Introduction: “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey was first written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the journal Screen. This seminal essay is celebrated for introducing a political application of psychoanalysis to film theory, particularly through the lens of feminism. Mulvey critiques the ways in which mainstream cinema, especially Hollywood, reinforces patriarchal ideologies by coding visual pleasure through the male gaze. The essay delves into how film creates a voyeuristic pleasure where women are objectified as passive figures, thus reinforcing a patriarchal structure of sexual difference. Central to Mulvey’s argument is her analysis of scopophilia (the pleasure of looking) and its relationship to narcissism, which positions women as erotic objects and men as active viewers or agents. The essay’s importance lies in its profound influence on feminist film theory, bringing to light the ways that cinema perpetuates gendered power dynamics and providing a framework for deconstructing these ideologies in both narrative and visual representation.
Summary of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey
- Psychoanalysis as a Political Weapon
Mulvey begins by outlining her intent to use psychoanalysis as a means to reveal how cinema reinforces patriarchal structures through the male gaze. She argues that film plays a significant role in supporting “pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject and the social formations that have moulded him.” The male-dominated system, she writes, depends on the “image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to its world.” Women are depicted as lacking, with their absence forming the basis of male power. This psychoanalytic critique becomes a “political weapon,” as Mulvey seeks to challenge and dismantle these entrenched cinematic structures. - Destruction of Pleasure as a Radical Weapon
Mulvey asserts that traditional Hollywood cinema encodes visual pleasure through patriarchal ideologies, reflecting “the psychical obsessions of the society” that produced it. She stresses that mainstream films “coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.” To disrupt this, she proposes the development of a politically and aesthetically radical cinema, one that rejects the satisfaction offered by narrative cinema. “It is said that analysing pleasure, or beauty, destroys it. That is the intention of this article,” Mulvey boldly declares. She argues for the necessity of breaking down the pleasure that mainstream cinema provides, not to create a new pleasure, but to make way for a “total negation” of traditional cinematic forms. - Pleasure in Looking (Scopophilia)
Mulvey discusses how cinema offers different types of pleasure, focusing on Freud’s concept of scopophilia, which she defines as the “pleasure in looking.” In cinema, this manifests as voyeurism, where the audience experiences pleasure in watching others as objects. Mulvey writes, “The mass of mainstream film… portray[s] a hermetically sealed world which…produces for them a sense of separation and plays on their voyeuristic fantasy.” This dynamic reinforces a male-centered gaze, in which men are active viewers and women are passive objects of desire. The audience’s position is thus “one of repression of their exhibitionism and projection of the repressed desire onto the performer.” - Narcissism and Identification with the Human Form
Beyond voyeurism, Mulvey explores how cinema encourages narcissistic identification with characters, particularly male protagonists. Drawing on Lacan’s mirror phase, she explains how the viewer identifies with the on-screen image, leading to a process of recognition and misrecognition that strengthens the viewer’s ego. She writes, “The cinema has structures of fascination strong enough to allow temporary loss of ego while simultaneously reinforcing it.” This identification is especially potent in male viewers, who project their fantasies and desires onto the male protagonist, thus reinforcing patriarchal norms. - Active/Male, Passive/Female Division
Mulvey identifies a clear gender divide in mainstream cinema, where men are active and women are passive. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female,” she notes. Women are objectified and reduced to symbols, existing only to provoke emotion or action in the male protagonist. As Mulvey puts it, “What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents… In herself the woman has not the slightest importance.” This structure diminishes women’s autonomy and reinforces their role as objects of male desire within the narrative. - Voyeurism and Fetishistic Scopophilia
Mulvey distinguishes between two cinematic mechanisms: voyeurism, which involves control and sadism, and fetishistic scopophilia, which idealizes women as erotic objects. Voyeurism “asserts control” over women by investigating or punishing them, while fetishistic scopophilia “builds up the physical beauty of the object,” transforming women into idealized, reassuring figures. Mulvey writes, “The male unconscious has two avenues of escape from this castration anxiety: preoccupation with the re-enactment of the original trauma…or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish.” These mechanisms perpetuate a patriarchal dynamic that objectifies and subjugates women. - Impact on Feminist Film Theory
Mulvey’s essay is foundational in feminist film theory as it exposes how cinema perpetuates patriarchal values by coding women as objects for male pleasure. By “highlighting a woman’s to-be-looked-at-ness,” Mulvey reveals how mainstream film denies women subjectivity and agency. She argues that “cinematic codes create a gaze, a world and an object,” all of which are designed to serve male desire. Her work calls for a radical restructuring of cinematic form, one that disrupts the satisfaction and pleasure offered by patriarchal cinema, and offers feminist filmmakers tools for deconstructing these visual structures.
