I.

Introduction
Femi ni sm i s the most visible movement i n
flm cri ticism today, and the most dominant
trend in that movement i s psychoanalytical ly
informed. Psychoanalytic femi ni sm came to
this posi ti on i n fl m studi es at the very l atest
by the early to mi d-eighties . Before the
consol i dation and ascendancy of thi s particu
l ar variety of femi nism, earlier approaches to
the study of women and fl m included the
search for a suppressed canon of women
fl mmakers - a femi ni st version of the auteur
theory and the study of the i mage of
women i n fl ms , primari l y the i mage of
women i n fl ms by men. Neither of these
approaches mandated a reli ance on psycho
anal ysis , though, of course , one coul d pursue
these research programs while also embrac
i ng psychoanalysis .
My particul ar i nterest in this essay i s to
defend the study of the image of women in
fl m, regardi ng that proj ect as logically
independent from the resort to psychoanaly
si s . I n speaki ng of thi s approach to feminist
flm critici sm, I have in mi nd writing on
ci nema from the early seventies l i ke Mol ly
Haskel l ' s From Reverence to Rape whi ch
paral l el ed research i n l i terary studies such as
Kate Mi l l ett ' s Sexual Politics.
Work of thi s sort called to our attention
the ways the i magery of women in our
cul ture recurri ngl y portrayed them through
a li mi ted, constrai ni ng, and ul ti matel y op
pressive repertory of characterizations . For
example , i n fl m, i t was noted that very
often the options for depicting were strongly
structured by the dichotomy of the mother
versus the whore . Insofar as the ways of
representing women in popul ar medi a in
some way i nfuences or reinforces the way
real women may be const rued, the study of
the recurrent imagery of women i n fl m,
especi al ly where the relevant opti ons were
either impoverished and/or distorting, pro
vided an i nroad into one of the sources , or,
at l east , resources of sexism i n the broader
society. 1
Clearly, the study of the i mage of women
i n fl m coul d proceed without commi tment
to psychoanalytic theory. However, that i s
not what happened. As a participant i n the
evol ution of flm theory and history, my
own sense is that the proj ect of studying the
i mage of women i n fl m was superseded by
psychoanalysis due to a feel i ng that thi s
proj ect , as practiced by early femi ni sts ,
suffered from being too naivel y empi rical .
It appeared to involve meanderi ng from
genre to genre , from period to peri od, and
even from fl m to fl m, accumul ati ng a mass
of observations which however i nteresti ng,
were al so thought to be theoretically rag
tag. Psychoanalysi s , i n contrast , provi ded a
means to incorporate many of the scattered
insights of the i mage of women i n fl m
approach (henceforth , general l y cal l ed si m
ply "the i mage approach") , whi l e also
sharpening the theoretical di rection of femi
nist research. That i s , psychoanalysis could
provide not only a theoretical framework
with which to organize many of the dis-
coveri es of the frst wave of fl m femi nism,
research.
This , of course , i s not the whole story.
Many fl m femi ni sts were also i nterested in
( the origins and rei nforcement of sexual
difference in our cul t ure , and in this re
spect , psychoanalysi s , as a putative sci en
ti fc di scipl i ne, had the advantage of having
theories about this , al bei t theori es whose
patriarchal biases woul d requi re modifca
ti ons by femi nists .
260
The Image of Women in Film
The purpose of thi s paper i s to attempt to
defend femi ni st fl m studies of the i mage of
women in fl m approach, where that is
understood as havi ng no necessary commit
ment to psychoanalysis . In order to carry
out thi s defense , I wi l l try to sketch some of
the shortcomi ngs of the psychoanal ytic I
model , but I wil l also attempt to i ndicate
that the i mage approach can be suppl ied
with a respect able theoretical basis drawn
from the contemporary philosophy of the
emotions . My strategy wi l l be to consider
psychoanal ytic femi ni sm and the i mage ap
proach as potenti al l y rival research pro
grams ; and I wi l l try to show that the
psychoanalytic approach has a number of
li abil ities which can be avoided by the image
approach, whil e also attempting to show
that the i mage of women in fl m model need '
not be thought of as irredeemabl y sunk i n ;
atheoretical naivete . 2
The frst section that fol lows wil l outline
some of the shortcomings of psychoanalytic
femi ni sm i n fl m studies, and the section that
fol l ows it wi l l propose some theoretical
credenti al s for the i mage of women i n fl m
model . I wi l l not address the purported
advantage of psychoanalysis to provide a
theory of sexual differenti ation. That woul d
involve a
di
sc
us
s
i
on o
f
te adequacy of
psychoanal ysi s as a scientifc theory of devel
opment , and I obviously do not have the
space to enter that issue. Consequentl y, the
obj ections I raise wi th respect to psycho
analytic-femi nist fl m criticism will not de
pend on contesting the scientifc pretensions
of psychoanal ysi s , though I should add that I
am very skeptical about them. Nevertheless ,
I shal l try to restrict my obj ecti ons to ones
that can be adj udicated within the bounds of
fl m theory.
Furthermore , I want to add that my
opposition to the psychoanalytic model in
feminist fl m criticism in no way i mplies
either logical l y or as a matter of fact any
opposition to femi ni sm as such. The i ssue is
between different model s of feminist flm
cri ticism. I do not bel ieve that an endorse-
261
ment of femi nism carries with i t a theoreti cal
commitment to psychoanalysis .
II. Mulvey, Psychoanalysis and Visual
Pleasure
At present , as already i ndicated, i t appears
fair to say that the most active area i n
femi nist fl m studies i s psychoanalytic in
orientation. Moreover, there are subtle dif
ferences and debates between the maj or,
feminist-psychoanalytic fl m critics . As a ,
result , it i s i mpossible in a paper of thi s scale ,
to chart all the positions that might be I
correctl y i dentifed as femi nist-psychoanal
ytic flm cri tici sm, nor could one hope to
devel op obj ections to every variation i n the
fel d. Consequently, i n thi s section of my
paper, sel ectivity i s unavoidabl e. Specif
cally, in developing my obj ections to psy
choanalytic-feminism i n contemporary fl m
studies , I shal l focus on Laura Mulvey' s
seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and Narra
tive Cinema. "3
I have chosen this paper for several
reasons . First , i t can l ay cl aim to bei ng the
inaugural polemic of femini st , psychoana
lytic fl m criticism. Second, it i s wi del y
reprinted and widely taught . If someone
knows j ust one essay of the psychoanal ytic
school , it i s l i kel y to be this one . And, even
though many feminist fl m critics have regis
tered obj ections to it and have tried to
qual ify and expand it , it remai ns perhaps the
maj or i ntroductory text to the feld. One
charge that might be made against my choice
of this essay for scrutiny might be that i t i s
somewhat dated in its specifc claims . How
ever, i n response , I woul d maintain that
many of the theoretical tendencies which I
intend to criticize in Mul vey' s essay continue
to plague psychoanalytic fl m femini sm,
even i n those cases where other psychoana
l ytically inclined feminists may explicitly
wish to modify Mulvey' s approach. 4
The uncontroversial premise of Mulvey' s
essay is that the Hol l ywood cinema' s success
involves , undoubtedly among other things ,
I
Ideology
the manipul ation of the audience' s visual
pleasure . Moreover, Mulvey hypothesizes
that the visual pleasure found i n movies
refects patterns of visual fasci nation in t he
culture at l arge , a culture that is patriarchal .
And she argues that i t is important for
feminists to identify those patterns of visual
fascination, particularly in order to chal
l enge them. Here i t i s useful to recall that
Mulvey i s a l eading feminist fl mmaker. So
her meditations on t he resources of visual
pl easure in Hol l ywood flm are explicitly
motivated by an i nterest in developing a
counter-cinema , one in which the patri ar
chal levers of visual fasci nation exercised by
Hol l ywood wi l l be subverted.
According to Mulvey, one pl ace to l ook
for a theoretical framework that wi l l enable
an interrogation of patterns of visual fascina
tion i s psychoanal ysis . Psychoanal ysis has a
theory of visual pl easure or scopophi l ia ; so
it i s at least a candidate for answering
questions about cinematic visual pleasure.
