Kyle Khuns

Women in Film
Professor Provost
12/10/2015

Laura Mulvey and Medias Counterculture

Throughout history gender has always been a source of debate. Gender

equality is something that feminist and other supporters have been fighting for or a
long time. As time moved on, feminist ideals have changed feminist movements
have come in three different movements. The initial wave of feminism saw women
fighting against oppression to gain human rights, like the right to vote. Suffragettes
like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wound up working together to
create a world where women now have a say in who represents them and their
country. After Legal inequalities were addressed second wave feminists were more
concerned with the social and cultural inequalities woman experience. Second wave
feminists petitioned for equality in education, careers, and the workplace, and issues
of family and the right to choose not to have children. They also worked for health
issues and reproductive rights. Many Laws were passed during this time period
including Title IX, Women's Educational Equity Act, and the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act of 1978 Third wave feminism came to be during the 1990s as a
response to second wave feminism. Third wave feminists respond to issues such as
women's greater influence in politics, and stereotypes about and media portrayals

of women (what). The struggles that feminists had to go through can be seen in the
media. Whether it be the portrayal of female characters, gender biases in content,
or the lack of gender equality in front of or behind the camera. One feminist film
scholar Laura Mulvey published a piece of writing for Screen magazine in 1975 titled
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (Arya 195).
Using conventional Hollywood Films from the 1950s, Laura Mulveys
research is the direct result of psychoanalysis (Arya 195). According to Mulvey, the
cinema is a combination of visual pleasures. One of these visual pleasures is
scopophilia. This is the pleasure of looking. Human beings derive pleasure from
looking and being looked at. Films appeal to our subconscious desire for
exhibitionism and voyeurism. The darkness of the theatre allows for the audience
to feel as if they are alone looking in on the lives of someone else on the screen. This
darkness juxtaposed the bright lights and vivid colors on the screen creates a
private world for viewers (Mulvey 806). Films focus on the human form. The effect
this focus has on an audience is similar to that of a baby recognizing its
reflection. When a child does this they are developing their ego. When babies see
their reflection, what they see is the perfect and complete version of themselves
(Mulvey807). Much like these babies when we look at the screen we identify with
the characters on the screen. Films and audiences creates a homogeny. The viewers
relate to characters that share characteristics with them. These characters are like
the perfect self a baby sees in its reflection. This want to identify with the
characters is a result of our narcissism. According to Mulvey looking is primarily
the pleasure of the active, or male characters and being looked at is the role of the

passive, or female characters (Mulvey 808). According to mulvey the visual

presence of a woman tends to work against the development to a story. She goes to
say that this presence stops the flow of action due to moments of erotic
contemplation. So, said contemplation needs to made cohesive with the
narrative. Budd Boetticher believes:
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 (Mulvey 809).
She says that women in film serve two functions; to be the erotic object for
character on the screen, or to be an erotic object for the audience in the theatres
(Mulvey 809). The male protagonist projects his look on the audience. The film is
solely from his perspective. Mulvey goes on to say that Male characters are more
developed and three dimensional, whereas women two-dimensional. They are seen
as an object or idol (Mulvey 810). At the end of her article Mulvey sums up all of her
research. She compiles all of this information and places visual pleasure into three
separate gazes. The gazes are between Characters, between the screen and the
audience, and the lens and the film (Mulvey 815-816).
Upon seeing the gender bias in the film industry, Mulvey proposes that we
make a change. She says it is helpful to understand what the cinema has been, how
its magic has worked in the past, while attempting a theory and a practice which will
challenge this cinema of the past (Mulvey 803). In other words we need to
understand whats wrong with film before we can change it. The majority of her

