Task 5 - Preparation for Week 6

Disclaimer - I did not attend this weeks lecture or seminar because I had go on a trip to Wales, as organised by Animation BA.

Notes

• The author has a feminist biased and focuses on the symbology of castration of the male within film. 
• The introduction makes hints that the author may have a feminist agenda by informing the reader that the rest of the article will address the image of the woman in film. 
• 'Part 2' references Freud in correlation to how audiences perceive erotica on screen. The author draws upon two contradictory ideas (scopophilia and active scopophilia) of how audiences react towards film in a cinema space.
• 'Part 3' opens with a false premise, stating that the pleasure of looking is split between the active male and passive female. This ignores films the don't objectify women, generalising that mainstream film is only targeted towards the pleasure of men.
• The power of the gaze is very well explained by the example of Hitchcock's Vertigo, in which Mark Rutland's gave seduces Marnie into confessing her secret.
• The author makes a bold claim in the summary, illustrating that the female for is 'fetishised' on screen for the purpose of pleasing the male ego. 

--Laura Mulvey, originally published - Screen 16.3 Autumn 1975 pp. 6-18

Questions

• Is it not wise to suggest that since 1975, with the assumptions made by Mulvey at that time, that film, in terms of technology has evolved to a point that some of her ideas have become outdated? 
• "The male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification" generalises that all heterosexual men are egotistic and insecure about their body image. Do you agree with this statement?