Session 7

In her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ from 1975, Laura Mulvey employs psychoanalytic theory to contend that classic Hollywood cinema is shaped by a male gaze, suggesting that the media is crafted to satisfy a heterosexual male audience that objectifies women for their own gratification. She uses this analysis method to discuss the difference in how each sex is shown in Hollywood, men being active and women being passive. Laura Mulvey also touches point on the concept of Scopophilia, which refers to the male gaze in Hollywood cinema where women are objectified and looked at as objects.