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