Literary Terms/Concepts in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey
| Term/Concept | Explanation | Quotation/Example |
| Male Gaze | The dominant perspective in traditional cinema, where women are objectified and viewed from a heterosexual male perspective, reinforcing patriarchal structures. | “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female.” |
| Scopophilia | The pleasure derived from looking at others as objects, often tied to voyeurism in cinema, where the audience assumes a controlling, detached gaze. | “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as… there is pleasure in being looked at.” |
| Voyeurism | A form of scopophilia where the pleasure in looking is associated with an active, often controlling or sadistic, role, typically viewing others without their consent. | “Pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt… asserting control and subjugating the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness.” |
| Fetishistic Scopophilia | A cinematic mechanism where the objectified woman is idealized or fetishized to alleviate the castration anxiety experienced by men in the face of female otherness. | “The male unconscious has two avenues of escape… one being turning the represented figure itself into a fetish.” |
| Castration Anxiety | A psychoanalytic concept used by Mulvey to describe the male fear of female difference (absence of a penis), leading to the objectification or punishment of women. | “The paradox of phallocentrism… depends on the image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to its world.” |
| Narcissism | The act of identifying with an idealized image on screen, typically the male protagonist, reinforcing the viewer’s ego and desires through cinematic representation. | “The cinema has structures of fascination strong enough to allow temporary loss of ego while simultaneously reinforcing it.” |
| Identification | The process by which the viewer connects with a character on screen, usually the male protagonist, experiencing the film from their perspective. | “The audience follows the growth of his erotic obsession… precisely from his point of view.” |
| Phallocentrism | A term that denotes the centrality of the phallus (male power and authority) in social, linguistic, and symbolic systems, which cinema reflects and reinforces. | “Psychoanalytic theory is… a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form.” |
| Patriarchal Order | The societal system where men hold power and women are subordinate, with cinema reflecting and perpetuating this dynamic through its visual and narrative forms. | “Mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.” |
| To-be-looked-at-ness | A term used by Mulvey to describe how women are positioned as objects in cinema, existing primarily for visual consumption by male characters and the audience. | “Woman displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle… she holds the look, and plays to male desire.” |
Contribution of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey to Literary Theory/Theories
- Feminist Film Theory
Mulvey’s work is foundational in feminist film theory, as it applies psychoanalytic theory to critique how cinema reinforces patriarchal structures. Her concept of the male gaze is central to understanding how women are objectified in visual media. By critiquing how cinema reflects patriarchal values, she exposes “the frustration experienced under the phallocentric order” and challenges how women are portrayed as passive objects. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female.” This analysis reshapes feminist discourse, giving theorists a lens to explore gender dynamics in film and literature. - Psychoanalytic Theory in Film
Mulvey introduces a psychoanalytic framework to film theory, heavily drawing on Freudian and Lacanian concepts to examine the unconscious structures embedded in cinema. Her use of concepts like scopophilia, fetishism, and castration anxiety highlights how cinema manipulates viewer psychology to reinforce patriarchal ideologies. “The paradox of phallocentrism in all its manifestations is that it depends on the image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to its world.” This application of psychoanalysis shifts literary and film theory towards examining the deeper unconscious motivations of both creators and consumers of media. - Structuralism and Semiotics
Mulvey’s work engages with structuralism and semiotics by analyzing how meaning is constructed in film through visual signs and symbols. Her exploration of how women are positioned as signifiers within the symbolic order mirrors structuralist approaches to language and meaning. “Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies.” This contribution connects film to broader semiotic theories that explore how cultural products encode meaning through signs and structures. - Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
By deconstructing the pleasure mechanisms of traditional narrative cinema, Mulvey opens the door to poststructuralist analysis. She critiques the apparent wholeness and naturalness of filmic representations, exposing them as ideological constructions. “The conventions of narrative film deny the first two [the look of the camera and audience] and subordinate them to the third, the conscious aim being always to eliminate intrusive camera presence.” This dismantling of traditional film conventions aligns with poststructuralist theories that challenge stable meanings and hierarchical structures. - Marxist Critique of Ideology
Mulvey’s analysis also intersects with Marxist theory by exposing how cinema, as part of the superstructure, reproduces dominant ideologies. She critiques Hollywood’s role in maintaining the status quo by encoding patriarchal values into the film form. “Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.” Her call for a radical, alternative cinema aligns with Marxist critiques of how cultural products reinforce ruling-class ideology, offering a political challenge to the existing filmic order. - The Gaze in Postcolonial and Queer Theories
Although Mulvey focuses on gendered dynamics, her concept of the gaze has influenced postcolonial and queer theories, which also explore how power is distributed in visual representations. The gaze is not only male but can also be racialized or heteronormative, with different kinds of viewers either empowered or marginalized by what they see. “The male unconscious has two avenues of escape from this castration anxiety: preoccupation with the re-enactment of the original trauma… or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish.” This emphasis on the viewer’s role in constructing power relations through vision resonates with later theoretical developments in multiple fields.
