Debates in Media

Gendered Bodies on the cinematic screen

Introduction

• Key words in Mulvey’s essay:

– Psychoanalysis

– Scopophilia…

• Laura Mulvey’s ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

• Media example

• Open discussion

Key words in Mulvey’s essay

Psychoanalysis

• Originated by Sigmund Freud• Definition:

– ‘A therapeutic method … for treating mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconsciouselements in the patient's mind and bringing repressed fears and conflictsinto the conscious mind, using techniques such as dream interpretation and free association.’ (OED)

• The use of psychoanalysis in Mulvey: A method to analyse and condemn how ‘the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form’ (p.6)

• Patriarchal Society – A society controlled by the male

• Scopophilia or Voyeurism – Sexual stimulation or satisfaction derived principally from looking

• Fetishism – The worship of an inanimate object for its supposed magical powers or because it is considered to be inhabited by a spirit

Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)

Laura Mulvey: ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

• Psychoanalytical Background

– Image of castration

• Pleasure in Looking/Fascination with the Human Form

– Voyeurism, Separation and sexual instincts

– Recognition, Identification and the Ego

• Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look

– The Male Gaze

– Women as erotic objects

Pleasure in Looking/Fascination with the Human Form

‘The first, scopophilic arises from pleasure in using

another person as an object of sexual stimulation

through sight. The second, developed through

narcissism and the constitution of the ego, comes

from identification with the image seen’ (p.10)

Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the

Look

• Determining male gaze

• Active/male & passive/female

• Women serves as an ‘erotic object for the characters… and as an erotic object for the spectator.’ (p.11)– ‘her appearance is coded for strong visual and erotic impact’

(p.11)

– Male character becomes ideal ego, identification, and ‘the spectator can indirectly posses her too’ (p.13)

• Links to voyeurism and fetishism

Media Example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWWg4Jtg-EI

Open Discussion

• Can the psychoanalytical method be applied beyond the cinematic medium (TV & Film)?

• What about the female spectator/the female gaze? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WP4Ssaj8Zc

• The article is 30 years old, is it still relevant today?

• How does this link to Boys Don’t Cry?