Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze Summarised

Laura Mulvey and her theory of the Male gaze influenced by the works of Freud, is key to the Feminist Film theory movement and has been of great influence since the mid 1970's. Mulvey argues that in classic hollywood films in particular women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men , and the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men. This male gaze is both voyeuristic and fetishistic. Her concept of "to-be-looked-at-ness", exemplifies that women were merley shown on screen in classic hollyowod in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have an erotic impact. Mulvey argued that the typical key protaganist within a classic hollyowod film was male and the audience members where similarly typically expected to be men. The typical male audience member is alligned with the films protagonist, by identification, admiration or aspiration. Therefore the audience member gains narcissistic pleasure from identifying with the films protaganist,placing themselves "in the shoes" of the films hero. Further the infulence of Freud an influnetial pyschoanalytic theorist to Laura Mulvey's theory is the idea of castration anxiety which is what a person unconciously think. For example if a woman was not objectified in the way she was in classic hollyowod or placed in a position of lower authority a male would not feel as powerful. This unconcious idea is that a males power and dominance over a female is his penis, and his dominance is threatened by a woman if she does not arouse this.

Task 12.1- Psychoanalytic models of the viewer and of the viewing activity

The film I chose to analyse for task 12.1 was American Pie. The reason for this is as throughout the film women’s primary role is to strictly be portrayed as a subject of the male gaze providing visual pleasure for a targeted male audience. The target audience is teenage males, who are represented to engage in sex, drugs and alcohol. The target audience to a great extent is male as women throughout are used, as many females would argue as sexual objects and have no other real cause throughout all of the films. Women are in a very central role throughout the film however there involvement is strictly in the interest of sexual intentions of males within the film. However it is possible in certain scenes of the film for women to identify with the male characters, as in one clip within the third American Pie the woman is identified and shown to be providing sexual advice to the male. This would enable women to identify with the dominance that the male audience and characters have, as they are also placed in this position of sexual dominance where a woman is offering advice and taking control of a sexual situation. Furthermore this scene places particular importance as the woman is portrayed to an extent to be mocking the male’s sexual intelligence. However overall female characters are placed in American pie to appease the male gaze and to be “looked at”.

5 Videos

1) Basmati Rice Advert



The woman is represented as very cultural and traditional however appears to be the character asserting power throughout the advert. Despite the intention of the advert being to create humour, the advert creates the impression that she is in control and even dominant over men in this situation. However an arguement against this isthat it is a man that is causing her distress and anger.

2)Lynx Advert



The woman in this advert is portrayed as a sexual object who is obtainable by men, if they wear lynx and smell nice. The actual shape of the Lynx can, appears as a phallic symbol, which women are attracted to. In addition the ending voiceover is by a man, which Gunter would agree, further asserts a mans dominance.

3)Rimmel Lipstick Advert- Kate Moss



In this advert Kate Moss is subject to the male gaze as Laura Mulvey states. She is wearing this Lipstick with intent to get attention from men, and the actual lipstick itself appears as a phallic symbol. So overall the message of the advert to women is that, if they buy this lipstick it will result in mroe attention from men.

4) Special K Advert



In this advert the woman represents that being skinny, is necessary to attract men. She is dieting and keeping thin by eating special K and therefore gets men. She dresses in a revealing manner throughout, making her subject to the male gaze (Laura Mulvey), and a male voiceover is throughout the advert which emphasises on male dominance as argued by Gunter.

5) Heinz Ketchup Advert



In this advert the woman is represented as a housewife, who's primary role is to look afterher household, and this is exemplified as she is shown doing the shopping. Despite the advert aiming to create humour, the intentional representation of women is made clear.

3 Subverted Print Adverts

Research on Robert Thomson

Robert Thomson is an australian journalist and is the editor of the newspaper The Times.

Thomson was born in Melbourne, Australia on March 11, 1961.He started as a journalist in 1979, when he joined The Herald in Melbourne, working as a finance and general affairs reporter before becoming the paper’s Sydney correspondent. In 1983, he was hired by The Sydney Morning Herald as a senior feature writer, and was nominated by the paper for Australian Journalist of the Year for his work examining the country’s judiciary.

Robert Thomson became Editor of the US edition of the Financial Times in the summer of 1998, taking editorial responsibility for the financial times information on the US Market, where the newspaper's circulation trebled in four years. Following on from this Thomson was named US Business Journalist of the year in 2001.

Soon after this Thomson left the financial times, and was appointed editor of the Times, on the 6th of March 2002, by Rupert Murdock.

Thomson is also favourite to become editor of the Wall Street Journal now that Rupert Murdoch is thought to have been successful in his $5bn (£2.5bn) takeover bid for its parent company, Dow Jones.Thomson, acted as one of Murdoch's closet advisers on the bid.

Prior to arriving in New York he was Editor of the Weekend Financial times UK and Assistant Editor of the Financial Times (FT). He also redesigned Weekend Financial times in late 1996 and that edition became the fastest growing newspaper in the UK market during 1997.

From 1994 to 1996, he was the Financial times Foreign News Editor in London, overseeing the paper’s extensive network of correspondents. Thomson had been a correspondent himself in Tokyo (1989-1994), and in Beijing (1985-1989), where he reported on the country’s economic and social reforms.

Thomson has all been author and editor of many books publish under penguin.

Under Thomson, The Times has paid more attention to international politics, business, financial markets and sport. In 2003 The Times launched a compact edition alongside the broadsheet format and one year later on November 1, 2004 The Times became 100% compact.

