Study Task 3 - Triangulation

Laura Mulvey's essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (1975) examines the presence of a Patriarchal society within the film industry and how this 'has structured'(pg.14) its form. Mulvey argues that the roles of men and women portrayed on screen are the 'roots of our (women's) oppression'(pg.15), women are constantly seen as 'bearer, not maker, of meaning'(pg.15) which puts them inferior to men (the maker). In 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture' John Storey describes this differentiation as confirmation of an audience viewing 'women as sexual objects'(pg.83). Similarly, Richard Dyer's 'Stars and Audiences' looks at the generalisation of how film is made and who for, he argues that 'the moviegoer is positioned accordingly to the pleasures of male heterosexual desire'(pg.188).

A focal point of Mulvey's essay is the notion of 'Scopophilia'(pg.18), the pleasure in looking or viewing sexual acts. Storey argues that in a 'world structured by 'sexual imbalance''(pg.82) the evident roles encouraged by this idea are for men to 'look' and women 'exhibit'. This therefore supports the view that women are 'crucial to the pleasure of the (male) gaze'(pg.82). Mulvey considers how objectification can occur when people believe the 'illusion' that they are 'looking in on a private world'(pg.17). Alongside the attention on the human form created by the 'conventions of mainstream film'(pg.17), Dyer suggests that 'male gaze produces a sadistically voyeuristic pleasure'(pg.189).

Furthermore, Storey describes the focus or 'hold' of the female body as a 'pure erotic spectacle'(pg.83) for an audience member. Women are constantly displayed as sexual beings while, as Mulvey examines, men have the capacity to 'control' and emerge as the 'representative of power'(pg.20). In this way, a 'passive' woman becomes the 'active' man's property, in Dyer's words, film 'styles were designed as a spectacle for male desire'(pg.191).