Laura Mulvey and the Female Gaze

In this video, we're continuing our investigation of Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" with the question of the "female gaze." This is the first in a series on the "female gaze," a term that importantly Mulvey didn't use in her essay but which was coined as a response to the concept of the "male gaze."
This video looks at only one possible (but ultimately problematic) definition of the female gaze: visual and narrative strategies for sexually objectifying men on screen for the consumption of heterosexual female spectators. To investigate the implications of this definition, we'll look at how the term "gaze" is generally used in academic discourse, including how the term was used by Jacques Lacan and Jean-Paul Sartre; we'll look Mulvey's text for clues for how she might have responded to this idea; and we'll briefly look at the film Magic Mike XXL as a case study.
For the full series on Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and the male gaze, see below:
Part 1: • Introduction to Laura ...
Part 2: • Mulvey's "Visual Pleas...
Part 3: • Laura Mulvey's "Visual...
Part 4: • Laura Mulvey and the F...

[@HOREAxox]

I have been painstakingly trying to figure out a subject for my thesis for months & your videos have been great in helping me carve out my actual interests! Thank you for all your work!!!

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

that's great!

[@legendarywallstudios]

Hi, I'm a film student from India.Thank you for these videos. Its really helpful for improving my visual literacy and style development. I found you through one of the videos on male gaze. All these lectures are very informative and analytical.

[@anaximenamorales2802]

Great video! Thank you so much for talking about this subject, I’ve learned so much from your videos on Visual Pleasure and narrative cinema… would love to see the other parts to this video, where might I find them ?

[@emilys4255]

This is so interesting and insightful. Are you planning on posting the other parts?

[@magdalenawittmann3445]

Hi Jordan! I'm researching the "female gaze" in documentary photography for my master thesis and I really like your video. However, you don't link your sources or cite them at all! Would you be so kind and do that maybe? Thank you in advance!

[@adeladam2325]

Thank you for these videos

[@femteezy1992]

So, I understand cinema is heavily a male-produced & male-serving medium which is why the female gaze is more difficult to actualize - but wouldn’t things like romance novels, which are “written by women for women,” be an an ideal place to look for the female gaze?

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

So yeah if we take the 'female gaze' to mean something like "an artistic expression that represents a female point of view," which is sometimes how the term is used, then yes I see your point. Romance novels are a mass market form of entertainment in which many of the authors are women, which is very different from Hollywood cinema. But there are also plenty of debates in feminist circles about popular media forms that are produced by women and predominantly consumed by and marketed towards women, like romance novels.

[@femteezy1992]

@@filmandmediastudieschannel what’s the debate?

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

@@femteezy1992 ​ @femteezy the debate--and I'm speaking about general trends about mass cultural objects primarily consumed by women--is that some feminist critics tend to argue that romance novels reinforce conservative values bound up with romance as an ideology, while others tend to respond to this criticism by, say, celebrating the importance of women affirming their freedom to consume media, or celebrating the importance of female authorship etc. This isn't one debate in particular that I'm referring to but a broader tension that often gets expressed between different modes of feminism. In this case, one might say that the position critiquing the conservatism of romance novels is closely aligned with the values of second-wave feminism, while the response to that critique is aligned with particular kinds of third-wave feminism (especially what's known as "choice feminism"). You can see a little of what I'm talking about here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00497878.1994.9979026?journalCode=gwst20

[@meghanamiriyala]

I am a student from India. I am researching on item songs in bollywood male gaze and female gaze. These videos are very informative. Thanks a lot. If possible, could you please attach the links of next videos in this series, I am not able to find them. Thanks in advance.

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

thanks! i actually never made the videos mentioned in this video. it's possible i'll make them at some point.

[@meghanamiriyala]

@@filmandmediastudieschannel Thanks. response

[@dawnick2256]

Awesome video!! Just a question on Elizabeth Grosz’s writing referenced in the video “Voyeurism/Exhibition/The Gaze”, I can’t seem to find it anywhere for some reason? Should I be looking something else up?
(P.S more videos from this series would be so interesting and cool :D )

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

I can't get the article either, unfortunately. I got the citation from Evans and Gamman's The Gaze Revisited, or Reviewing Queer Reviewing.

[@kristenwelsh903]

Personally I think the answer is none of the above. I believe the female gaze is the result of the male gaze that women use to either critique other women, be attractive to men as in the films or become the male gazers themselves. I'm not great at explaining things but I hope it makes a little sense.

[@legally_ellecee1309]

I understand what you mean, so thanks for sharing. Yep, I think you may be into something-the female gaze exists Because of the male gaze and patriarchal dominance. The female gaze might be an internalized way that women view each other as a result of what the patriarchal construct of female attraction outlines. You’re right-this is difficult to explain so I hope that made sense.