The Image of Women in Film: A Defense of a Paradigm

Author(s): Noël Carroll

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 48, No. 4, Feminism and
Traditional Aesthetics (Autumn, 1990), pp. 349-360
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
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 NOEL CARROLL

The Image of Women in Film:

A Defense of a Paradigm

I. INTRODUCTION

Feminism is the most visible movement in film sources, or, at least, resources of sexism in the
criticism today, and the most dominant trend in broader society. I
that movement is psychoanalytically informed. Clearly, the study of the image of women in
Psychoanalytic feminism came to this position film could proceed without commitment to psy-
in film studies at the very latest by the early to choanalytic theory. However, that is not what
mid-eighties. Before the consolidation and as- happened. As a participant in the evolution of
cendancy of this particular variety of feminism, film theory and history, my own sense is that the
earlier approaches to the study of women and project of studying the image of women in film
film included the search for a suppressed canon was superseded by psychoanalysis due to a feel-
of women filmmakers-a feminist version of the ing that this project, as practiced by early femi-
auteur theory-and the study of the image of nists, suffered from being too naively empirical.
women in films, primarily the image of women It appeared to involve meandering from genre to
in films by men. Neither of these approaches genre, from period to period, and even from film
mandated a reliance on psychoanalysis, though, to film, accumulating a mass of observations
of course, one could pursue these research pro- which however interesting, were also thought to
grams while also embracing psychoanalysis. be theoretically rag-tag. Psychoanalysis, in con-
My particular interest in this essay is to de- trast, provided a means to incorporate many of
fend the study of the image of women in film, the scattered insights of the image of women in
regarding that project as logically independent film approach (henceforth, generally called sim-
from the resort to psychoanalysis. In speaking of ply "the image approach"), while also sharpen-
this approach to feminist film criticism, I have in ing the theoretical direction of feminist research.
mind writing on cinema from the early seventies That is, psychoanalysis could provide not only a
like Molly Haskell's From Reverence to Rape theoretical framework with which to organize
which paralleled research in literary studies suchmany of the discoveries of the first wave of film
as Kate Millett's Sexual Politics. feminism, but also a powerful program for fur-
Work of this sort called to our attention the ther research.
ways the imagery of women in our culture recur- This, of course, is not the whole story. Many
ringly portrayed them through a limited, con- film feminists were also interested in the origins
straining, and ultimately oppressive repertory of and reinforcement of sexual difference in our
characterizations. For example, in film, it was culture, and in this respect, psychoanalysis, as a
noted that very often the options for depicting putative scientific discipline, had the advantage
were strongly structured by the dichotomy of the of having theories about this, albeit theories
mother versus the whore. Insofar as the ways of whose patriarchal biases would require modifi-
representing women in popular media in some cations by feminists.
way influences or reinforces the way real women The purpose of this paper is to attempt to de-
may be construed, the study of the recurrent fend feminist film studies of the image of women
imagery of women in film, especially where the in film approach, where that is understood as
relevant options were either impoverished and/or having no necessary commitment to psycho-
distorting, provided an inroad into one of the analysis. In order to carry out this defense, I will

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48:4 Fall 1990

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350 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

