Week 5: Psychoanalysis and the Gaze

Film Gaze

 

"Rear Window”.PG 1954 ‧ Thriller/Mystery Directed by Alfred Hitchcock  

We’ve all watched a movie in the movie theater, you know that feeling you get; being in the dark room, a big screen, some snacks and surrounded by strangers. We watch these moving images in “awe” completely engaged by images moving on the screen. Film was made for us to engage into; for us to follow a story, a plot. The creation of film history dates back to the late 1800’s and traditional cinema was made for the ideal white male and it was meant to feed his alter ego, give him something to look up to and admire something to desire. Yet 1“Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist” Laura Mulvey states this in her essay, she’s basically calling men out to be these attention seekers yet they hide this through their roles in film, 2“Hence the split between spectacle and narrative supports the man's role as the active one of advancing the story, making things happen. The man controls the film fantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense: as the bearer of the look of the spectator transferring it behind the screen-”. Basically, film was meant to be for the white males in society as it was “proper” at the time, it was Ideal. Today we’ve passed through those roles by adding woman into the picture and even creating diversity in some films by having non-white actors or actress. Of course back then it was met with backlash and probably just not as easily accepted. But today we can see many films that capture this diversity and my favorite example would be Marvel movies, their characters are all pretty different and women get main roles as well now within society. We’ve moved forward in film in a positive way by becoming inclusive.

The traditional role of a woman in film was meant to be the passive character the idea of the male gaze was still a strong idea back in the 1800s so why not add them to the film, but only to be saved, to be looked at, they aren’t there to create purpose but used as object of pleasure for that male gaze. 3“The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact...”. We can see it in film through the way that they display women and men on film, it’s clear who is in power, and who isn’t. We see this with angles, and the created tension within film. These motion help to enforce gender roles as men being the carries of life; meaning they are responsible for taking care of financial duties, they do the work and are seen as strong and the ones who are meant to be the leaders, while women are on the side, they listen to their men and they take care of the men; they cook and clean. All the stereotypes get enforced through the film techniques to picture women as damsels in distress and the men are the only ones who can save them and help them make sense of life; They picture men as “prince charming”the saviors. While Laura goes on to say, 4“This is what makes cinema quite different in its voyeuristic potential from, say, strip-tease, theatre, shows and so on. Going far beyond highlighting a woman's to-be-looked-at-ness, cinema builds the way she is to be looked at into the spectacle itself. Playing on the tension between film as controlling the dimension of time (editing, narrative) and film as controlling the dimension of space (changes in distance, editing), cinematic codes create a gaze, a world and an object, thereby producing an illusion cut to the measure of desire.” This help talk about how women are just used as a gaze for the male they are the side characters, while the men are "active" characters and therefore they carry the films storyline they are "meant to be the main character" in this time to help the ego of the white male to give him dominance that was so regularly practiced in society.

Film continues to show us their power dynamic simply by using camera angles and t\editing tools to portray the characters in a light that fits the created narrative. Even in films today we can still see this dynamic. Disney made many movies specifically princesses. These beautiful women are always looking for a man, or they change for a man, they get saved by a man but it’s not till recently when we can see that trope starts to die; slightly in Frozen but for-sure in Moana and Encanto we can see that the main lead women aren’t on a journey that involves a man  but instead it’s about self discovery and they become their hero in their own stories. But in other traditional films you can still see that gender role stereotype play out in film while in others they may challenge the idea of the norms and go into creating something new something challenging and today I’m proud to say that that idea is more likely to excite people today rather than turn them away as it would’ve in the past.

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 1  Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, written in 1973, Screen. Vol16, No.3, 1975 (pg.384)

2  Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, 1975 (pg.384)

3 Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”,1975 (pg.383)

4 Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”,1975 (pg.388)

Works cited

Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, written in 1973, Screen. Vol16, No.3, 1975