Laura Mulvey- Feminist Theory

Laura Mulvey was a British Femist film theoist. During the 1970's she wrote a very important essay called 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' which included some of her theories we reconise in todays cinema. In the essay she talked about how the cinema has a great effect on society and that women are downgraded in these films. Her Feminist views show that she was very passionate about her work and what she saw in cinema upset her greatly. Here are a few of her Theories mentioned in her essay.

'Erotic Desire'

-This is when the woman character in the film seems to have no other purpose that to be of desire for the Audience or the other characters in the film. She saw that the woman was seen more of an object as she had no power in the film and was only there for the desire of others.

'The Gaze' 

-Here Mulvey talks about how the camera is 'in the gaze of the male eye'. By this she meant that the camera 'gaze' is always in the eye of the male character. This makes the male gaze active and the female gaze passive. This leave no option for the audience as they are forced to see the woman though the male gaze.

'Agency'

This is the idea that the female has no power during the film. Relating back to her feminist views and the use of 'the gaze' in films, her she talks about how the woman can not move the plot along. Again, the woman is shown as a mere object in the film with no power. 

Rhianna- Shut up and Drive

In this video- Rhianna shows a negative view of women much like the theories Laura Mulvey talks about during her essay



'The Gaze'
Very often, if not all the time during this music video there is a constant 'male gaze' where the women are being objectified and we are forced to see through the male eye. At 0:32 she takes a cloth out of the other womans back pocket. This very small part of the view gives a perfect example of something a male would find attractive or possibly interesting; however a woman would not. Through out the video there is no real movement in plot which supports Mulvey's ideas about the woman not being able to move any story along and is only there for the male eye.

A lot, if not all of this video is about Rhianna showing herself off to the camera. This is very obviously not a video made for the woman but made especially for the male eye. Even down the the details of the way she walks, we can clearly see that she is empasising the parts of her body the male eye would look at such as her lower body and chest area. All the dancers in the video are also the same.