discussion prompt:
Consider the following quotation and ideas from Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”:
“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female… The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.”
Keeping these ideas in mind, cite two specific sequences, one from The Virgin Suicides and one from Desperately Seeking Susan that you think demonstrate and/or revise (or refuse) Mulvey’s claims about the “male gaze” and the “conventional objectification” of women’s bodies in mainstream cinema.
read the reading and watch the film listed, then write 2 paragraph (around 300 words). due 11.23
