Laura Mulvey Study Questions

I

A.A. How can psychoanalytic theory be used as a political weapon?

What do women in film often seem to be the signifier of, according to Mulvey?

1. B. Mulvey states openly that she wants to destroy the pleasure audience takes in watching mainstream movies. Why does she want to be a killjoy?

II

1. What does the film have to do with scopophiliac (or voyeuristic) fantasy?

2. How is the experience of the mirror phase similar to the experience of a film audience?

III

A. What are women for in movies and what problems does their presence create?

B. A male movie star is not to be gazed at (like female actors), but he is there to recreate the mirror stage for the viewer. In what way does he do that?

C1. Voyeurism or fetishistic scopophilia are two ways in which the male viewer deals with his castration complex, of which the woman is the symbol. How do they work?

C2. Mulvey analyzes the movies of Sternberg and Hitchock as respectively the examples of fetishism or voyeurism. How do the images of women in these movies work to achieve that effect?

Summary:

What kind of revolution does Mulvey postulate for cinema?

After reading:

Think about three movies for which Mulvey’s claim seems to be accurate, and three more that present problems for this theory.