Summarizing Laura Mulvey’s paper “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

Laura Mulvey’s paper Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema discusses the adverse quality of the male gaze as it determines gendered interactions within narrative cinema. The paper uses psychoanalysis to dismantle normative social patterns imposed on films molded by patriarchal ideology. It demonstrates how the patriarchy has constructed film and attempts to identify the paradoxical representation of women in film. The variety of concepts explored in Mulvey’s paper is multitudinous. The concepts proposed in her paper include the castrated woman, scopophilia, narcissistic pleasure, sadistic voyeurism, woman as image, and man as bearer of the look. She argues that the formation of self-awareness within the male child produces the ego and perpetuates a self-identified reality that encourages all individuals, regardless of gender, to identify with the male protagonist. The female spectator must occupy the role of “other” (relinquish personal identity) to participate in viewing experiences. These analyses correspond in their assertion that the phenomenon of the passive female and active male is a resulting factor of voyeuristic pleasure that arises from female characters assuming the traditional exhibitionist role.

Much to my relief, I have already familiarized myself with male gaze theory. Mulvey’s theory altered my perspective on narrative cinema. It opened my eyes to patterns inherent to narrative cinema while reaffirming observations I previously made as a frequent observer of film. I find her analysis of voyeurism and exhibitionism to be particularly fascinating because it pertains to many aspects of cinema, both on and off the screen. Nonetheless, I do agree with some criticisms applied to Mulvey’s theory. Mulvey’s theory is confined to a heterosexual gender binary that focuses solely on the female performer and the male beholder. The oversight toward queer sexualities and gender nonconformity produces a blind spot that must be filled in by other scholars. Mulvey’s theory also demonstrates favoritism towards White womanhood, leaving no room for the concerns of people of various races. The paper advocates for White middle-class norms and covets the White male gaze. Excluding other factors of race and class that contribute to the portrayal of racialized individuals in cinema.