try to sketch some of the shortcomings of the film criticism, nor could one hope to develop
psychoanalytic model, but I will also attempt to objections to every variation in the field. Conse-
indicate that the image approach can be supplied quently, in this section of my paper, selectivity
with a respectable theoretical basis drawn from is unavoidable. Specifically, in developing my
the contemporary philosophy of the emotions. objections to psychoanalytic-feminism in con-
My strategy will be to consider psychoanalytic temporary film studies, I shall focus on Laura
feminism and the image approach as potentially Mulvey's seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and
rival research programs; and I will try to show Narrative Cinema."3
that the psychoanalytic approach has a number I have chosen this paper for several reasons.
of liabilities which can be avoided by the image First, it can lay claim to being the inaugural
approach, while also attempting to show that the polemic of feminist, psychoanalytic film criti-
image of women in film model need not be cism. Second, it is widely reprinted and widely
thought of as irredeemably sunk in atheoretical taught. If someone knows just one essay of the
naivete.2 psychoanalytic school, it is likely to be this one.
The first section that follows will outline some And, even though many feminist film critics
of the shortcomings of psychoanalytic feminism have registered objections to it and have tried to
in film studies, and the section that follows it qualify and expand it, it remains perhaps the
will propose some theoretical credentials for the major introductory text to the field. One charge
image of women in film model. I will not ad- that might be made against my choice of this
dress the purported advantage of psychoanalysis essay for scrutiny might be that it is somewhat
to provide a theory of sexual differentiation. dated in its specific claims. However, in re-
That would involve a discussion of the adequacy sponse, I would maintain that many of the the-
of psychoanalysis as a scientific theory of devel- oretical tendencies which I intend to criticize in
opment, and I obviously do not have the space to Mulvey's essay continue to plague psychoana-
enter that issue. Consequently, the objections lytic film feminism, even in those cases where
I raise with respect to psychoanalytic-feminist other psychoanalytically-inclined feminists may
film criticism will not depend on contesting the explicitly wish to modify Mulvey's approach.4
scientific pretensions of psychoanalysis, though The uncontroversial premise of Mulvey's es-
I should add that I am very skeptical about them. say is that the Hollywood cinema's success in-
Nevertheless, I shall try to restrict my objections volves, undoubtedly among other things, the
to ones that can be adjudicated within the bounds manipulation of the audience's visual pleasure.
of film theory. Moreover, Mulvey hypothesizes that the visual
Furthermore, I want to add that my opposition pleasure found in movies reflects patterns of
to the psychoanalytic model in feminist film visual fascination in the culture at large, a cul-
criticism in no way implies either logically or as ture that is patriarchal. And she argues that it is
a matter of fact any opposition to feminism as important for feminists to identify those patterns
such. The issue is between different models of of visual fascination, particularly in order to
feminist film criticism. I do not believe that an challenge them. Here it is useful to recall that
endorsement of feminism carries with it a the- Mulvey is a leading feminist filmmaker. So her
oretical commitment to psychoanalysis. meditations on the resources of visual pleasure
in Hollywood film are explicitly motivated by an
II. MULVEY, PSYCHOANALYSIS interest in developing a counter-cinema, one in
AND VISUAL PLEASURE which the patriarchal levers of visual fascination
exercised by Hollywood will be subverted.
At present, as already indicated, it appears fair According to Mulvey, one place to look for a
to say that the most active area in feminist film theoretical framework that will enable an inter-
studies is psychoanalytic in orientation. More- rogation of patterns of visual fascination is psy-
over, there are subtle differences and debates choanalysis. Psychoanalysis has a theory of vi-
between the major, feminist-psychoanalytic film sual pleasure or scopophilia; so it is at least a
critics. As a result, it is impossible in a paper of candidate for answering questions about cine-
this scale to chart all the positions that might be matic visual pleasure. However, it must be noted
correctly identified as feminist-psychoanalytic that Mulvey's embrace of psychoanalysis seems

