OUGD501 - Study Task 01 - Triangulation Exercise

Laura Mulvey discusses male gaze in Classical Hollywood Cinema, in her book; Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Being a feminist herself, the argument can be seen as objective and when looking into it in detail, other theorists, such as Richard Dyer, argue against some aspects of the argument.
Mulvey argues that women are objectified in a way that it ties to the narrative.

“The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the narrative of the story line.” Mulvey,  1973, 19

She argues that women are drawn out and attention is brought to them even more by making them a glitch in the story. John Storey comments on how cinema is structured around narrative and spectatorship, agreeing that the woman is part of male spectatorship backing Mulvey.
Mulvey and Storey both comment on women being objects for both the in film characters and the spectator, Mulvey says:

“The woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium.” Mulvey, 1973, 20

Storey comments on this as a sexual imbalance and how the male gaze is a major factor to this:

“But in a world structured by ‘sexual imbalance’, the pleasure of the gaze has been separated into two distinct positions, men look and women exhibit ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ both playing to and signifying male desire.” Storey, 1996, 182

However, Richard Dyer comments on how it isn’t only women who are objectified, but men as well:

“Male pin ups appear in the image to be looking in ways which suggest they are not an erotic object.” Dyer, 188

Men are however objectified negatively.
Storey discusses the male self-indulgent nature of cinema:

“Popular cinema promotes and satisfies a second pleasure ‘developing scopophilia in its narcissistic aspect’.” Storey, 1996, 82

He then develops this into cinema fueling the male ego. This argument supports Mulvey when talking about reinforcing male power by objectifying women:

“A male movie star’s glamorous characteristics are thus not those of the erotic gaze, but those of the more perfect, more complete, more powerful ideal ego…” Mulvey, 1973, 21

Dyer discusses this point further by explaining that the male character is made aggressive to divert any eroticism.

“Looks between characters on film are made obviously threatening and aggressive in order to divert their erotic potential.” Dyer, 188

Dyer and Storey are both discussing Mulvey’s essay, Storey has an impartial view of Mulveys article and highlights all the points that are made by Mulvey. Whereas Dyer is, in a way, arguing against Mulvey’s argument. Dyer explains that while it is true that women are objectified in cinema, men are also objectified as well.