Triangulation Exercise

Laura Mulvey is a feminist and a British Film Theorist. After working at the British Film Institute for a number of years, she became a Professor of Film and lectures at the University of London. In her book called ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, Mulvey talks about how women are always shown in films to look like sexual objects and ‘Connote to-be-looked-at-ness’ (Mulvey 2009 [1975]:19). The idea that women are purely there for the male gaze and for their pleasure is so that male spectator identify themselves with the powerful male character of the film and fantasise about them being in the position of the man with the beautiful looking woman (scopophilia). ‘The spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his lie, his screen surrogate (Mulvey 2009 [1975]:21). Richard Dyer, the writer of ‘Stars’ is also a Professor of Film Studies at the King’s College London and studied at the University of St. Andrews. He mainly specialises in Italian Cinema and LGBTQ Cinema. He agrees with Mulvey’s idea of that women are seen to be in the film for the appeal and voyeuristic gaze of male spectators. 'The fetishisation of the female body has the potential for producing the alternative pleasure of a masochistic relationship between male moviegoer and female star' (Dyer 1979: 189). He also agrees with the idea of the male spectator putting himself in the position of the powerful male character with the female star. However, John Storey, a Professor of Cultural studies at the Centre of Research in Media and Cultural Studies and The University of Sunderland. He disagrees with the points that Mulvey has argued as he thinks that women are not looked at as sexual objects but are admired for their beauty instead. He also says that the two forms of visual pleasure that Mulvey argues are contradictory to one another as he had said 'Two contradictory forms of visual pleasure. The first invites scopophilia; the second promotes narcissism' (Storey 2006: 82). He is arguing that film makers purposely choose actors that look good in order for the spectators to criticise and compare themselves to the actors on screen.