OUGD501 - Study Task 1 - Triangulation Exercise

The author Laura Mulvey holds very feminist ideologies throughout her text which differs in contrast to the secondary source direct evaluation written by the author Richard Dyer where he rejects many of her premises. These feminist principles are underpinned where she states

‘The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story-line’ ‘Mulvey, L. (1975) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

her values are clearly underlined where her views are that women are only there for the pleasure of the male protagonist and the male gaze of the audience, this constant embellishment is also established by John Storey is his text,

‘Storey, J. (2001) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture’, where he refers to ‘the pleasure of the gaze has been separated into two distinct positions: men look and women exhibit ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ – both playing to, and signifying, male desire. Women are therefore crucial to the pleasure of the (male) gaze.’

J Storeys text objectifies many of L Mulveys references in a secondary context and regurgitates many of her principles. However, R Dyer directly opposes L Mulveys quote, attempting to view her issues from the standpoint of queer theory, he suggests that

‘she argues, using a psychoanalytic framework, that classic narrative cinema continually organises looks which centre on the woman as spectacle’ ‘Dyer, R. (1979) Stars, Britain: British Film Institute’

 this reference to her text is later opposed by suggesting that

‘in certain scenes, Holden as Hal Carter continually removes his shirt to reveal an athletic physique. The female cast of Kim Novak as Madge Owens, Betty Field as Flo Owens and Rosalind Russell as Rosemary Sidney each register their erotic recognition of the objectified male body.’ ‘Dyer, R. (1979) Stars, Britain: British Film Institute’

Dyer has contradicted Mulveys theory by stating that men are also objectified sexually in narrative cinema, in this instance, the man in the scene referenced has taken on the qualities of the passive female as the women in the scene register sexual recognition towards him. In some respects, he agrees with L Mulvey with the fact that male characters are made aggressive towards each other in order to avoid sexual tension and to not promote homosexuality and therefore the female roles in a film could possibly seem more loving and caring towards each other which may present some kind of sexuality towards the viewer. This can be seen within the quote ‘male characters on film are made obviously threatening and aggressive in order to diver their erotic potential’ ‘Dyer, R. (1979) Stars, Britain: British Film Institute’

This however, does not mean that he agrees with Mulveys concept behind her reasoning, Dyer approaches the topic with the idea that narrative cinema applies an anti homophobic approach where men are portrayed this way purely with the rational of not promoting gay sexuality whereas Mulvey views the issue with feminist views where she believes the men are portrayed as dominant and the women submissive.

Both of these secondary texts hold a distinct relationship between Mulveys primary text.