Laura Mulvey - Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey

During the lesson, we also learnt in depth about Laura Mulvey. Laura Mulvey was responsible for the finding of what is known as 'gaze' theory. The concept has been discovered and recognised from a seminal article called Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film theorist. It was published in 1975 and is one of the most recognisable articles in film theory of all time. 

'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view' (Schroeder 1998, 208).

Laura Mulvey was also very interested in the works of Freud, who also had explanations for the gaze theory. Mulvey found that Freud had referred to (infantile) scopophilia - the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects. It was noted that in the cinema it is completely pitch black which means a person can go to the cinema to look at other people in the screen without being seen and therefore judged. 

The theory also revolved around how women were to be 'looked at' whilst the men were the 'lookers' and that it was extremely rare if it was the other way round because women were presented as an object. 

‘woman as image’ (or ‘spectacle’) and man as ‘bearer of the look’.