Laura Mulvey's Essay and Bechdel Test

VISUAL PLEASURE AND NARRATIVE CINEMA

Laura Mulvey’s essay is about Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and how it is showcased in the film industry. The essay comprises a few key points which basically explain it in detail. The keywords are: Male Gaze, phallocentric, Scopophilia, Voyeurism, Manhood, and the active male and passive female. So, we will now be analyzing how certain films have shown these in their film

MOVIE (HINDI):

The psychoanalytic background of the pleasure principle is brought into light through the film ‘Pink’. The movie ‘Pink’ starring Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bacchan can be considered as an example of the essay written by ‘Laura Mulvey’. As decades have shown us the patriarchal society wherein the women have no say in anything is screened in one scene wherein Meenal takes a stand for herself and tries to voice out but is attacked with a glass bottle. As mentioned, sexual harassment can take place from the known and not only the unknown as the neighbor is seen (looking at Meenal). From the camera frame to the audience, it is seen as if he was looking at her from the angle of sexual harassment, but he was watching because of the case she was fighting for herself as well as for her roommates who had to go through the same phase. Sexual harassment is linked to “Visual pleasure” and in turn linked to ‘Male Gaze’ where a woman is looked upon from top to bottom and eventually it turns into rape. The angle to which I feel that this movie fits into the essay of Laura Mulvey is that the movie is based on real-life incidents wherein girls go through sexual harassment and rape outside their homes as well as within their homes which arises from “visual pleasure”. The movie begins wherein there is a late-night party, and all the three girls attend it, wherein the boys are also present. During the party, the boys have their eyes on the girls, and they grab the opportunity by intoxicating the drink.

 This is a vicious cycle that once triggered into men, wherein they think ‘Manhood’ has found its cozy place inside their body and mind can take their sword and magnetically attract and trap girls. Sexual harassment as the word gives its meaning, has a ‘Phallocentric’ angle where the dominance is portrayed by the man upon the act. The protagonist for ‘Male gaze’ is played by Rajveer Singh and is followed upon by his two other friends. We see that the male gaze is not only portrayed by young boys but also men from older age groups as well, wherein in the movie that Meenal the female protagonist is starred by an old man when she is walking through the park in the evening. The angle of ‘Voyeurism/Scopophilia’ when visualized from the film angle is seen when the recording takes place which had been set up by the girls for them to keep it as a piece of evidence. So, when they were asked to come up at court the recording was played to prove them guilty against false allegations and one can sense that the boys when they saw the recording, they were reminded of that night at the feeling rose again. Hence this topic can be compared to that of the film. One can also say that ‘Scopophilia’ can be seen when women are forced to dress up a certain way by men when they go out together to provoke.

 

ITEM SONGS IN BOLLYWOOD:

In Bollywood, industry songs are not about portraying women surrendering to the male gaze. By taking up such roles and agreeing to them is like giving encouragement to the act. There are a lot of Bollywood numbers known as ‘item songs’ which has the theme of ‘Visual pleasure’.From the essay we can categorize this under the ‘Voyeuristic-Scopophilia’.One of the points under this is that of the camera as it records the pro-filmic event of the song after which the audience watches it.

Now we come to the point of visual pleasure from these songs. Since these songs have female characters, it automatically comes down to the point of ‘Male Gaze’ wherein men focus only on seeing the body of a woman. There are a lot of examples that can be taken into consideration. We shall see one out of many which is the song ‘Fevicol se’ from the film ‘Dabangg 2’ starring ‘Kareena Kapoor’ as the female protagonist. The setting of the song is realistic as it happens in many areas. The whole song is shot in such a way that the camera focuses only on her body and the way she dances. The lyric of the whole song is built around the view of the man being attracted towards a female. Due to this, the audience will have a feeling of gaze and ‘manhood’. We shall be seeing the meaning of a few lines of the song and we shall come to know how the essay can be related to the song:

Main to chalun is Kadar	I walk in such a manner
Ki mach jaaye re gadar	That it creates mutiny
Hosh waale bhi madhosh Aaye re Nazar	Even those in senses seem intoxicated

 In these three lines we see a simple act as ‘walking’ by a woman is said to create a warlike situation amongst all men that they will fall for her. This is an example of male gaze.

   

 

 

Mere photo ko	Take my photo
Mere photo ko seene se yaar	Take my photo in your arms
Chipka le Saiyan fevicol se	And stick it with glue, my love

 

In these few lines, the body part of a woman is being objectified. In the dance video, we can see the way the scene is shot and described as well.

 

Main toh tandoori ... haai	I'm tandoori ... hey
Main toh tandoori murgi hoon yaar	I'm tandoori chicken, my friend
Gatkale saiyan alcohol se ... oh yeah	Swallow me with alcohol ... oh yeah
Main toh hoon namkeen butter, maska maska	As savory butter, smooth
Log kehte hai mujhe	People call me
Main toh hoon namkeen butter	As savory butter
Public shehar ki kare hai tera wait re	People of the city are waiting for you
Kare hai tera wait re	Are waiting for you
Arre thumke joh kamariya	When your waist moves

 

This talks about ‘Scopophilia’ and ‘Voyeurism’ by the translation of the lines. In the above paragraph, we see that ‘People’ are basically ‘Men’ and the audience is men. The body is of a woman is compared to eating, butter, savory, and whatnot in the music video. The active male and passive female have seen wherein a woman is just a mere object (to-be-looked-at-ness). Concluding, the analysis of the video is an example of the male gaze, manhood in the Bollywood industry.

  

BECHDEL TEST

The Bechdel Test was inspired by cartoonist Alison Bechdel‘s 1985 tongue-in-cheek comic strip ‘The Rule’ became a basic measure to see if women are fairly represented in a film. It’s also referred to as the Bechdel-Wallace test Alison credited the idea for the test to her friend Liz Wallace. The test is not a measure of how good or ‘feminist’ a film is, but it does highlight just how male-dominated cinema really is. Alison Bechdel created the test in collaboration with her friend Liz Wallace (it could also be called the Bechdel Wallace test), and they were both inspired by writer Virginia Woolf, who in her 1929 essay “A Room of One’s Own” noted that she rarely saw “women represented as friends” in works of fiction. Instead, women were shown only “in their relation to men.”

The Bechdel Test is important since for decades it has helped spot damaging archetypes and think in aggregate about how the media represents women in films. It also helps to identify tired depictions and promote nuanced and resonating women. It is also important since many films require to pass this test on certain criteria.

 

 REFERENCE SITES:

1.   1.   https://nofilmschool.com/what-is-bechdel-test

 

2.   2. http://bechdeltestfest.com/about/#:~:text='The%20Bechdel%20Test'%20was%20inspired,to%20her%20friend%20Liz%20Wallace.

 

3.   3. https://themedium.ca/arts/the-importance-of-the-bechdel-test/#:~:text=Meaningful%20representation%20in%20fiction%20is%20being%20put%20to%20the%20test.,-When%20it%20comes&text=The%20Bechdel%20Test%20doesn't,more%20nuanced%20and%20resonating%20women.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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