it is wrong for the feminine rights.

• Some have complained that the theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity and demeans them to the status of an object to be admired for physical appearance.

• Others have also complained that the theory suggests that in some cases women can only watch the film/video from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a mans perspective

• In more recent times in the 21st century through the rise of feminism the “male gaze” theory is being picked up and scrutinized much more often.

EXAMPLE OF MULVEYS THEORY – ANACONDA – NICKI MINAJ

• Mulveys theory of the “male gaze” can be applied in many types of media texts, as it is relevant to my work I will talk about the use of it in music videos.

• In Nicki Minaj’s video Anaconda, the male gaze can be seen straight from the opening scene, this can be seen by the way that they are dressed in highly revealing clothing and that they are positioned to be portrayed in a sexual way.

The clip of females excercising in the gym reinforces the idea that women care a lot about their look, and want to look good for men.Nicki Minaj, is in the middle of this shot and is wearing less, more revealing clothing than the rest of the females featured in the shot. This places much importance on her and implies that her body should be aspired to.

In my opinion this video supports the idea that men are there to be impressed and the women are there to impress the men. This is very obvious at the end of the video where a male, Drake, is sat down above Nicki Minaj the female, as she dances provocatively in front of him whilst lying on the floor. Having said that, this shot slightly contradicts Mulveys theory because it is showing the male sat down and having a passive role whilst the female has an active role as she is trying to seduce him.