Mulvey states that “the gender power asymmetry is a
controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male
viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses.” This
means that the male viewer is the target audience, therefore their needs
are met first and that this problem stems from an old fashioned, male-driven
society. Her theory on how women are portrayed in film and the media is just as
prevalent today as it was in 1975 when her text was first published.
Mulvey believes that women are in fact “the bearer of
meaning and not the maker of meaning,” which suggests that women are not placed
in a role where they can take control of a scene, instead they are simply put
there to be observed from an objectified point of view. In addition, she
believes that this way of watching film is never alternated so that the men are
in fact the ones who are being viewed in this manner. This inequality enforces
the ancient and outdated idea of men do the looking and the women are being looked at
