-Laura Mulvey.
The gaze what the viewer/audience see the people who are presented. There are 3 types of gaze:
- How men look at women
- How women look at themselves
- How women look at other women
Laura Mulvey's theory is of the Male Gaze, where she believes that in a media text the audience is viewing it form a male perspective. An example of this is the camera seems to linger on the woman figure (the curves) so in reality the female audience are viewing the content secondary. As a lot of events and reactions are shown though a males point of view and in turn appeals much more to men.
Even in situations where the woman is in a serious situation, there is still some subtle focus on the woman and her beauty, to appeal to men. This theory tends to describe woman as being subjected to being seen as an object.
Mulvey's theory suggested that women are only use for the visual pleasure for men, therefore implying that he film is constructed with the idea that the audience are all male. The typical male audience member is able to relate to the male protagonist in the film so is able to see everything through his eyes and put themselves in his shoes.
There are some criticisms of this theory:
- Some women enjoy to be looked at and admired.
- The gaze could be aimed towards the same gender for other reasons other than sexual, body image and clothing.
This applies to my genre (psychological horror) as in many horrors certain girls seem to get killed early on rather than the men. Girls who take drugs, smoke, drink and are quite promiscuous. Taking these in to consideration,the fact that they get killed early on acts as a sort of punishment for being this way. However even if a male has the same characteristics as he woman, he does not seem to get punished for his actions like her. Most horror films portray women as a weaker sex, so are usually the first few victims who are brutally murdered (the murder most likely being male). Horror films usually show similar scenes such as a beautiful young woman who is gets murdered at the beginning of the film.
It has been suggested that woman are always portrayed as needy, weak and always needing someone who is usually male to rescue them. However from 1974 we have seen changes in this as now in most horror films there is at least one woman who is able to defend herself, rescue others and fight back against the antagonist in order to protect those closest to them.
The structure of horror movies as male centred/driven entails the female audience to forcefully identify with the young female who survives the attacker and usually ends the ordeal/threat, this female is most likely to be the woman who stands out from the other women in the film as they are all promiscuous and rebellious, one woman is an innocent, and this woman is usually the one to pull through and come through for others.. It can be seen that even though the narrative dominant subjective perspective may be male in the story the male audience is still wanting the female to overcome the killer.
It has been suggested that woman are always portrayed as needy, weak and always needing someone who is usually male to rescue them. However from 1974 we have seen changes in this as now in most horror films there is at least one woman who is able to defend herself, rescue others and fight back against the antagonist in order to protect those closest to them.
The structure of horror movies as male centred/driven entails the female audience to forcefully identify with the young female who survives the attacker and usually ends the ordeal/threat, this female is most likely to be the woman who stands out from the other women in the film as they are all promiscuous and rebellious, one woman is an innocent, and this woman is usually the one to pull through and come through for others.. It can be seen that even though the narrative dominant subjective perspective may be male in the story the male audience is still wanting the female to overcome the killer.
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