However, it must be noted that Mulvey' s
embrace of psychoanal ysis seems to be
unargued. Rather, she announces the need
for theoretical vocabul aries and general iza
tions , and then she endorses psychoanalysis
simply because it has them. She does not
ask whether there are rival theoretical
frameworks to psychoanalysis which might
al so serve her purposes ; she does not
consider any probl ems concerni ng the scien
tifc status of psychoanalysi s ; she does not
weigh the shortcomings of psychoanalysis
agai nst the advantages of competing mod
el s . Her acceptance of psychoanalysis ap
pears almost uncri tically pragmatic: we need
a theory of visual pl easure ; psychoanalysis
has one ; so l et' s use it .
This unquestioning acceptance of the
scientifc authority of psychoanal ysis is a
continuing feature of epistemologicall y du
bious merit in contemporary femi nist flm
cri ticism. 5 Where psychoanal ytic hypothe
ses are not marred by obvious sexism,
psychoanal ytic feminists tend to be wil l ing
to accept them without exploring their
262
ings , or rel ative disadvantages with respect
to other theoretical frameworks . In thi s ,
they fol l ow Mulvey' s l ead. However,
though I wi ll not dwel l on thi s issue now, I
believe that this methodological oversight ,
in the opening moves of psychoanal ytic
femini sm, with respect to theory choice ,
compromises feminist-psychoanalytic fl m
cri ticism fundamentally. 6
From psychoanalysis , Mul vey i nheri ts the
observation that scopophilia i s targeted at
the human form. To thi s , then , she adds an
empirical generalization, presumabl y one
independent of psychoanalysi s , that i n flm
there is a division of l abor in terms of the
portrayal of the human form. 7 Men are
characterized as active agents ; women are
obj ects of erotic contempl ation so many
pin-ups or arrested i mages of beauty.
Women are passive ; men are active . Men
carry the narrative action forward; women
are the stuff of ocul ar spectacl e , there to
serve as the l ocus of the mal e' s desire to
savor them visually. Indeed, Mulvey main
tains , on screen, women i n Hol l ywood fl ms
tend to slow down the narrative or arrest the
action, since action must be frozen, for
example , in order to pose femal e characters
so as to afford the opportunity for their
erotic contemplation. For exampl e , a female
icon, l i ke Raquel Welch before some prehis
toric terror, wi ll be posed statue-l i ke so that
mal e viewers can appreciate her beauty.
Backstage musical numbers are useful de
vices for accommodating thi s narrative exi
gency, since they allow the narrative to
proceed insofar as the narrative j ust in
volves putting on a show whi l e l avi shing
attention on the femal e form.
For Mul vey the femal e form i n Hol ly
wood fl m becomes a passive spectacle
whose function is , trst and foremost , to be
seen. Here the relevant perceiving subj ect
may be identifed as the mal e viewer, and/or
the mal e character, who, through devices
l i ke point-of-view editing, serves as the
delegate , in the fction , for the male audi-
The Image of Women in Film
ence member (who might be saI d t o I dent i fy
wi th the mal e character in pOl nt - of- \ l ew
editing) . 8 This idea may be stat ed I n t erms of
saying that in Hol l ywood fl m. \\' omen are
the obj ect of the l ook or the gaze .
What appears to be meant by t hI S i s t hat
scenes are blocked, paced, and st aged . and
the camera is set up rel ative t o t hat
blocking in order t o maximize the di spl ay
potential of the femal e form. Undoubtedl y.
as John Berger has argued, many of the
schemata for staging the woman as a
display obj ect are i nherited from the tradi
tion of Western easel painting, where an
el aborate scenography for presenting fe
mal e beauty in frozen moments was devel
oped. 9 Cal l ing thi s scenography, which does
function to faci l i tate male interests in erotic
contempl ation, "the l ook" or "the gaze , "
however, is somewhat misleading since it
suggests that the agency is literally located
in a perceiving subj ect , whereas it is liter
al ly articul ated through blocking, pacing,
and staging rel ative to the camera. What is
true , neverthel ess , is that thi s blocking,
pacing and stagi ng is governed by the aim
of facil itating the mal e perceiving subj ect' s
erotic i nterests in the female form which
could be said to be staged in a way that
approxi mates maximal l y satisfyi ng those
interests . And i t is in this sense that the
image of the woman i n Hol lywood fl m is
constructed through scenography, bl ocking,
paci ng and so on i n order to displ ay her for
mal e erotic contempl ation that femini st ,
psychoanalytic critics i nvoke when they say
that the gaze i n Hol lywood fl m is mascu
line . Indeed, these practices of blocking
and staging could be said to i mpose a male
gaze on femal e spectators of Hollywood
fl m, where that means that female specta
tors are presented with i mages of the
femal e form that have been staged function
al l y in order to enhance mal e erotic appre
ciation of the femal e form. However, as
already indicated, thi s is not simply a
matter of camera positioning, and to the
extent that tal k of the look or the gaze
263
creates that impression, such terminology i s
unfortunate .
Women i n Hol l ywood fl m are staged
and blocked for the purpose of mal e erotic
contempl ation and pleasure . However, at
this point , Mulvey hypothesizes that this
pleasure for the male spectator is endan
gered. For the image of the woman, set out
for erotic delectation, i nevitably invokes
castration anxieties in the mal e spectator.
Contemplating the woman' s body reminds
the mal e spectator of her l ack of a peni s ,
which psychoanalysis tel l s us the mal e takes
as a sign of castration, the vagi na purport
edly construed as a bl oody wound. Unl ike
male characters in Hol l ywood cinema,
whom Mulvey says make meaning, femal e
characters are said to be bearers of mean
i ng: specifcally they signify sexual differ
ence , which for the male spectator portends
castration.
The male scopophi l i ac pleasure in t he
femal e form, secured by the staging tech
niques of Holl ywood fl m and often chan
neled through male characters via point-of
view editing, is at risk in i ts very moment of
success , si nce the presentation of the female
form for contemplation heral ds castration
anxiety for the mal e viewer. The question,
then, is how the Hollywood system i s able to
continue to deliver visual pl easure i n the
face of the threat of castration anxiety.
Here, the general answer is derived from
psychoanalysi s , as was the animating prob
l em of castration anxiety.
Two psychic strategies , indeed perver
sions , that may be adopted in order to come
to terms with castration anxiety i n general
are fetishism and voyeurism. Si mi l arly,
Mulvey wants to argue that there are cine
matic strategies that refect these generic
psychic strategies , and that their systematic
mobilization in Holl ywood fl ms i s what
sustains the avai lability of visual pleasure -
male scopophil i ac pl easure i n the face of
castration anxiety.
Fetishism outside of fl m involves the
denial of the female' s l ack of a penis by, so
Ideology
to speak, fastening on some substi tute ob
j ect , l i ke a woman' s foot or shoe , that can
stand for the mi ssing penis . Mulvey thinks
that i n flm the femal e form itself can be
turned into a feti sh obj ect , a process of
feti shization that can be amplifed by turn
i ng the enti re scenography and cinematic
i mage i nto a fetish obj ect ; the el aborate
visual compositions of Josef von Sternberg,
i n Mul vey' s view, are an extreme example of
a general strategy for containing castration
anxiety by fetishization in the Hollywood

ci nema .
A second option for deal ing with male
castration anxiety in the context of male
scopophi l i a, Mulvey contends , is voyeurism.
Apparentl y, for Mulvey, this succeeds by re
enacting the original traumatic discovery of
the supposed castration of the woman
though I must admit that I' m not completely
clear on why re-enacting the original trauma
woul d hel p in cont aining castration anxiety
(is i t l i ke getting back on a horse after you' ve
been thrown off of i t?) .
