Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Laura Mulvey’s "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" is a landmark feminist film theory essay arguing that classic Hollywood films are built around the male gaze—where women are objectified and exist mainly for male pleasure. She uses psychoanalysis to show how movies reinforce patriarchal power, positioning men as active and women as passive. While groundbreaking, her argument has been critiqued for being too rigid, ignoring diverse audiences, and overlooking queer and female spectatorship. ​