Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain,
best known for her essay on Visual
Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975). Her theories are
influenced by the theories of Sigmund
Freud and Jacques
Lacan; by using their
ideologies as “political weapons” whilst also including psychoanalysis and
feminism in her works. Mulvey is mainly known for her theory regarding sexual
objectification on women in the media, more commonly known as The Male Gaze” theory.
Her essay has thrown light to the misogyny, patriarchal ideas and the
gender identity issues as seen in the media. She speaks about how movies portray
women to be ‘visual pleasures’ for men (the target audience is predominantly
heterosexual men) therefore, their needs are required to be met and this stems
from a male- driven society. Male Gaze basically is how women are shown
by the media and how men see them as objects of desires. She believes that
women are in fact “the bearer of meaning and not the maker of meaning,” which
suggests that women are not placed in a role where they can take control of a
scene, instead they are objectified to please the male audience (passive
female and active male roles). This inequality enforces the ancient
and outdated idea of “men do the looking, and women are to be looked
at.”
Male gaze has become so influential in media that many advertisements
are seen to sexualize and objectify women’s body, even if the product has
nothing to do with representations of sex. This has become problematic as
people consuming such content tend to follow and apply these ideologies in real
life. Some other terms that she speaks about are scopophilia which is
the pleasure derived by watching an object or person; voyeurism is
watching something or someone for pleasure and that person is unaware of it; phallocentrism
is when the phallus or the male sexual organ is the center of an organization in
the social world.
Laura Mulvey’s theories can be used to critically analyze the Hindi movie
Dostana (2008) starring Priyanka Chopra (Neha), John Abraham (Kunal),
Abhishek Bachchan (Sam) and Bobby Deol (Abhimanyu). This film is popularly
known to be the first ever Bollywood movie on Homosexuality and the LGBTQ
Community. First of all, the ratio between the male to female characters is
huge (3:1), making it an under representative movie. The female character is
highly sexualized as she is always seen in small, revealing, and minimal clothing
that are just worn to please the male audience. The movie starts with an item
song featuring Shilpa Shetty with many other women in swimwear. In this song, not
only are the bodies of the women but also the body of John Abraham is
completely sexualized as the camera focuses on different parts of their bodies.
The poster of the movie is very phallic in nature- both the male leads are half
naked and the female lead is in between both of them wearing a nightwear. Sam
sees a hot dog and gets the idea of going into Neha’s house as gay couples,
which again is phallic in nature. The scene when Neha is introduced focuses on
her lips, eyes and her entire body is completely objectified; expressions of both
the men are shown by the camera by focusing on both of them alternatively, with
her back facing the camera. Voyeurism is seen when both the boys constantly
check Neha out while she works out or when they simply stare at her body (the
scene where she walks out in a golden swimwear on the beach and the camera
objectifies her body and the men stare at her). The movie neither focuses on
the representing the LGBTQ Community in a proper light nor does it effectively
portray a strong and ambitious female character; her moods and emotions
completely depended on what the men in the movie do. The makers wanted to show
that the female lead is strong and ambitious however, fail to do so. She was
only seen happy when she was with the male protagonists; this shows that women
are happy only when they are with the hero.
Laura Mulvey’s theories can also be used to critically analyze Disney movies,
which we all think are perfect and enjoyable by young children however, these
movies are problematic. Let’s focus on the animated version of Sleeping
Beauty. The body structure of the princess is troublesome. They are shown
to be very thin and have hips that are really small (popularizing the idea of ‘Size
zero’). This is worrisome as it promotes the idea of having unrealistic body
type that girls should aspire to be. Aurora and most of the other Disney
princesses (like Snow White, Belle, Ariel etc.) are fair skinned which can lead
to children question their self-worth and race. The storyline and plot are also
so wrong. It is shown that the Prince has to always come to rescue the Princess.
The Prince is seen as the hero who saves the Princess from the villain and sweeps
her off her feet. The fact that Aurora falls in love with a stranger Prince
without even knowing anything about him is also strange. The idea that a woman
needs a man to have a ‘happily ever after’ is a fantasy and a stereotype that
needs to be broken or else the young girls consuming this type of content will fantasize
and want a man to save her and ‘complete her’. The fact that women can be independent
and provide for themselves is ignored and such ideologies fed into children at
such a young and tender age can be very problematic.
The male-driven industry still continues making such movies for profit believing
that this type of content is exactly what the males audiences want, and what
the rest of society has been brainwashed to accept. Laura Mulvey’s essay also
throws light at how problematic such content is; things shown in movies are
often seen to be replicated and followed by people in the society. Consciously
or unconsciously, such ideologies become a part of the society that we live in
and will be followed by the future generations if nothing is done to stop it.
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