In any case , Mulvey writes :
The mal e unconscious has two avenues of escape
from thi s castration anxiety: preoccupation with
the re-enactment of the origi nal trauma (i nvesti
gating the woman , demystifying her mystery) ,
counterbal anced by the devaluati on, punish
ment , or saving the guilty obj ect (an avenue
typifed by the concerns of the flm nair) ; or else
compl ete disavowal of castration by the substitu
tion of a fetish obj ect or turning the represented
fgure i tsel f i nto a fetish so that i t becomes
reassuring rather than dangerous (hence over
valuation, the cult of the femal e star) .
1 0
If von Sternberg represents an extreme
and cl arifying instance of the general strat
egy of fetishization i n Hollywood fl m, the
radical instance of the voyeuristic strategy i s
l ocated i n the ci nema of Alfred Hitchcock.
Here , one fnds cases l i ke Rear Window
which other commentators have often de
scri bed i n terms of voyeurism; moreover,
Mulvey associ ates voyeurism with the urge
for a sadistic assertion of control and the
SUbj ugation of the guilty. And here Hitch-
264
cock' s Vertigo and Marnie come particul arly
to mind, fl ms i n which voyeuristic mal e
characters set out to remake "guil ty" women
characters .
Needless to say, Mul vey' s exempl ifcation
of the general strategies of feti shi sm and
voyeurism by means of von Sternberg and
Hitchcock is persuasive , at l east rhetoricall y,
for these are directors whom critics have
long discussed i n terms of fetishism and
voyeurism, al beit using these concepts i n a
nontechnical sense. What Mulvey effec
tively di d in her essay was to transform those
critical terms i nto psychoanalytic ones ,
while also i mplying that cinematic feti shism
and voyeurism, represented i n the extreme
cases of von Sternberg and Hitchcock, were
the general strategies through which mal e
vi sual pleasure in the ci nema coul d be
sustained, despite the impending threat of
castration anxiety. And, as wel l , these cine
matic strategies if psychoanalysis i s true -
refect patterns of visual fascination i n patri
archal culture at l arge where visual pleasure
in the femal e form depends on ei ther turn
ing her into an obj ect or subj ugating her by
other means .
In summary, Mulvey situates the visual
pleasure in Hol l ywood cinema in the satisfac
tion of the mal e' s desire to contempl ate the
femal e form eroticall y. This contempl ation
itself is potentially unpleasureabl e , however,
since contemplation of the femal e form
raises the prospect of castration anxiety.
Cinematic strategies corresponding to fetish
ism and voyeurism and embl ematized re
spectivel y by the practices of von Sternberg
and Hitchcock provide visual and narra
tive means to protect the structure of male
visual pleasure , obsessivel y opting for cine
matic conventions and schemata that are
subordinated to the neurotic needs of the
male ego. Feminist fl m practice of the sort
Mulvey champions seeks to subvert the
conventions that support the system of visual
pleasure deployed in Hol l ywood fl mmaking
and to depose the hegemony of the mal e
gaze.
The Image of Women in Film
I have no doubt that there are convent i ons
of blocking and of posi ng actresses before the
camera that are sexist and that al ternati ve
nonsexist styl es of composition are worth
pursuing. Moreover, as noted earl i er. I wi l l
not chal l enge Mul vey' s psychoanal yti c pre
suppositi ons , though I bel ieve that thi s can
and ought to be done . For present purposes,
the onl y comment that I wil l make about her
invocation of psychoanalysis is that , as al
ready noted, it does not seem methodologi
cal l y sound. For even if psychoanalysis , or
specifc psychoanal ytic hypotheses are genu
ine scientifc conj ectures , they need to be
tested agai nst countervailing hypotheses . Nei
ther Mulvey nor any other contemporary
psychoanalytic femi nist has performed this
rudi mentary exerci se of scientifc and ra
tional i nquiry and, as a resul t , their theories
are epi stemicall y suspect .
Moreover, apart from her psychoanalytic
commitments , Mul vey' s theory of visual
pleasure rests on some highly dubitable
empirical suppositions . On Mulvey' s ac
count , mal e characters i n cinema are active ;
femal es are passive , primari ly functioning to
be seen. She writes that a male movie star' s
gl amorous characteri stics are not those of an
erotic obj ect of the gaze . 1 1 It is hard to see
how anyone coul d come to bel ieve this . In
our own time, we have Sylvester Stal l one
and Arnol d Schwarzenegger whose star
vehicles sl ow down and whose scenes are
blocked and staged precisely to afford spec
tacles of bulging pectorals and other parts .
Nor are these exampl es from contemporary
flm new devel opments in fl m history. Be
fore Stal l one , there were Steve Reeves and
Charles Bronson, and before them, Johnny
Wei smul l er. Indeed, the muscle-bound char
acter of Maciste that Steve Reeves often
pl ayed originated i n the 1 91 3 Ital ian specta
cle Cabiria.
Nor i s the baring of chests for erotic
purposes solely the provi nce of second-string
mal e movie stars . Charlton Hest on . Ki rk
Douglas , Burt Lancaster, Yul Brynner - the
list coul d go on endlessly - al l have a
265
beefcake side to their star personae . Obvi
ously, there are entire genres that celebrate
male physiques , scantily robed, as sources of
visual pleasure: biblical epics , ironically
enough, as wel l as other forms of anci ent and
exotic epics ; j ungle fl ms ; sea-diving fl ms ;
boxing flms ; Tarzan adventures ; etc.
Nor are males simply ogled on screen for
their bodily beauty. Some are renowned for
their great facial good looks , for which the
action i s slowed down so that the audience
may take a gander, often i n "gl amor" close
ups . One thinks of John Gi l bert and Ru
dolph Valentino i n the twenties ; of the
young Gary Cooper, John Wayne , Henry
Fonda and Laurence Olivier in the t hirties ;
of Gregory Peck in the forties ; Montgomery
Clift , Marlon Brando, and James Mason in
the ffties ; Peter O' Toole in the sixties ; and
so on. I 2 Nor i s i t useful to suggest a constant
correl ation between mal e stars and effective
activity. Leslie Howard in Of Human Bond
age and Gone with the Wind seems to have
succeeded most memorably as a matinee
idol when he was staggeringly ineffectual .
If the dichotomy between mal e/active
i mages versus female/passive images i l l-sui ts
the mal e half of the formul a , it i s also
empirically misguided for the female hal f.
Many of the great femal e stars were al so
great doers . Rosali nd Russel l i n His Girl
Friday and Katheri ne Hepburn in Bringing
Up Baby hardly stop moving long enough to
permit the kind of visual pleasure Mulvey
asserts is the basis of the femal e i mage in
Hol l ywood cinema. Moreover, it seems to
me question-begging to say that audi ences
do not derive visual pleasure from t hese
performances . Furthermore , if one com
pl ains here that my counterexampl es are
from comedies , and that certain ki nds of
comedies present speci al cases , l et us argue
about The Perils of Pauline.
After hypothesizing that visual pl easure
in fl m is rooted in presenting the woman as
passive spectacle through the agenci es of
conventional stylization, Mulvey cl ai ms that
this proj ect contains the seed of i ts own
Ideology
destruction, for i t wil l raise castration anxi
eties i n mal e spectators . Whether erotic
contempl ation of the femal e form elicits
castration anxi ety from mal e viewers i s, I
suppose, a psychoanalytic clai m, and, as
such, not i mmediaiely a subj ect for criticism
i n this essay. However, as we have seen,
Mulvey goes on to say that the ways i n which
Hollywood fl m deals with this purported
probl em is through cinematic structures that
allow the mal e spectator two particular
avenues of escape: fetishi sm and voyeuri sm.
One wonders about the degree to which i t
i s appropriate to descri be even mal e viewers
as either fetishists or voyeurs . Indeed, Allen
Weiss has remarked that real-world fetishists
and voyeurs would have little time for
movies , preferring to l avish their attentions
on actual boots and furs , on the one hand,
and living apartment dwel lers on the other. 1 3
Fetishi sm and voyeurism are literally per
versions i nvolvi ng regression and fxation
at an earlier psychosexual stage in the
Freudian system, whereas deriving visual
pleasure from movies would not , I take it , be
consi dered a perversi on, ceteris paribus, by
practicing psychoanal ysts . Mulvey can only
be speaking of fetishism and voyeuri sm
metaphorically. 1 4 But i t is not clear, from the
perspective of fl m theory, that these meta
phors are particularly apt .