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 Carroll Women in Film 351

to be unargued. Rather, she announces the need prehistoric terror, will be posed statue-like so
for theoretical vocabularies and generalizations, that male viewers can appreciate her beauty.
and then she endorses psychoanalysis simply Backstage musical numbers are useful devices
because it has them. She does not ask whether for accommodating this narrative exigency, since
there are rival theoretical frameworks to psycho- they allow the narrative to proceed-insofar as
analysis which might also serve her purposes; the narrative just involves putting on a show-
she does not consider any problems concerning while lavishing attention on the female form.
the scientific status of psychoanalysis; she does For Mulvey the female form in Hollywood film
not weigh the shortcomings of psychoanalysis becomes a passive spectacle whose function is,
against the advantages of competing models. first and foremost, to be seen. Here the relevant
Her acceptance of psychoanalysis appears al- perceiving subject may be identified as the male
most uncritically pragmatic: we need a theory of viewer, and/or the male character, who, through
visual pleasure; psychoanalysis has one; so let's devices like point-of-view editing, serves as the
use it. delegate, in the fiction, for the male audience
This unquestioning acceptance of the scien- member (who might be said to identify with the
tific authority of psychoanalysis is a continuing male character in point-of-view editing).8 This
feature of epistemologically dubious merit in idea may be stated in terms of saying that in
contemporary feminist film criticism.5 Where Hollywood film, women are the object of the
psychoanalytic hypotheses are not marred by look or the gaze.
obvious sexism, psychoanalytic feminists tend What appears to be meant by this is that
to be willing to accept them without exploring scenes are blocked, paced, and staged, and the
their possible logical flaws, empirical short- camera is set up relative to that blocking in order
comings, or relative disadvantages with respect to maximize the display potential of the female
to other theoretical frameworks. In this, they form. Undoubtedly, as John Berger has argued,
follow Mulvey's lead. However, though I will many of the schemata for staging the woman as a
not dwell on this issue now, I believe that this display object are inherited from the tradition of
methodological oversight, in the opening moves Western easel painting, where an elaborate sce-
of psychoanalytic-feminism, with respect to the- nography for presenting female beauty in frozen
ory choice, compromises feminist-psychoana- moments was developed.9 Calling this scenogra-
lytic film criticism fundamentally.6 phy, which does function to facilitate male inter-
From psychoanalysis, Mulvey inherits the ob- ests in erotic contemplation, "the look" or "the
servation that scopophilia is targeted at the human gaze," however, is somewhat misleading since it
form. To this, then, she adds an empirical gener- suggests that the agency is literally located in a
alization, presumably one independent of psy- perceiving subject, whereas it is literally articu-
choanalysis, that in film there is a division of lated through blocking, pacing, and staging rela-
labor in terms of the portrayal of the human tive to the camera. What is true, nevertheless, is
form.7 Men are characterized as active agents; that this blocking, pacing and staging is gov-
women are displayed in order to be looked at. erned by the aim of facilitating the male perceiv-
Men do things; women are objects of erotic ing subject's erotic interests in the female form
contemplation-so many pin-ups or arrested im- which could be said to be staged in a way that
ages of beauty. approximates maximally satisfying those inter-
Women are passive; men are active. Men car- ests. And it is this sense-that the image of the
ry the narrative action forward; women are the woman in Hollywood film is constructed through
stuff of ocular spectacle, there to serve as the scenography, blocking, pacing and so on in order
locus of the male's desire to savor them visually. to display her for male erotic contemplation-
Indeed, Mulvey maintains, on screen, women in that feminist, psychoanalytic critics invoke when
Hollywood films tend to slow down the nar- they say that the gaze in Hollywood film is
rative or arrest the action, since action must masculine. Indeed, these practices of blocking
often be frozen, for example, in order to pose and staging could be said to impose a male gaze
female characters so as to afford the opportunity on female spectators of Hollywood film, where
for their erotic contemplation. For example, a that means that female spectators are presented
female icon, like Raquel Welch before some with images of the female form that have been

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352 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

