Personal Investigation - RESEARCH notes

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory (RESEARCH)

“Woman, then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live our his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command, by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning not maker of meaning.” (Mulvey 484)

http://scmc3001.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/quote-laura-mulvey-visual-pleasure-and-narrative-cinema/

^ 'This quote refers to the male driven culture that our society is composed of. The male gaze is symbolic of the passive role of women in cinema. The psychoanalysis, Mulvey explains, is that women are unaware of their function in the patriarchal culture. Men need somewhere to base their fantasies and women are this outlet. The idea of separation of the audience from the film allows for voyeuristic tendencies that include watching without affecting. She goes on to explain the role of the woman as a provoking object. The woman is there to inspire the man and create an erotic image for him, but she has no importance beyond that.

This idea of the woman character being an object of affection and nothing more seems to be an outdated theory. To some point, women are still sexualized in film as the male roles are dominant. But in current film, there have been increasing numbers of films where the woman is the main character resembling strength and worth. The criticism to this however would be that in these films with women as main characters, there is usually a man there to save her or inspire her. The sexualization of men has increased as well which structures the desires towards a woman audience. The patriarchal society still creates a strong male role in film, but women are starting to make their way through the objectification.'

‘In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active /male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly’ 

http://candipop12group15.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/representation-male-gaze-theory.html

From this quote we can learn that Mulvey is explaining that in videos/film (or in my case music videos) there is an obvious inequality between the male and females shown within the texts. She explains further that the women are objectified and lusted over by the men, and by having a passive mindset, let it happen.