In general , the i dea of voyeuri sm as a
model for al l fl m viewing does not suit the
data. Voyeurs require unwary victims for
their i ntrusive gaze. Fil ms are made to be
seen and fl m actors wil l ingly put themselves
on display, and the viewers know this . The
fanzine i ndustry could not exist otherwise.
Mulvey claims that the conventions of Hol ly
wood fl m give the spectators the i llusion of
looking i n on a private worl d. I S But what can
be the operative force of private here? In
what sense is the world of The Longest Day
private rather than public? Surely the inva
sion of Normandy was public and it is
represented as public i n The Longest Day.
Rather one suspects that the use of the
concept of private i n this context wi l l turn
266
out , i f i t can be i ntel l igibly specifed at al l , to
be a question-begging dodge that makes i t
pl ausible to regard such events as the re
enactment of the battle of Waterloo as a
private event .
Also, Mulvey i ncludes under the rubric
of voyeurism the sadistic assertion of con
trol and the punishment of the guilty. This
will allow her to accommodate a lot more
flmic materi al under the category of voy
eurism than one might have original l y
thought that the concept could bear. But is
Lee Marvi n' s punishment of Gloria Gra
hame i n The Big Heat voyeuri sm? If one
answers yes to this , mustn' t one also admit
that the notion of voyeuri sm has been
expanded quite monumentally?
One is driven toward the same conclusions
with respect to Mulvey' s usage of the concept
of fetishi sm. Extrapol ating from the example
of von Sternberg, any case of el aborate
scenography is to be counted as a fe
tishization mobilized i n order to defect
anxieties about castration. So the el aborate
scenography of a solo song and dance num
ber by a femal e star functions as a contai ni ng
fetish for castration anxieties . But , then,
what are we to make of the use of elaborate
scenography i n solo song and dance numbers
by mal e stars? If they are fetishizati ons , what
anxiety are they contai ni ng? Or, mi ght not
the elaborate scenography have some other
function? And if it has some other function
with respect to male stars , i sn' t that function
something that should be considered as a
candi date i n a rival explanation of the func
tion of elaborate scenography i n the case of
female stars?
In any case , is it pl ausi bl e to suppose that
elaborate composition generally has the
function of containing castration anxiety?
The multiple seduction j amboree i n Rules of
the Game, initi ated by the playing of Danse
Macabre, is one of the most el aborately
composed sequences i n flm history. It is not
about castration anxiety; it is positively
pri apic. Nor i s i t clear what textually moti
vated castration anxiety could underlie the
The Image of Women in Film
i mmensely i ntricate scenography i n the
nightclub scene of Tati ' s Play Tilne. That is ,
there i s elaborate scenography i n scenes
where it seems castration anxi etv i s not a

plausible concern. Why shoul d i t function
differently in other scenes? If the response i s
t hat castration anxiety i s always an issue , the
hypothesis appears uninformative .
1 6
Grounding the contrast between fetishis
tic and voyeuristic strategies of visual plea
sure i n the contrast between von Sternberg
and Hitchcock i nitially has a strong i ntuitive
appeal because those fl mmakers are , pre
t heoretically, thought to be describable i n
t hese terms i ndeed, they come pretty
cl ose to describing themselves and their
i nterests that way. However, it i s i mportant
to recall that when commentators speak this
way, or even when Hitchcock himself speaks
t his way, the notions of voyeuri sm at issue
are nontechnical .
Moreover, the i mportant question is even
I f i n some sense these two directors could be
I nterpreted as representing a contrast be
t ween ci nematic fetishism and voyeuri sm,
does that opposition portend a systematic
dichotomy that maps onto all Hollywood
cinema? 1 7 Put bluntly, i sn' t there a great
deal of visual pl easure in Holl ywood cinema
t hat doesn' t ft into the categories of fetish
I sm and voyeurism, even if those concepts
are expanded, metaphorically and other
wise, i n the way that Mulvey suggests?
Among the things I have i n mi nd here are
not only the kind of counterexamples al
ready advanced mal e obj ects of erotic
contempl ation, femal e protagonists who are
active and triumphant agents , spectacul ar
scenes of the Normandy invasion that are
diffcult to connect to castration anxieties -
but i nnumerable fl ms that neither have
el aborate scenography nor involve mal e
characters as voyeurs , nor subj ect women
characters to mal e subj ugation i n a demon
stration of sadistic control . One fl m to start
to think about here might be Arthur Penn' s
The Miracle Worker for which Patty Duke
( Astin) received an Academy Award. (After
267
all , a fl m that receives an Academy Award
can' t be considered outside the Hol lywood
system. ) 1 8
Of course, the real probl em that needs to
be addressed i s Mulvey' s apparent compul
sion to postulate a general theory of visual
pl easure for Hollywood cinema. Why would
anyone suppose that a unifed theory i s
avail abl e, and why would one suppose that
it would be founded upon sexual difference ,
since i n the Hol l ywood cinema there i s
pl easure even visual pleasure that i s re
mote from issues of sexual difference .
It is with respect to these concerns that I
think that the l i mi tations of psychoanalytic
fl m criticism become most apparent . For i t
i s that commitment that drives femi ni st fl m
critics toward generalizations l i ke Mulvey' s
that are destined for easy refutation. If one
accepts a general theory l i ke psychoanal ysis ,
then one is unavoidably tempted to try to
apply its categorical framework to the data
of a feld l ike fl m, come what may, irrespec
tive of the ft of the categori es to the data.
Parti al or glancing correl ations of the cate
gorical distinctions to the data wi l l be taken
as confrmatory, and al l the anomalous data
will be regarded as at best topics for further
research or ignored altogether as theoreti
cally insignifcant . Psychoanalytic-femini sts
tend to force their "system" on cinema, and
to regard often sl i m correspondences be
tween flms and the system as such that one
can make vaulting generalizations about
how the Hol lywood cinema "real l y" func
tions . The overarching propensity to frui t
less generalization is virtual l y i nherent i n the
attempt to apply the purported success of
general psychoanal ytic hypotheses and dis
tinctions , based on clinical practice, to the
local case of fl m. This makes theoretical
conj ectures like Mulvey' s i mmedi atel y prob
l ematic by even a cursory consideration of
fl m history. One pressing advantage , theo
retically, of the i mage approach is that it
provides a way to avoi d the tendency of
psychoanalytic fl m femi ni sm to commit
itself to unsupportable generalizations i n its
Ideology
attempt to read all fl m history through the
categories of psychoanalysis . 1 9
III . The Image of Women in Film
The i nvestigation of the i mage of women i n
fl m begins with the rather commonsensical
notion that the recurri ng i mages of women
i n popul ar medi a may have some i nfuence
on how people thi nk of women i n real life .
How one i s to cash i n the notion of "some
i nfuence" here, however, will be tricky. In
fact , i t amounts to fnding a theoretical
foundation for the i mage of women in fl m
model . Moreover, there may be more than
one way i n which such infuence is exerted.
What I would l i ke to do now is to sketch one
answer that specifes one dimension of
i nfuence that recurring i mages of women in
flm may have on spectators , especially mal e
spectators , i n order to give the model some
theoretical grounding. However, though I
eluci date one strut upon which the model
may rest , it i s not my intention to deny that
there may be others as well .
Recent work on the emotions in the
philosophy of mi nd has proposed that we
learn to i dentify our emotional states i n
terms of paradigm scenarios , which, in turn,
also shape our emotions . Ronald de Sousa
cl ai ms
my hypothesis i s thi s : We are made fami liar with
the vocabul ary of emotion by association with
paradigm scenarios. These are drawn frst from
our dai l y l ife as smal l chil dren and l ater re
i nforced by the stori es , art and culture to which
we are exposed. Later sti l l , i n l i terate cultures ,
they are suppl emented and refned by l iterature.
