Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a feminist who came up with the idea of Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

She had a theory which does develop as a logical argument:
1. Cinema reflects society.
2. Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society.
3. How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema.

The Gaze

The 'gaze' of the camera is the male 'gaze'. The male gaze is active, the female passive. Within the narrative male characters direct the gaze toward the female characters.

The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze, because the camera films from the optical as well as libidinal; point of view from the male character.

There are three levels of the cinematic gaze- camera, character and spectator- that objectify the female character. (the triple gaze).

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.

Evidence of theory




The idea of this theory is definitely evident in this music video. The object of desire in this video is obviously the women, what with them wearing little clothing and posing in all different poses over the cars and such. The women are definitely the object of erotic desire for the audience. Some part of the theory is wrong though, the women are not passive in this video, they are the driving force and make the video progress whilst being at the same time the object of desire for the audience.

This music video is a prime example to help provide evidence for Laura Mulvey's feminist theory as it shows the women of the music video working on cars whilst posing in certain positions which help to show off their bodies, with some of them wearing little clothing.

This is obviously not the only music video that does this there are plenty more which do, it is mainly seen in rap videos and genres like that. For example Kanye West's "Gold Digger".



This music video helps to employ the ideas of Laura Mulvey's theory that women are the object of erotic desire for the men in the video and for the audience. The males of this music video are definitely more powerful in the video and move the music video on whereas the women are passive and are unable to move the video on. They just seem to be there and are not important and they do not have agency unlike the men. The mise-en-scene can be used to help and provide evidence for the feminist theory as it shows the men dressed in full clothes where as the women is seen in lingerie.

All of the following images provide evidence for music videos and how they can be applied to Laura Mulvey's feminist theory, the fact that throughout the video the women are barely wearing any clothes so then it automatically makes them the object of desire for both the men in the music video as well as the audience. This also helps to imply the idea of agency, the women are made to just pose there

and be passive compared to the men of the music video.