COP2 - Study Task 02 - Male Gaze Theory

First I looked at Laura Mulvey's take on the male gaze thoery and how she has a psychoanalytic take on it. I looked at the scopophilic and narcissistic approach and the 'two contradictory aspects of pleasurable structures'.
Freud's theory of castration is discussed first, and Mulvey discusses that men can 'live out fantasies and obsessions' through the women on the screen. This is very similar with what Storey talks about in his evaluation of Mulvey, when she mentions that the woman is 'twofold' and how she is the 'symbol of male desire'.

Mulvey discusses how the image of women in films are used for the 'active gaze of a man'. Contrastingly to this, in 'Stars', Dyer criticizes Muley and this idea by explaining how he believes the male body is looked at in film in a similar way nowadays.Similarly, Dyer disagrees with this also as in 'Stars' Gaylyn Studlar discusses the 'masochistic relationship' between the movie-goer and the woman in the film is an alternative pleasure.