Paradigm scenarios i nvolve two aspects : frst a
situation type providing the characteristic objects
of the specifc emotion type , and second, a set of
characteristic or "normal " responses to the situa
tion, where normal ity is frst a biological matter
and then very qui ckl y becomes a cultural one . 20
Many of the relevant paradigm scenarios
are quite pri mitive , l i ke fear, and some are
genetically preprogrammed, though we con
tinue to accumul ate paradigm scenarios
268
throughout l i fe and the emotions that they
defne become more refned and more
cultural ly dependent . Learning to use emo
tion terms is a matter of acqui ri ng paradigm
scenarios for certain situations ; i . e . , match
ing emotion terms to situations is guided by
ftting paradigm scenarios to the situations
that confront us . Paradigm scenari os , it
might be said, perform the kind of cognitive
role attributed to the formal obj ect of the
emotion i n preceding theories of mi nd. 21
However, instead of being conceived of i n
terms of criteria, paradigm scenarios have a
dramatic structure. Li ke formal obj ects of
given emotions , paradigm scenarios defne
the type of emotional state one is i n. They
also di rect our attenti on in the si tuation i n
such a way that certain el ements i n i t
become salient .
Paradigm scenari os enable us to "gestal t"
situations , i . e. , "to attend differential l y to
certain features of an actual situation, to
inquire into the presence of further features
of the scenari o, and to make i nferences that
the scenario suggests . "22 Given a situation,
an enculturated individual attempts , gener
ally intuitively, to ft a paradigm scenario
from her repertoire to i t . Thi s does not mean
that the individual can ful ly articulate the
content of the scenario, but that , i n a broad
sense , she can recognize that i t fts the
situation before her. Thi s recognition en
ables her to batten on certain features of the
situation, to explore the situation for further
correl ations to the scenario, and to make the
inferences and responses the scenario sug
gests . Among one' s repertory of love
scenarios , for exampl e, one might have, so to
speak, a "West Si de Story" scenario which
enables one to organize one' s thoughts and
feelings about the man one has j ust met .
Furthermore, more than one of our scenari os
may ft a given situation. Whether one reacts
to a situation of public recri mi nati on with
anger, humi lity or fortitude depends on the
choice of the most appropriate paradigm
scenario. 23
I will not attempt to enumerate the kinds
The I mage of Women in Film
of considerations that make the pot ul at l on
of paradigm scenarios attractl \ e except to
note that i t has certain advant ae over

competing hypotheses about the best \\ a to

characterize the cognitive and conatl \ e com
ponents in emotional states . 24 Rat her. I shal l
presume that the notion of paradi gm scenar
ios has something to tell us about a cor po
nent of emotional states i n order to suggest
how recurring i mages of women i n fl m may
have some i nfuence on spectators . which
i nfuence is of relevance to femi ni sts .
Cl early, i f we accept the notion of para
digm scenarios , we are committed to the
notion that the paradigm scenario we apply
to a situation shapes the emotional state we
are i n. Some paradigm scenarios for exam
pie , those pertaining to the rel ation of an
i nfant to a caretaker may be such that
recognition of them i s genetically endowed.
But most paradigm scenarios wi l l be ac
quired, and even those that start out rather
pri mitivel y, l i ke rage , may be refned over
time by the acquisition of further and more
compl ex paradigm scenarios . There will be
many sources from which we derive these
paradigm scenari os : observation and mem
ory ; stories told us on our caretaker' s knee ;
stories told us by friends and school teach
ers ; gossip, as wel l , i s a rich source of such
scenarios ; and, of course , so are newspaper
articles , self-help books , TV shows , novel s ,
plays , fl ms and so on.
These scenarios may infuence our emo
tional behavior. Male emotional responses
to women, for example , will be shaped by
the paradigm scenari os that they bring to
those relations . Such paradigm scenarios
may be derived from fl ms , or, more li kel y,
flms may refect , refne , and reinforce
paradi gm scenarios already abroad i n the
culture. One way to construe the study of
the i mage of women i n fl m i s as an attempt
to i sol ate widely dissemi nated paradigm
scenarios that contribute to the shapi ng of
emoti onal responses to women. 25
The recent fl m Fatal Attraction, for
example , provides a paradigm scenari o for
269
situations i n which a married man i s con
fronted by a woman who refuses to consider
their affai r as easily termi nabl e as he does .
Armed with the Fatal Attraction scenario,
which isn' t so different from the Crimes and
Misdemeanors scenari o, a man might "ge
stalt" a roughl y matchi ng, real life situati on,
focussing on it i n such a way that its obj ect ,
correl ating to Alex ( Gl enn Close) , i s , as
Dan (Michael Douglas) says , "unreason
abl e, " and "crazy, " and, as the flm goes on
to i ndicate , pathologically i mpl acabl e. One
might use the scenario to extrapol ate other
el ements of the scenario to the real case ;
one might l eap i nductivel y from Al ex' s
protests that her behavior is j ustifed (you
woul dn' t accept my calls at the offce so I
called you at home) , which are associated i n
the fl m with madness , to the suspicion that
a real-life , ex-lover' s claims to fair treatment
are really insane. Li ke Dan, one gui ded by
the Fatal Attraction scenario may assess his
situation as one of paralysing terror, persecu
tion and hel plessness that only the death of
the ex-lover can al levi ate.
I am not suggesting that the Fatal Attrac
tion scenario causes someone who matches
it to a real l i fe situation to ki l l his ex-lover,
though embracing it may be l i kel y to pro
mote murderous fantasies , i n terms of the
response component . In any case, matching
it to a real life situation wi l l tend to demote
the ex-l over to the status of an i rrati onal
creature and to regard her claims as a form
of persecution. This construal of the woman
as persecutrix, of course , was not invented
by the makers of Fatal Attraction. It fnds
precedent i n other flms , l i ke Play Misty for
Me, and stories , including fol klore tol d
among men in the form of gossip.
Fatal Attraction provides a vivid exempl ar
for emotional attention that reinforces pre
existing paradigm scenarios . However, even
if Fatal Attraction i s not origi nal , studying
the i mage of the woman Alex that i t
portrays i s relevant to femi ni sts because i t
i lluminates one pattern of emotional atten
tion toward women that is avail able to men,
Ideology
which pattern of emotional attention, if
made operational in specifc cases , can be
oppressive to women, by, for example ,
reducing cl ai ms to fair treatment to the
status of persecutory, i rrational demands .
That a paradigm scenario l ike Fatal Attrac
tion is avai l abl e in the culture does not imply
that every man or even any man mobilizes
it . But it does at l east present a potential
source or resource for sexist behavior. That
such a potential even exists provides a
reason for feminists to be interested i n it .
One aspect of the study of the image of
women in fl m is to identify negative ,
recurring i mages of women that may have
some i nfuence on the emotional response of
men to women. Theoretically, this i nfuence
can be understood in terms of the negative ,
recurring i mages of women i n fl m as supply
ing paradigm scenarios that may shape the
emotional responses of real men to real
women.
Recurri ng, negative i mages of women in
fl m may warp the emotions of those who
deploy them as paradigm scenarios in sev
eral different ways . They may distort the
way women are attended to emotionally by
presenting wi l dl y fal l acious images such as
the "spider woman" of flm noir. Or, the
probl em may be that the range of images of
women available is too impoverished: if the
repertoire of i mages of women is limited in
certain cases , for i nstance, to contraries like
mother or whore, then real women who are
not perceived via the mother scenario may
fnd themselves abused under the whore
scenario. The identifcation of the range of
ways i n which negative i mages of women in
fl m can function cognitively to shape emo
tional response is a theoretical question that
depends on further exploring the variety of
logical/functional types of different images
of women i n fl m. That i s a proj ect that has
hardly begun. Neverthel ess , i t seems a
pro j ect worth pursuing.