article explained what was wrong with the film industry, but she did spend some
time explaining her solution. Mulvey is petitioning for a counterculture of
cinema. Mulvey believes that this is now possible for filmmakers. Technological
advances in film have made the process of filmmaking much more cost
effective. Because films are now more reasonable to make from a financial
standpoint, more people can make films. More people out there making films means
that more perspectives will be covered. This will challenge the conventional
Hollywood system (Mulvey 805).
Creating a counterculture in the media is no simple task. One needs to find a
unique voice and then create a solid following behind it. While it took a while,
women have most definitely found their voice in the media today. A great example
of a female who has made progress in the female counterculture is Tina Fey. Born
on May 18th, 1970 Tina Fey would wind up working as a writer and actress for
Saturday Night Live in 1995 (Bio). She would rise up the ranks at SNL, eventually
rising to the role of head writer of the show. She is the first woman to ever have that
role (Stanley). After her run in SNL was over, Fey decided to create her own show at
NBC. The show was called 30 Rock. This cult hit show lasted seven
years. Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times describes the show as a witty
send up of network television that cut uncannily close to the bone. It seemed at time
almost like a transcript of production meetings at the NBC Headquarters at 30
Rockefeller Center (Stanley). While the show was never a ratings darling, it praised
liked by critics and other showrunners. The Deadline team interviewed Christopher
Lloyd, the creator and executive producer of Modern Family. He told Deadline 30

Rock was a show we all watched and discussed and admired publicly and envied
privately. We will miss both loving and hating how funny it was(Deadline). Now
being successful is all good and well, but what made Fey so special was the doors
she opened for other female filmmakers, performers and writers. When asked
about Tina Feys accomplishments Eileen Heisler, one of the two female
showrunners of ABCs The Middle said I think Tina Feyand uspoked a little hole
that allowed for this [proliferation of women in television] (Chaney). Deadline
pointed out an interesting fact about Feys career. She did something that only Jerry
Seinfeld did; The both have writing credits for every single one of their
episodes. Fey was a writer for 139 consecutive 30 Rock shows. There were many
female comedy writers in the history of television, and there were many female
actors who developed iconic characters, but Fey was the first woman to do both
(Stanley). Robert Carlock, producer of 30 Rock has a vision about the impact he
wants his show to have He said Ill tell you what wed love is if our show could be
used going forward as an example of the way things ought to work, to show that the
network landscape isnt just this vast wasteland (Deadline). Mr. Carlock must be
very pleased when he turns on the television because his show has done just
that. This show has opened up a new avenue for females in the entertainment
industry. Recently many show that have gotten the green light for production have
woman involved in major positions. More high-profile comedies Like Girls, The Big
C, Enlightened, The New Girl, and The Mindy Project, are being created or co-created
by women. These shows place female characters at the center of their narratives, or
in other words they are the source of our gaze. There are also shows that werent

created by women like Parks and Recreation and Veep. But these shows have
created notoriety by casting women as main characters in powerful positions
(Chaney).
Mulvey should be pleased with the progress that American media is
making. While there are still films that objectify women and treat them as objects
rather than people, the counter culture have begun to develop and
spread. Intelligent and driven female artists are beginning to tell their stories from
their own perspective. The most encouraging thing about this is that the people are
responding to it. These shows have been either critical successes or network
darlings. The counterculture is here and you know what? Its pretty entertaining.

Works Cited
Arya, Rina. "Male Gaze." Encyclopedia of Gender in Meida. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage,
2012. 195-96. Print.
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.biography.com/people/tina-fey-365284>.
Braudy, Leo. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Film Theory and Criticism:
Introductory Readings. By Laura Mulvey and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP,
n.d. 803-16. Print.
Chaney, Jen. "How Did Tina Fey Change Television?" Slate Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec.
2014.
<http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/01/_30_rock_finale_the_l
egacy_of_tina_fey_at_the_nbc_show_s_final_episode.html>.
Deadline Team. "How Tina Fey's '30 Rock' Lasted Seven Seasons And Changed The Game
For Female Comedy Creators." Deadline. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
<http://deadline.com/2013/01/30-rock-finale-tina-fey-how-it-changed-tv417909/>.
Stanley, Alessandra. "Tina Fey Signs Off, Broken Barriers Behind Her." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/arts/television/tina-fey-signs-off-30rock-broken-barriers-behind-her.html?_r=0>.
"What Are the Three Waves of Feminism?" Answers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
<http://womenshistory.answers.com/feminism/what-are-the-three-waves-offeminism>.