Audiences and Audience Theory Continued...

Feminist Film Theory and Audiences



-Laura Mulvey






-visual pleasure and narrative cinema (1975):

• cinema reflects society
• therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society
• how does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

An example:

• patriarchy and phallocentrism are linked
• the phallus is the symbol of power
• note how guns are used in films
• guns=phallus=power

The Gaze


-the 'gaze' of the cinema is the male 'gaze'

-the male gaze is active, the female passive

- within the narrative, male characters direct their gaze towards female characters

-the spectator is made to identify with the male look, beacause the camera films from the obtical, as well as libidinal, point of view of the male character

-thus three levels of the cinematic gaze - cinema, character and spectator - that objectify the female character (the triple gaze)

-therefore the audience is constructed as though everyone was male

-women are forced to look as though they were a male audience member

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 protagonist and audience






Erotic Desire



-Mulvey argues that women have two roles in film:

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