I began by noting that the i mage ap
proach might appear to some to be without
proper theoretical credentials . I have tried
270
to allay that misgiving by suggesti ng that the
program fts nicely with one direction i n the
theory of the emotions . From that perspec
tive , the study of the i mage of women i n fl m
might be viewed as the search for paradigm
scenarios that are available in our culture
and which, by being avail abl e, may come to
shape emotional responses to women. This
aspect of the proj ect should be of special
interest to femi nists with regard to negative
imagery since it may i l luminate some of the
sources or resources that mobilize sexist
emotions . Obviousl y, the theoretical poten
tials of the i mage of women i n fl m model
need to be developed. What I have tried to
establish is the contention that there is at
least a theoretical foundation here upon
which to buil d.
Thi s, of course, i s not much of a defense of
the i mage approach. So i n my concluding
remarks I shal l attempt to sketch some of the
advantages of this approach, especi ally in
comparison to some of the disadvant ages of
the psychoanalytic model di scussed earlier.
First , the i mage of women model seems
better suited than the psychoanalytic model
for accommodati ng the rich data that flm
history has bequeathed us . It al lows that
there will be lots of i mages of women and
l ots of images of men and that these may
-
play a role as paradigm scenarios i n lots of
emotional reactions of al l kinds . One need
not attempt to l i mi t the ambit of emotional
responses to fetishism or voyeuri sm.
Of course , the i mage of women model
may take particul ar i nterest in negative
i mages of women i n fl m, for obvious
strategic purposes , but it can also handl e the
case of positive images as wel l . Whereas
Rosal ind Russel l ' s character in His Girl Fri
day may be an i nexplicabl e anomaly i n the
psychoanalytic system, she can be compre
hended in the i mage approach. For this
model allows that there can be positive
images of women i n fl m which may pl ay a
rol e i n positive emotional responses to real
women. 26 It is hard to see how there can be
anything of genuine value i n Hollywood fl m
The I mage of Women in Film
in Mulvey' s construction . The I mage ap
proach can identify the good. \v hi l e ackno\v l
edging and i sol ati ng the evil .
The i mage of women i n fl m mode l I S l ess
likely to l ead to unsupportabl e general i za
tions . What i t looks for are recurnng I mages
of women i n fl m. It has no commI tments
about how women al ways appear i n fl m. 27
Rather i t targets i mages that recur wi t h
marked frequency. Moreover, i t makes no
clai ms about how all viewers or al l mal e
vi ewers respond to those i mages . I t tracks
i mages of women that reappear in fl m with
some signifcant degree of probabi l i ty and,
where the i mages are negative , it can el uci
date how they may play a constitutive role in
the shaping of oppressive emotional re
sponses to women. It is not commi tted to
the ki nds of specifc causal l aws that Mulvey
must accept as underlying her account . It
can nevertheless , acknowledge causal eff
cacy to some paradigm scenarios indeed,
i t can acknowledge causal effcacy to para
digm scenarios of al l sorts , thereby accom
modating the richness of the data .
Indeed, i t is interesting to observe that
the i mage approach can accommodate cer
tain of Mulvey' s i nsights i n a way that does
not provoke the kind of obj ection Mulvey' s
position does . It can acknowledge that i t is
the case that there is a recurring i mage , of
undoubtedly unnerving statistical frequency,
of women i n fl m posed as passive specta
cl es . Not al l i mages of women in fl m are of
this sort ; but many are. Unl i ke Mul vey, the
proponent of the i mage approach can point
to this as a statistical regul arity without
cl ai mi ng any over-reaching generalizations ,
and then go on to show how this sort of
i magery rei nforces a range of paradigm
scenarios which mobi lize a wi de variety of
oppressive emotional responses by men
toward women , encountered on the beach,
on the street , and in more omi nous ci rcum
stances as well .
One obj ection that might be rai sed here,
of course , is that I have present ed t he i mage
approach as a rival to Mulvey' s t heor . But
271
it might be countered that Mulvey' s theory is
about the pleasure taken from Hol lywood
cinema, and the i mage approach, as de
scribed so far, says nothing about pl easure .
So though i t may be a rival to Mul vey' s
model with respect to attempting to i sol ate
the way i n which Hollywood ci nema func
tions in patri archal society, it has not an
swered the question of how i t i s pl easurabl e .
One admittedly programmatic response
to this obj ection i s to note that i nsofar as the
i mage approach is connected with engaging
emotions , and i nsofar as i ndulging emotions
in aesthetic contexts is generally thought to
be pl easurabl e, then the proponent of the
i mage approach can expl ai n the pl easure to
be derived from Hol lywood fl ms i n virtue
of whatever its defender takes to be the best
theory or combination of theories that
accounts for the pl easure we take from

exercIsIng our emotIons I n response to
artworks , popul ar or otherwise . That is ,
where the rivalry between the i mage ap
proach and Mulvey' s approach i s about
pleasure , the supporter of the i mage ap
proach has a range of options for devel opi ng
theories .
On the other hand, I wonder whether the
interest on the part of femi ni sts i n Mulvey' s
theory i s really i n its account of pl easure
rather than i n the way that i t provides a
means for anal yzing the way fl m functions
in patri archal soci ety. And if the l atter is the
real source of interest , two things need to be
sai d: ( 1 ) the question of pl easure is onl y of
interest insofar as i t i l l umi nates the function
of flm in abetting sexism, and (2) the image
approach i s a competing perspective in
relation to that question, even if i t makes
the issue of pl easure less central to femi ni sm
than does Mulvey' s approach.
Lastly, consonant with the preceding ob
j ection, it may be urged that Mulvey' s
theory i s a theory of visual pl easure , and
though we have spoken of i mages , even i f
we could advance a theory of pl easure , i t
would not be specifcally a theory of visual
pl easure, for images in the sense we have
The I mage of Women in Film
in Mul vey' s construction. The i mage ap
proach can i dentify the good. whi l e acknowl
edging and isolating the evi l .
The i mage of women i n flm model I S l ess
l i kely to l ead to unsupportabl e ge ne ral i za
tions . What it looks for are recurri ng i mages
of women i n flm. It has no commit ments
about how women al ways appear I n fl m.
27
Rather it targets i mages that recur with
marked frequency. Moreover, it makes no
cl ai ms about how al l viewers or al l male
viewers respond to those images . I t tracks
images of women that reappear in fl m with
some signifcant degree of probabil i ty and,
where the i mages are negative, it can el uci
date how they may pl ay a constitutive role i n
the shaping of oppressive emotional re
sponses to women. It i s not committed to
the kinds of specifc causal l aws that Mulvey
must accept as underlying her account . It
can neverthel ess , acknowledge causal eff
cacy to some paradigm scenarios indeed,
it can acknowledge causal effcacy to para
digm scenarios of all sorts , thereby accom
modating the richness of the data.
Indeed, i t is interesting to observe that
the i mage approach can accommodate cer
tain of Mul vey' s i nsights in a way that does
not provoke the kind of obj ection Mulvey' s
position does . It can acknowledge that it i s
the case that there is a recurring i mage , of
undoubtedly unnerving statistical frequency,
of women in fl m posed as passive specta
cles . Not al l i mages of women i n fl m are of
this sort ; but many are . Unlike Mulvey, the
proponent of the i mage approach can point
to this as a statistical regul arity without
cl ai mi ng any over-reaching generalizations ,
and then go on to show how this sort of
imagery reinforces a range of paradigm
scenarios which mobilize a wide variety of
oppressive emoti onal responses by men
toward women, encountered on the beach,
on the street , and i n more omi nous ci rcum
stances as well .
One obj ection that might be rai sed here ,
of course , is that I have presented t he i mage
approach as a rival to Mulvey' s t heory. But
271
it might be countered that Mulvey' s theory is
about the pl easure taken from Hol lywood
cinema, and the i mage approach, as de
scribed so far, says nothing about pl easure .
So though it may be a rival to Mul vey' s
model with respect to attempting to isolate
the way in which Hollywood cinema func
tions in patri archal society, it has not an
swered the question of how it i s pl easurabl e.