Examples of Critiques Through “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey
| Literary Work/Film | Critique Through Mulvey’s Theory | Key Concepts Applied |
| Wonder Woman (2017) | While Wonder Woman presents a strong female protagonist, Mulvey’s framework could critique the male gaze still present in certain scenes, where Diana is visually objectified, particularly in moments of physical display. | Male Gaze, To-be-looked-at-ness |
| The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) by Jordan Belfort | Mulvey’s theory would critique how women in this film are reduced to objects of male pleasure, serving as accessories to the male protagonist’s lifestyle, reinforcing a patriarchal viewpoint where women exist to be looked at. | Scopophilia, Male Gaze, Objectification |
| Fifty Shades of Grey (2011) by E.L. James | This novel can be critiqued for its fetishistic treatment of the female protagonist, where the male protagonist’s control over her reinforces voyeuristic pleasure and sadism, resonating with Mulvey’s concept of fetishism. | Fetishistic Scopophilia, Voyeurism, Sadism |
| Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) | Although Fury Road subverts traditional gender roles with strong female characters, Mulvey’s theory might still highlight how women are depicted as objects of male desire in certain scenes, despite the feminist undertones. | Subversion of the Male Gaze, Scopophilia |
| The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald | Using Mulvey’s framework, Daisy Buchanan could be critiqued as a passive figure who is idealized and objectified through the male gaze of both Gatsby and the audience, reinforcing patriarchal narratives. | Narcissism, To-be-looked-at-ness, Objectification |
| Black Widow (2021) | While Black Widow positions its protagonist as empowered, Mulvey’s lens might critique the occasional lingering shots that objectify the female body, showing the tension between feminist representation and male gaze. | Scopophilia, Fetishism, Active/Passive Dynamic |
| Twilight (2005) by Stephenie Meyer | Mulvey’s theory could critique Bella’s passive role as an object of Edward’s gaze, where her value is largely derived from how she is perceived and desired by male characters, reinforcing patriarchal dynamics. | Male Gaze, To-be-looked-at-ness, Narcissistic Identification |
| The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood | While the novel critiques patriarchy, Mulvey’s framework might be applied to highlight moments where the violence and control over female bodies is still shown through a voyeuristic, objectifying lens. | Voyeurism, Fetishistic Scopophilia, Male Gaze |
Criticism Against “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey
- Oversimplification of Gender Dynamics
Critics argue that Mulvey’s framework overly simplifies gender relations, presenting a binary where men are active subjects and women are passive objects. This rigid division neglects the complexity of gender identities and experiences in both film and literature. - Neglect of Female Spectatorship
Mulvey’s focus on the male gaze has been critiqued for ignoring the role of female spectators. Critics question how women engage with films and how they might resist or reinterpret the male gaze, thus presenting a more dynamic interaction with media. - Exclusion of Alternative Sexualities
Mulvey’s theory has been criticized for being heteronormative, as it primarily focuses on the heterosexual male gaze. The theory does not adequately account for the experiences of LGBTQ+ viewers or the ways queer desire might interact with visual pleasure and narrative cinema. - Lack of Attention to Racial Representation
Some critics argue that Mulvey’s analysis is limited by its Eurocentric perspective, failing to address how race intersects with gender in cinematic representation. The absence of racial considerations leaves out critical discussions on how women of color are portrayed and viewed in film. - Criticism of Psychoanalytic Framework
Mulvey’s reliance on Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis has faced criticism for being outdated and overly deterministic. Some scholars argue that psychoanalytic theory may not fully account for contemporary, diverse forms of spectatorship or the evolving nature of cinema. - Limited Scope of Film Analysis
Mulvey’s analysis is often critiqued for being too focused on classical Hollywood cinema, leaving little room for analysis of non-Western, avant-garde, or contemporary films that may not adhere to the same visual and narrative conventions. - Failure to Address Positive Representations of Women
Critics argue that Mulvey’s theory overlooks instances where women are portrayed as empowered or complex characters, even within mainstream cinema. This leads to a one-sided view that ignores films where women break away from traditional objectification.
