Who is the author?
Laura Mulvey
About: A British feminist film theorist as well as currently being a professor of film and media studies.
What kind of document is it?
A collection of essays which explore cinema, exploring the gender in relation to the viewer in regards to cinema.
6 Points:
- Addressing the male gaze
- there are two defined roles of an active role played by a man and the passive role of a woman
- Many times women are depicted as being the 'object'
- The viewer can relate to a male character as males are depicted as having 'power' and also fufils the concept of a 'hero'.
- Women are objectified with the desire of fulfilling masculinity.
2. Stars and audiences
Richard Dyer
About:
English academic working in the department of film studies. He comes from a conservative wealthy family in the south of London, considering his background may prove important within him addressing different topics.
What kind of document is it?
A full length book which explores the idea of the experience of the viewer towards film and the level of influence that
Points:
- There is validity on how men and women are equally objectified within various scenarios of cinema as men are often equally objectified.
- There is a predjudice in showing male characters in any suggestion of homosexuality, and aggression is often used to counteract this
- Popular figures in society are created under the idea of profit the ways in which stars are presented to an audience is to represent ideals of all kinds
Who is the author?
John Storey
About:
What kind of document is this?
The document comes from the full length book "From Popular Culture to Everyday Life" in which he attempts to convince the reader that the idea of ‘everyday life’ is indeed a social and cultural concept which he finds worthy of study.
Points
- The issue of male gaze and how women are depicted as the subject of this concept negatively
- There is an imbalance of men and women's depictions, his tone of voice suggests that this should be resolved
- Contrusction of 'two moments' with the role of the 'active' male and the 'passive' female
Triangulate
What is the relationship between the writers?
Each text explores the relationship of the viewer and cinema and the level of impact it creates, each vary within their tone and language choice and draw individual conclusions around the same discussion.
Does one text help to highlight important information in the primary text?
Within storeys approach to the topic of cinema and the viewer there is a neutral tone within their viewpoints which allows the reader to have a more objective look at both of the texts as well as the primary texts.
Are there any criticisms? What are they? How are they justified
300 word triangulation
The theory of the 'male gaze' according to Laura Mulvey the idea of the way in which we view women in media from specifically the male perspective and the idea that we're put into that perspective with specific techniques. In this theory women are said to be without a identity and are often seen without importance. Within R Dyer’s ‘stars’ there is an immediate acknowledgment of critical studies in cinema and the audience being referred to as the ‘spector’.
Its apparent that Mulvey provides many of
critiques regarding cinema that gives a masculine identity to the viewer in how
she discusses the male gaze as being completely ‘voyeuristic’ as the intention
and approach as being ‘political psychoanalysis’. Similarly Dyer explores
gender in the same way in which Myer has from the male form being depicted in
narrative film and being used in a way which they are not depicted sexually and
the range of situations they are depicted in whereas ‘sadistic voyeurism’ would
cast the viewer as being powerful with the woman being objectified.
Mulvey’s commentary has brought many viewpoints
which explore other avenues other than the male gaze and highlighting the ways
in which women view movie stars, such as excluding the male protagonist as
being the ‘mediator’ for the viewers providing a positioning for the female
moviegoer to think about the desire of the female star. John story (author of
cultural theory and popular culture) makes the observation that Mulvey presents
two ‘contradictory’ forms of pleasure, as well as women being a crucial part in
the male gaze as within a sexual imbalance as there are two distinctive
positions which men view women and how women exhibit themselves.
However the film in which Dyer also
highlights various scenes within the movie ‘picnic’ which many instances depict
men in similarly suggestive situations and the women being examples of voyeuristic.
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