One admittedly programmatic response
to this obj ection is to note that insofar as the
i mage approach is connected with engaging
emotions , and i nsofar as indulging emotions
in aesthetic contexts is generally thought to
be pleasurable , then the proponent of the
i mage approach can explai n the pl easure to
be derived from Hol lywood fl ms in virtue
of whatever its defender takes to be the best
theory or combi nation of theories that
accounts for the pl easure we take from
exercising our emotions in response to
artworks , popular or otherwise. That i s ,
where the rivalry between the i mage ap
proach and Mulvey' s approach i s about
pleasure , the supporter of the i mage ap
proach has a range of opti ons for developing
theories .
On the other hand, I wonder whether the
interest on the part of femi ni sts i n Mulvey' s
theory is really i n its account of pl easure
rather than i n the way that i t provides a
means for analyzing the way fl m functi ons
in patri archal society. And if the l atter i s the
real source of i nterest , two things need to be
said: ( 1 ) the question of pleasure is only of
interest insofar as it il l uminates the function
of flm in abetti ng sexism, and (2) the i mage
approach i s a competing perspective i n
rel ation to that question, even i f i t makes
the i ssue of pleasure less central to femi nism
than does Mulvey' s approach.
Lastl y, consonant with the preceding ob
j ection, it may be urged that Mulvey' s
theory i s a theory of visual pleasure , and
though we have spoken of i mages , even if
we could advance a theory of pl easure , i t
would not be specifcally a theory of visual
pleasure , for images in the sense we have
Ideology
used it are not essential ly or necessarily
visual . Here, two points need to be made.
First , it i s not clear that Mulvey herself is
always tal ki ng about uniquely visual plea
sure, nor that i t is possi bl e, with respect to
Hollywood fl m i mages, to suppose that we
can fnd some substratum of interests that
are exclusively visual i n nature.
Second, Mulvey' s putative answer to the
riddl e of how viewers can take visual plea
sure i n the femal e form i n cinema presup
poses that there is a riddl e here to be solved,
which, i n turn, depends upon the conviction
that the i mage of a woman on screen, i n
some l awl ike fashi on, provokes castration
anxiety i n male viewers . There is no prob
l em of visual pleasure without the supposi
tion of regularly recurring mal e castration
anxiety with respect to visual emphasis on
femal e form. So if, l i ke me , you are skepti
cal about this supposition, then Mulvey has
not solved the probl em of visual pl easure ,
for there was no probl em to solve i n the frst
pl ace, and, therefore , no pressure on rival
theories to address the issue .
Moreover, if, again l i ke me , you are
worri ed about accepting general izations that
are derived from psychoanalysis and treated
l i ke l aws by fl m critics , then the i mage of
women i n fl m approach has the virtue of
providing means for analyzing the function
of fl m i n the service of sexism without
necessarily committing one to the still con
troversial tenets of psychoanalysis . Thi s , of
course, is hardly a recommendation that I
expect committed psychoanalytic flm cri tics
to fnd movi ng. I offer it , without further
argument , to concerned third parties . 28
Notes
1 . The distinction between sources and re
sources above is meant to acknowledge that it
is general l y the case that popul ar fl m more
often than not reinforces rather than invents
ideol ogy, sexist and otherwise. Thus , fl m is
pri maril y a resource rather than a source of
272
ideology. However, at the same ti me, I have
no reason to assert dogmatical l y that a fl m
coul d never invent ideology. If this happens , I
suspect that it happens very, very rarel y. But I
have no investment i n claiming that i t could
never happen.
2. I say a "potential rival " because , as al ready
noted, one could marry t he study of the
i mage of women i n fl m with a psychoanal ytic
perspective . Thus, the theoretical rival ry that
I envision i n this paper is between a study of
the i mage of women i n fl m that i s neutral
with respect to psychoanalysis and psychoana
lytically i nformed fl m femi nism.
3. This essay frst appeared i n Screen i n 1 975 . It
has been repri nted often, most recentl y, with
respect to the wri ting of this essay, i n Laura
Mulvey' s collection of her own wri ti ngs enti
tled Visual and Other Pleasures (Indi ana
University Press , 1 989) . Al l page references
to this article pertai n to that volume .
4. It should also be noted that Mulvey herself
has attempted to modify, or, perhaps more
accuratel y, to suppl ement the theory t hat she
put forward in "Visual Pl easure and Narrative
Ci nema. " See , for exampl e , her "After
thoughts on ' Visual Pl easure and Narrative
Cinema' i nspired by King Vidor' s Duel in the
Sun" i n Visual and Other Pleasures, pp. 29-
37. The l atter essay, while not denying the
analysis of mal e pleasure i n the former essay,
offers a suppl emental account of female
pleasure with respect to narrative fl m. Space
does not al low for criticism of that supplemen
tal account . However, it is interesting that its
structure is analogous to the structure of her
psychoanalysis of mal e pl easure i nsofar as
Mulvey attempts to "deduce" femal e pleasure
at the movies from an earli er stage of psycho
sexual development whose mascul i ne phase
fl m narratives may, supposedl y, reactivate .
5 . I stress that what is accepted without suff
cient cri tical distance i n this matter is the scien
tifc viability of psychoanal ysi s . Femi ni st flm
critics , including Mulvey, are aware of and
seek to cancel the patri archal biases of psy
choanalysis . But unless the el ements of the
theory show sexist prej udices , they tend to
accept i ts pronouncements on matters such as
psychosexual development and visual pl ea
sure without recourse to weighing psychoana-
The Image of Women in Film
lytic hypotheses against those of competi ng
theories or to consideri ng the often com
mented upon theoretical faws and empi rical
di ffcul ties of psychoanal ysi s .
6. I have di scussed the tendency in contempo
rary flm theory to embrace theoretical frame
works wi thout considering rival reviews at
some l ength i n my Mystifing Movies: Fads
and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory
(Columbia Universi ty Press , 1 988) .
7. Indeed, John Berger makes such a dis
tinction - between the male as active and
the femal e as passive - with respect to the
iconography of Western easel painting with
out i nvoki ng psychoanalysis . See hi s Ways of
Seeing ( London: Pengui n, 1 972) , especial l y
chapter 2.
R. Li ke many contemporary fl m theorists ,
Mul vey appears to bel ieve that through
point-of-vi ew edi ti ng Hol l ywood flm masks
two other "l ooks" - those of the camera on
the proflmic event and of the spectator on
the fni shed fl m. Point-of-vi ewi ng edi ti ng, i n
thi s respect , functions to abet what contempo
rary fl m theorists call ' " transparency. " I have
chal l enged the overall advisabi l i ty of hypothe
ses of thi s sort i n my Mystifying Movies; see
especi al l y the di scussion of suture .
9. Ibid.
1 0 . Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cin
ema, " p. 21 .
1 1 . Ibi d. , p. 20.
1 2 . Other commentators have also questioned
Mulvey' s generalizations i n this regard. See
Kristi n Thompson, "Cl osure withi n a Dream?
Poi nt of View i n Laura" i n Breaking the
Glass Armor ( Pri nceton University Press ,
1 988) , p. 1 85 ; and Mi riam Hansen , "Pl ea
sure , Ambivalence , Identi fcation: Val entino
and Femal e Spectatorshi p, " Cinema Journal
25 ( 1 986) ; 6-32.
1 3 . Al l en Weiss i n the i ntroduction to hi s unpub
l i shed doctoral dissertation on the flms of
Hol l i s Frampton ( New York University,
1 989) .
I -L Mulvey may rej ect this i nterpretation of her
essay. She may thi nk that she i s using these
psychoanal ytic terms l iteral l y. In the "Sum
mary" of her essays (p. 26) , for example , she
speaks of the neurotic needs of the male ego.