Branson: Aims to Expand Virgin empire and buy ITV

Sir Richard Branson has signalled that cable group Virgin Media has not abandoned its ambitious plans to buy ITV.
Sir Richard, Virgin Media's largest shareholder, also suggested his Virgin group would retain its 10.5% stake if the cable company is sold.

Speaking today from his home in Oxfordshire at the launch of Virgin 1 channel, Sir Richard was asked about recent takeover approaches from private equity groups and what a sale would mean for the Virgin Media brand

Virgin- Bransons Business ventures

1960s
1968 - Branson publishes the first issue of Student Magazine. This is his first business venture.

1970s
1970 - Starts selling records by mail-order
1971 - Opens his first record shop on Oxford Street
1972 - Opens a Virgin Recording Studio
1973 - Launches Virgin Records record label
1979 - Buys the gay nightclub Heaven, located under Charing Cross train station. It is subsequently sold in 2003 to a private speculator.

1980s
1980 - Virgin Records goes international
1983 - Virgin Vision, later to become Virgin Communications, is formed to distribute films and videos in the television and broadcasting sector.
1983 - Virgin Games is launched.
1984 - Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin cargo are launched.
1984 - Virgin Vision (launched the previous year) launches "Music Box", a 24-hour satellite music station.
1985 - Virgin Group now includes record labels, retail outlets, exported music publishing, broadcasting, satellite television, and film and video distribution.
1985 - Branson starts Virgin Holidays
1987 - Branson takes Virgin Records to the states
1987 - The Virgin Group, along with Granada, Anglia and Pearson, founds BSB (British Satellite Broadcasting) and receives a UK license to broadcast five new TV channels by satellite in the UK.
1987 - Virgin sets up 525, a post production facility in Los Angeles, to work on high-end commercials and pop videos.
1987 - Virgin sets up "Music Box" as an independent producer of music programmes.
1987 - Virgin buys a 45% stake in Mastertronic Group. Later Virgin Mastertronic becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Group, creating, marketing and distributing computer games software and Sega consoles in several European countries.
1987 - Virgin buys Rushes Postproduction in London.
1987 - Virgin launches Virgin Airship & Balloon Company.
1988 - Virgin opens Olympic Recording Studios in Barnes, London, one of the most modern studio complexes in Europe.
1988 - Virgin launches Virgin Classics, another Virgin international record label specializing in high-quality classical music.
1988 - Virgin sells some of its smaller UK retail stores and puts more money into Virgin Megastores, opening new stores both in the UK and abroad.
1988 - Virgin sets up Virgin Broadcasting.
1988 - Virgin Hotels is created, combining three properties: the Norton House Hotel in Edinburgh, the Crathorn Hall hotel in North Yorkshire, and the Rhinefield House Hotel in Hampshire.
1988 - Virgin sells its shareholding in BSB.

1990s
1990 - Virgin Megastores arrives in Japan
1991 - Virgin Publishing (Virgin Books) is formed
1992 - Virgin Records is sold to Thorn EMI
1993 - Virgin Radio hits the airwaves with Virgin 1215AM
1994 - Launch of Virgin Vodka and Virgin Cola
1995 - Virgin Direct Personal Financial Services opens for business
1996 - V2 Music is created
1996 - Virgin.Net launches
1996 - Virgin Brides launches
1996 - Virgin Trains is launched
1997 - Virgin Radio is acquired by Chris Evans
1997 - Virgin Cosmetics launches
1999 - Virgin Mobile launches Virgin's first telecoms venture

2000s
2000 - Virgin launches Virgin Blue
2000 - Virgin sells Rushes Postproduction to Ascent Media - then Liberty Livewire
2004 - Virgin launches Virgin Galactic
2006 - Virgin announces Virgin Fuel, a new company to produce a clean fuel in the future
2007 - Virgin launches Virgin Health Bank
2007 - Virgin launches Virgin Media
2007 - Virgin launches Virgin America
2007 - Buys 20% stakes in AirAsia X
2007 - Sells Virgin Megastore in the UK and Ireland
2007 - Virgin Media Television Launchs Virgin 1
2007 - Closes Virgin Digital in the UK

Virgin

Richard Branson born in 1950, was the man who started the huge Virgin empire which today includes over 350 companies
.Branson as a child suffered from dyslexia and hence struggled at school and had poor academic achievements.At the age of 15 he had already began his business ventures, selling Christmas trees which eventually failed. By the age of seventeen he had started his own student magazine. At the age of seventeen Branson started his own charity. The student advisory centre.

Following this began the start of Virgin records. In 1969 Branson travelled across the English channel finding records to sell from discount stores to retail stores from the back of his boot and through his mail service, under the name “Virgin” at a considerably cheaper price then High street stores .Following this Branson had saved enough to start his own record shop on oxford street and shortly after launched Virgin records. He then saved enough to own a country estate and launch a recording studio leasing studio time to artists. In 1971 Branson was arrested for illegally selling export stock under his virgin stores.However Branson's mother re-mortgaged the family home to help pay the settlement.

Since then Branson's Virgin empire most notably includes an Airline, Railway service, mobile network, record label,virgin mega stores, virgin cola, virgin comics amongst many other things. Branson's virgin empire even includes his own privatised 74 acre land on the Virgin islands. Today Branson’s fortunes are thought to be worth at over £4 billion pounds.

virgin airlines