Representative Quotations from “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey with Explanation
| Quotation | Explanation | Theoretical Perspective |
| “The paradox of phallocentrism in all its manifestations is that it depends on the image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to its world.” | This quote illustrates Mulvey’s critique of how patriarchal society defines itself through the representation of female lack. | Psychoanalytic Theory (Freudian): The male-centric world order is upheld by the symbolic absence of female power (phallus). |
| “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female.” | Mulvey describes how mainstream cinema positions men as active viewers and women as passive objects of the gaze. | Feminist Film Theory: This statement underpins Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze and the power dynamics in visual media. |
| “The male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly.” | This quote critiques how women in film are portrayed according to male fantasies, shaped to satisfy male desires. | Male Gaze Theory: It highlights how women’s representation is dictated by patriarchal fantasy rather than their agency. |
| “Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies.” | Women are objectified and reduced to symbols in a system where men project their fantasies and control onto them. | Structuralism: Women function as symbols in a larger patriarchal symbolic system, serving male desires and fantasies. |
| “The cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking, but it also goes further, developing scopophilia in its narcissistic aspect.” | Mulvey explains how cinema not only caters to the voyeuristic pleasure of looking but also creates narcissistic identification with characters. | Scopophilia and Narcissism (Freudian): This explores cinema’s dual role in catering to both voyeurism and self-identification. |
| “It is said that analysing pleasure, or beauty, destroys it. That is the intention of this article.” | Mulvey argues that feminist critique must deconstruct the visual pleasure offered by traditional cinema to expose its patriarchal foundations. | Deconstruction/Poststructuralism: Breaking down filmic pleasure is necessary to challenge patriarchal ideologies in cinema. |
| “The male unconscious has two avenues of escape from this castration anxiety: preoccupation with the re-enactment of the original trauma… or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish.” | Men deal with the threat of female difference (lack of a penis) by fetishizing women or controlling them through punishment and investigation. | Psychoanalytic/Fetishistic Scopophilia: Men fetishize women to suppress the threat of castration anxiety. |
| “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium.” | Women in cinema are simultaneously objectified within the film’s narrative and for the pleasure of the male audience. | Voyeurism and Fetishism: Women are doubly objectified—as characters and as objects of desire for the audience. |
| “The satisfaction and reinforcement of the ego that represent the high point of film history hitherto must be attacked.” | Mulvey calls for dismantling the pleasure that narrative cinema provides, which reinforces patriarchal values and power structures. | Radical Feminism/Political Film Critique: This quote represents her radical stance against traditional narrative cinema. |
| “The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly.” | This underscores how film encodes women’s representation according to the desires of the male viewer, shaping them as passive and objectified. | Male Gaze Theory: It highlights the role of the male gaze in constructing women as mere objects of visual pleasure. |
Suggested Readings: “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey
- van den Oever, Annie. “Conversation with Laura Mulvey.” Ostrannenie: On “Strangeness” and the Moving Image. The History, Reception, and Relevance of a Concept, edited by Annie van den Oever, Amsterdam University Press, 2010, pp. 185–204. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt45kcq9.17. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.
- Manlove, Clifford T. “Visual ‘Drive’ and Cinematic Narrative: Reading Gaze Theory in Lacan, Hitchcock, and Mulvey.” Cinema Journal, vol. 46, no. 3, 2007, pp. 83–108. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30130530. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.
- Mulvey, Laura. “Looking at the Past from the Present: Rethinking Feminist Film Theory of the 1970s.” Signs, vol. 30, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1286–92. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.1086/421883. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.
- Mulvey, Laura. “AFTERTHOUGHTS ON ‘VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA’ INSPIRED BY ‘DUEL IN THE SUN’ (KING VIDOR, 1946).” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, no. 15/17, 1981, pp. 12–15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44111815. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.