Explore some of the ways in which you have gained fresh insights into your chosen films as a result of applying Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ Theory

Hitchcock explores the male gaze in ‘Vertigo’ a lot and it heavily adds to the films underlying themes. For example, in Madeleine’s introduction scene in ‘Ernie’s’, Hitchcock uses the male gaze for a few things. Firstly, the audience are shown a medium close-up shot of Scottie, positioning them with him. The camera then takes the role of his ‘gaze’, slowly tracking across the room towards Madeleine. We see that men, signifying a representation of a patriarchal society early on, dominate the room. The camera then slowly tracks in towards Madeleine, drawing the audience in to her. The shot reflects Scottie’s instant obsession with Madeleine, he can’t take his eyes off her. Because he can’t, the audience too can’t take their eyes off her. Before Madeleine’s face is revealed, we switch to a P.O.V. shot of Scottie, aligning with him as we do so. When Scottie see’s Madeleine, we share his gaze. The gaze is for both Scottie and the spectator, which is later highlighted again in the scene. As Madeleine walks towards Scottie, she is framed within a frame. This shot singles her out from the crowd. Another element of Madeleine that singles her out from the crowd is her costume. She is the only blonde in the room and is the only person showing skin. But the biggest part of her costume is her green dress. The colour green naturally connotes feelings of obsession and envy. Madeleine now embodies the theme of obsession, making her the obsession. As Madeleine gets closer, she is almost dominating her frame within a frame. The frame is shot to look like a painting. From Scottie’s point of view, she is a portrait of an ‘ideal’ woman. All background noise is now muted and the films’ OST gets stronger. This connotes that all attention is on Madeleine at this point. When Madeleine is as close to Scottie as she can get, the OST is at a peak volume. Scottie is now turned away; he can no longer look at Madeleine. It seems as though Madeleine makes Scottie weak, she is too overwhelming for him. This is an example of Scottie’s castration in the fact that a woman is making him weak, and clearly looks to be more dominant than him. When Scottie is turned away, the spectator is still given a P.O.V. shot of Madeleine. As it is clearly not Scottie’s P.O.V, this exemplifies Mulvey’s theory that the objectification of women in film is for not only the gazer in the film, but is for the spectator also.

However, Midge’s introduction to the film is very different to Madeleine’s. For starters, the cinematography is very plain when Midge is on screen, seemingly reflecting the ‘bookish’ quality that Scottie sees her in. The use of medium shots throughout her whole scene distances the spectator away from her. Hitchcock doesn’t want the spectator to have any physical connection with Midge (as oppose to Madeleine who gets several close-ups) because she is not the desirable character in the film. Since Scottie isn’t attracted to Midge, why should she be objectified to the audience? In the scene, Midge is working at her desk, while Scottie is on a couch complaining. Midge is working on designing lingerie for women, something a man may usually do. And again, Scottie is complaining about wearing a corset (a piece of women’s attire). The fact Midge is even working presents her as a masculine character, something that in comparison to Scottie makes her dominant. Scottie is castrated in this scene, he is weak and he can’t work; and Midge simply emphasises his castration with her masculine qualities. Her character is also very maternal towards Scottie. She refers to him as ‘Johnny-O’ and teachers him about women’s lingerie. And when is falls down from the stepladder, she cradles him in his arms. All of Midge’s qualities in this scene are there to emphasise Madeleine’s desirability by comparison.        

There are different aspects to the ‘Male Gaze’, all of which Hitchcock uses in ‘Vertigo’. For example, one aspect is ‘Socophilia’, which is the ‘love of watching’. For example, Scottie is a detective who’s job it is to simply watch people. Judy is an actress who’s job it is to be watched by Scottie.

Another aspect is ‘Objectification’, which is the ‘gaze’ a character receives. The character that is being ‘gazed’ is objectified – treated as an object whose sole value is to be enjoyed or possessed by the voyeur. The characters are devalued and removed of any humanity when they are objectified.  This is absolutely clear in 'Vertigo', and is one of the main themes that rus through the film. For example, when Scottie is taking Judy to the clothes store to buy a new grey suit, he grabs her arm and takes her across the road to the store. Scottie treats her as a possession, an object that he controls. Objects require control, and Scottie clearly controls his 'object'. When Scottie takes away her choice (when picking clothes), he also removes her humanity, and objectifies her. Scottie's obsession with controlling Judy seems to be a direct 'remedy' to his castration; and if he controls her, he is dominant and active again. Another example of Scottie being the active male in the situation is again in the clothes store when the sales woman is making the sale. She asks Scottie what he wants, not Judy. This presents Scottie as the dominance in the scene in what seems to getting hinted at as a patriarchal society.
The last aspect of the 'Male Gaze' I'm going to look at is the idea of 'Fetishism', which is the focusing of erotic desire on inanimate objects with sexual connotations. This could include clothes, hair or other specific body parts. This is clear in one scene of 'Vertigo', when Scottie asks Judy to dye her hair. He seems to take great pleasure from making her hair blonde, to desire his ideal woman. When she is in the salon, the use of several close-ups of her body is shown to the spectator. This suggests that Judy is simply going through a recreation, her body parts are subject to objectification and they are the only things that are important to Scottie and the spectator. Scottie's attempt to recreate Madeleine is a response to his castration, and he attempts to assert his control and obtain his ideal woman.