Audience theory - Audiences and Audience theory

Laura Mulvey created this theory and that it develops as a logical argument:

1. Cinema reflects society
2. Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society 
3. How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

• Men are still in charge
• Women still earn less than women
• Unrepresentative in the government and parliament. 

The Gaze

The 'gaze' of the camera is the 'male gaze.'

The male gaze is active, the female passive.

Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters. 

The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze because the camera films from the optical, as well as the libidinal, point of view of the male character. This three levels of the cinematic gaze, camera, character and spectator - that objectify the female character (the triple gaze). 

Therefore the audience are constructed in such a way that they are forced to 'gaze' from a male point of view. 

Women are forced to look at the text as though they were a male member of the audience. 

This occurs through the process of SUTURE.

Agency 

In the classical Hollywood cinema the make protagonist has agency because he is the active one and all powerful where the girl gets kidnapped or is in trouble and it's his duty to save her. The female character is passive and powerless, she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience.

Mulvey argues that women have two roles in films:

1. As an objet o erotic desire for the characters
2. As an object of erotic desire for the audience

However, this theory doesn't apply to mine because the camera doesn't focus on the girl though the male's gaze because they're always together. The camera focuses on both of the actors to show they're sad story.