Gender Texts Responses

1. Read the two gender texts (7b, 8)
2. Summarise the two texts in blog.
3. Write a personal response including examples of films/games to illustrate points.

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) - Laura Mulvey
III. Women as Image, Men as Bearer of the Look

"What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance."
- Budd Boetticher.

The first half of this text describes women in films as little more than titillation for the viewer, an object that is there for the benefit of the person watching the film, and for the main male character in a specific title. As can be seen in the quote above, women were viewed not as characters in themselves or even as important, but moreso as a conduit for the viewer's feelings and a symbol for something we should care about, because she represents something that the protagonist wants or needs to protect, and we should relate to him.
The text then goes on to infer that the roles of women were to be as erotic subjects for the character within the screen, or for the audience.
The second half of the text goes on to describe the male character, the bearer of the look. Mulvey explains that the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification, meaning that they must control the 'phantasy' and become a representative of power. In this act they are used to forward the story, and the audience can use them as a vessel for their own feelings and a bearer of the spectacle. Because of the male movie stars' more glamorous characteristics they become a more ideal image and ego that the spectator can get behind. In this way Mulvey effectively states that the male character is more of an important figure than that of the female, become more of a three-dimensional character than the object known as woman.

While I understand that the text was published in 1975 and therefore the view of gender was quite different from that of our decade, I still feel there is very little I can agree with in terms of this particular text, or to be exact, I feel it's a shame that this text may actually be right. While some female characters had broken this mold, such as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939) or Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (1975) representing strong women, it wasn't really until the late 70's and early 80's that women finally being looked more as powerful protagonists, particularly with Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979) and it's sequels, and Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor in Terminator (1984), and particular it's sequel Terminator 2 (1991). In terms of computer games, women have been going from mere sex symbols to equals in their respective universes. Characters such as The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3(2004), Alex Vance in Half Life 2 (2004), and Jade from Beyond Good & Evil (2003) have all been portrayed as strong women who are intelligent, smart, and independent. Even in the reboot of Tomb Raider (2013), Lara Croft had dropped much of her trademark sexuality in favour of portraying a young woman who learns to overcome adversity using her wits and natural abilities to survive in a harsh environment against all odds.

Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games - Anne-Marie Schleiner