Laura Mulvey was born on August 15 1941 she is a British feminist fi lm theorist; she was educated at ST Hilda’s College Oxford. She is currently a professor of fi lm and media studies at Birkbeck University of London she worked at the British fi lm institute for many years before taking up

her current position.

During the 2008-2009 academic year Mulvey was the Mary Cornille distinguished visiting

professor in the humanities at Wellesley College. Professor Mulvey has been awarded three

honorary degrees in in 2006 a doctor of letters from the University of East Anglia in 2009 a

doctor of law from Concordia University in 2012 a Blooms day Doctor of Literature from

University College Dublin.

Laura Mulvey

The Male Gaze, developed by feminist, Laura Mulvey describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of ‘the gaze’ is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Mulvey states that in film women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera (and thus the gaze) comes from factors such as the as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres.

The male Gaza

Feature of male Gaza

The camera lingers on the

curves of the female body

and events which occur to

women are presented

largely in the context of a

man’s reaction to these

events.

Relegates women to the

status of objects. The

female viewer must

experience he narrative

secondarily by

identification with male.

Laura Mulvey's theory rebels against the fifties 'perfect house wife' expectation that women will be passive.

Mulvey rejected the idea that men were dominant in society, and did not want a patriarchal society. She proposed that women 'de-gender' themselves of sexuality and femininity in order to bring about the post feminist society. This consisted of both genders having legal equality, and that women could be confident and happy with their bodies. They could use their sexuality and femininity for themselves and play it to their advantage. 

Mulvey’s feminism theory

Mulvey said that male characters in film were seen as the protagonists, and they were represented as active participants in order to drive the narrative forward. She said that female characters were shown as passive, and would respond to the actions of the male characters. Mulvey was angry that females had been fetishized and objectified by the cameras (male gaze)  and believed that the Hollywood industry was controlled by men

Mulvey’s point of view

http://katiehamilton25.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-male-gaze-theory.html

http://lucytownsendasmedia.weebly.com/laura-mulveys-genderfeminism-and-male-gaze-theory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulveyhttp://

www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey

Bibliography

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