To What Extent Is Laura Mulvey’s Argument in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) Still Relevant Today?

Abstract

The perspective in Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) is epoch-making. It analyses gender relations from a fresh perspective through Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and Lacan’s image theory. It presents the dilemma faced by women’s film theory at the time. However, with the emancipation of the female workforce and the widespread attention paid to minority groups, Laura Mulvey’s theory no longer applies to modern society. Because of the limitations of the times, Laura Mulvey’s argument only analyses gender relations from the angle of spiritual theory, but not from comprehensive social and other perspectives. It also neglects the female and same-sex gaze and only analyses the visual pleasure that men experience when they gaze at women.