Looking in depth first at Laura Mulvey's psychoanalytic take on the male gaze theory and the 'two contradictory aspects of the pleasurable structures', scopophilic and narcissism. She starts by discussing freud's theory of 'castration', for the reason that men can then 'live out his fantasies and obsessions' through the women on the screen. Which mirrors what Storey discusses in his evaluation of Mulvey's analysis that the symbol of the woman is 'twofold', the fact that she is the 'symbol of male desire' and the 'threat of castration'.
Mulvey summarises that the image of women in films and how they are used are 'raw material for the active gaze of a man'. However Dyer in 'Stars' criticises Mulvey and this idea by stating that actually in narrative film now the 'male body' is also looked at in a similar way. Mulvey also states that the woman across as passive and exists within the diegesis however her role is viewed by two groups, 'the gaze of the spectator and that of the male characters in the film'. Dyer also disagrees with this as within 'Stars', Gaylyn Studlar discusses that it's not just 'voyeuristic pleasure', but an alternative pleasure of a 'masochistic relationship' between the moviegoer and female star. He also discusses differing to both Mulvey and Storey that desire can be found within 'power in the performance', which then takes control of the male gaze, so therefore the woman is in control.
As David Gauntlet discusses Mulvey's theory in Media, Gender and Identity, he states that ultimately, her argument doesn't account for 'all gendered viewings of films today'.
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