But this seems tantamount to impl ying that
273
the male ego is , at l east , i n our culture ,
inevitabl y and essenti al l y neuroti c. And I am
not convi nced that thi s i s the way t hat cl inical
psychoanalysts would use the idea of neurosis
,
as a technical classifcati on. Nor would the
classifcation be of much scienti fc val ue i f i t
applied so universal l y. Furthermore , Freud
himself, i n hi s study of Da Vinci , tal ks of
sublimation as an alternative formation to
perversions l i ke feti shism. Why has subl i ma
tion dropped out of Mulvey' s l i st of options
for visual pleasure?
1 5. Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Ci n
ema, " p. 1 7.
16. Christian Metz, perhaps the l eadi ng psycho
analytic fl m theorist , appears to hol d such a
view. For arguments against thi s hypothesi s ,
see the second chapter of my Mystifying
Movies.
17. Here one might object that Mulvey i s not
committed to regard the feti shism/voyeurism
dichotomy as systematic; so I am att acki ng a
straw posi tion. But I thi nk she i s committed
to the notion of a systematic dichotomy. For
if the problem of castration anxi ety with
respect to the female form i s general , and
fetishism and voyeurism are the onl y re
sponses , then where there i s no castration
anxiety, won' t that have to be a function of
strategi es of voyeurism and feti shi sm? Per
haps Mulvey does not bel ieve that there i s
always castrati on anxiety i n response to the
female form. But then we would have to
know under what condi tions castration anxi
ety will fai l to take hol d. Moreover, we wi l l
have to ask whether these conditi ons , once
specifed, won' t undermine Mulvey' s theory
in other respects . Of course , another reason
why one might deny that Mulvey' s claims
involve a systematic dichotomy between fe
tishistic and voyeuristic strategies i s that she
believes that there are other strategies for
containing castration anxiety. But then the
burden of proof i s on her to produce t hese as
yet unmentioned al ternatives .
1 8. Thi s flm was , of course , based upon a hi ghl y
accl aimed Broadway production . So, i t i s a
counterexample that should al so be consid
ered by theater cri tics who wish to appl y the
general izations of femi nist flm cri tics to the
study of thei r own artform. Likewi se , TV
Ideology
critics , with the same ambition, should want
to ponder the relevance of thi s example to the
successful remake of the theater and fl m
versions of The Miracle Worker for TV i n
1 979 by Paul Aaron where Patty Duke
(Asti n) pl ays the Anne Sul l ivan rol e .
Al so, it shoul d be obvious, contra Mulvey,
that not al l visual pl easure i n fl m is rooted in
sexual difference . Consider t he visual pl ea
sure derived from recogni tion, from detai l ,
from shi fts of scal e , and, more specifcally,
from machi nery, from casts of thousands , and
so on ( l owe these examples to Cynthi a
Baughman) .
1 9. There is another l i ne of argumentation i n
Mulvey' s essay that I have not dealt with
above . It i nvolves a general theory of the
way i n which cinema engages spectators i n
identifcation and mobilizes what Lacanians
cal l Hthe i maginary. " The sort of general
theory that Mulvey endorses concerning
these issues is criticized at l ength in my
Mystifing Movies.
20. Ronal d de Sousa, The Rationality of the
Emotions ( MIT Press , 1 987) , p. 1 82. The idea
of scenarios is also employed by Robert
Sol omon, "Emotion and Choice" i n Explain
ing Emotions, ed. Amel ie Rorty (University
of Cal ifornia Press , 1 980) .
274
21 . E. g. , Anthony Kenny' s Action, Emotion and
Will (London: Routledge, 1 963) .
22. Ronald de Sousa, "The Rationality of Emo
tions" i n Explaining Emotions, p. 1 43 .
23 . This example comes from Cheshire Cal
houn' s "Subj ectivi ty & Emotions , " The Philo
sophical Forum 20 ( 1989) , p. 206.
24. See the de Sousa citations above for some of
the relevant arguments .
25 . Of course , t here coul d also be a research
program dedicated to studying the i mage of
men i n fl m for the same purposes .
26. Kristin Thompson, i n conversati on , has
stressed that determi ni ng whether a paradigm
scenario is positive or negative may cruci al ly
hi nge on contextuali zi ng it hi storically.
27. Whereas psychoanalytic-femi ni sm, given its
avowal of the general l aws of psychoanal ysi s ,
is tempted to say how woman must always
appear as a result of deduci ng fl m theory
from a deeper set of "scientifc" principles .
28. This paper was read at the 1 990 Pacifc
Division Meeti ngs of the American Phi l o
sophical Associ ation where Laurie Shrage
provided hel pful comments . Other useful
cri ticisms have been offered by El l en Gainor,
Kristin Thompson, David Bordwel l , Sal l y
Banes , Peggy Brand, Carol yn Korsmeyer,
Sabrina Barton, and Cynthi a Baughman.
Introduction
Unti l recentl y, the maj or recurring question
of value that confronted fl m theori sts was
whether fl m coul d be an art , and, thus , a
source of arti sti c val ue . I n the earl i est stages
of flm theory, thi s worry was made urgent by
the exi stence of certai n anti -mi metic prej u
di ces wi th respect to photography. For pho
tography was regarded to be a purely me
chani cal process of recordi ng, and, hence .
essenti al l y i narti stic . Consequentl y, fl m,
whose central consti tuent is photographic ,
likewise found its arti stic credenti al s under
fre .
As a resul t , the self-appointed task of
members of the frst generation of flm
theori sts , l i ke Rudol f Arnhei m, l was to
demonstrate , often at length, the ways in
whi ch fl m coul d di verge expressively from
\vhat was thought of as the mere reproduc
tion of real i ty. For in showing the ways i n
whi ch ci nemati c devices creativel y recon
structed pro- fl mi c events , 2 an i nventory of
arti stic structures was enumerated.
Moreover, the task of establishing the
artisti c potenti al s of fl m proceeded under
certai n constrai nts . For i t was thought that if
fl m had genui nel y artistic potenti al s , they
woul d have to be of a uni quel y ci nematic
vari ety. That is , fl m woul d not be shown to
be an art were it simply mi mi cking theater.
Rather. it had to be establ i shed that fl m had
some range of essenti al l y cinematic effects ,
possessed by no other art forms , whi ch, at
the same t i me . performed some demonstra-
275
bl y arti stic function (such as , for exampl e ,
expression) .
Thus , for much of i ts history, fl m theory
operated within an essenti al i st framework.
Theorists , of course , di sagreed over what
they took to consti tute the essenti al features
and powers of cinema: for Arnhei m it
involved the expressive reconstruction of
real ity, while for Andre Bazi n it was a
matter of the obj ective re-presentati on of
real ity. 3 However, unti l the l ate sixties and
early seventies , most of the conversation of
what might be cal l ed classical fl m theory
gravitated toward securi ng the artistic val ue
of flm by means of identifyi ng its essenti al ly
cinematic capacities . 4
But , as the sixties turned into the seven
ties , the essenti al i st proj ect in fl m theory
found itself embattl ed from two di recti ons : a
neo-Wittgensteinian suspicion of essences ,
on the one hand, 5 and semiotics , of an
implicitl y anti-essential ist sort , on the other.
Thee pressures , along with a rising sense
that flm theory shoul d leave off its primary
preoccupation with aesthetics , and exami ne
the role of cinema in society, spel l ed the
demi se of at l east one sort of fl m theory.
From the earl y seventies onward, fl m theory
became l ess concerned wi th the aestheti c
value of cinema and more obsessed wi th i ts
soci al val ue . Moreover, the primary social
role that flm theorists came to attri bute to
flm was negative . Fi l m, parti cul arly but not
excl usi vely the mass entert ainment ci nema ,
was regarded as predomi nantl y - and for
many (i ronical l y enough) essen tially 6 an
agency of i deological mani pul ation , a means
by which ostensi bl y oppressive systems , nota
bl y capitalism, sustai n domi nion . Thus , the
l eading hypothesis amongst contemporary
flm theori sts i s that flm is an i nstrument of
ideology, and their research program i s a
matter of i denti fying the relevant levers of
ideological mani pulation that cinema af
fords . As a resul t , the central preoccupation
of fl m studi es in the United States today
concerns the i deol ogical effect of cinema on
its audiences .