staged functionally in order to enhance male turning the entire scenography and cinematic
erotic appreciation of the female form. How- image into a fetish object; the elaborate visual
ever, as already indicated, this is not simply a compositions of Josef von Sternberg, in Mulvey's
matter of camera positioning, and to the extent view, are an extreme example of a general strat-
that talk of the look or the gaze creates that egy for containing castration anxiety by fetish-
impression, such terminology is unfortunate. ization in the Hollywood cinema.
Women in Hollywood film are staged and A second option for dealing with male castra-
blocked for the purpose of male erotic con- tion anxiety in the context of male scopophilia,
templation and pleasure. However, at this point, Mulvey contends, is voyeurism. Apparently, for
Mulvey hypothesizes that this pleasure for the Mulvey, this succeeds by re-enacting the origi-
male spectator is endangered. For the image of nal traumatic discovery of the supposed castra-
the woman, set out for erotic delectation, inev- tion of the woman-though I must admit that I'm
itably invokes castration anxieties in the male not completely clear on why re-enacting the
spectator. Contemplating the woman's body re- original trauma would help in containing castra-
minds the male spectator of her lack of a penis, tion anxiety (is it like getting back on a horse
which psychoanalysis tells us the male takes as a after you've been thrown off of it?).
sign of castration, the vagina purportedly con- In any case, Mulvey writes:
strued as a bloody wound. Unlike male charac-
ters in Hollywood cinema, whom Mulvey says The male unconscious has two avenues of escape
make meaning, female characters are said to be from this castration anxiety: preoccupation with the
bearers of meaning: specifically they signify re-enactment of the original trauma (investigating the
sexual difference, which for the male spectator woman, demystifying her mystery), counterbalanced
portends castration. by the devaluation, punishment, or saving the guilty
The male scopophiliac pleasure in the female object (an avenue typified by the concerns of thefilm
form, secured by the staging techniques of Holly- noir); or else complete disavowal of castration by the
wood film and often channeled through male substitution of a fetish object or turning the repre-
characters via point-of-view editing, is at risk in sented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes
its very moment of success, since the presentation reassuring rather than dangerous (hence overvalua-
of the female form for contemplation heralds cas- tion, the cult of the female star). 10
tration anxiety for the male viewer. The question,
then, is how the Hollywood system is able to If von Sternberg represents an extreme and
continue to deliver visual pleasure in the face of clarifying instance of the general strategy of
the threat of castration anxiety. Here, the gen- fetishization in Hollywood film, the radical in-
eral answer is derived from psychoanalysis, as stance of the voyeuristic strategy is located in the
was the animating problem of castration anxiety. cinema of Alfred Hitchcock. Here, one finds
Two psychic strategies, indeed perversions, cases like Rear Window which other commen-
that may be adopted in order to come to terms tators have often described in terms of voyeurism;
with castration anxiety in general are fetishism moreover, Mulvey associates voyeurism with the
and voyeurism. Similarly, Mulvey wants to argue urge for a sadistic assertion of control and the
that there are cinematic strategies that reflect subjugation of the guilty. And here Hitchcock's
these generic psychic strategies, and that their Vertigo and Marnie come particularly to mind,
systematic mobilization in Hollywood films is films in which voyeuristic male characters set
what sustains the availability of visual pleasure- out to remake "guilty" women characters.
male scopophiliac pleasure-in the face of cas- Needless to say, Mulvey's exemplification of
tration anxiety. the general strategies of fetishism and voyeur-
Fetishism outside of film involves the denial ism by means of von Sternberg and Hitchcock is
of the female's lack of a penis by, so to speak, persuasive, at least rhetorically, for these are
fastening on some substitute object, like a wom- directors whom critics have long discussed in
an's foot or shoe, that can stand for the missing terms of fetishism and voyeurism, albeit using
penis. Mulvey thinks that in film the female these concepts in a nontechnical sense. What
form itself can be turned into a fetish object, a Mulvey effectively did in her essay was to trans-
process of fetishization that can be amplified by form those critical terms into psychoanalytic

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 Carroll Women in Film 353

ones, while also implying that cinematic fetish- positions. On Mulvey's account, male charac-
ism and voyeurism, represented in the extreme ters in cinema are active; females are passive,
cases of von Sternberg and Hitchcock, were the primarily functioning to be seen. She writes that
general strategies through which male visual a male movie star's glamorous characteristics
pleasure in the cinema could be sustained, de- are not those of an erotic object of the gaze. 1' It
spite the impending threat of castration anxiety. is hard to see how anyone could come to believe
And, as well, these cinematic strategies-if psy- this. In our own time, we have Sylvester Stallone
choanalysis is true-reflect patterns of visual and Arnold Schwarzenegger whose star vehicles
fascination in patriarchal culture at large whereslow down and whose scenes are blocked and
visual pleasure in the female form depends on staged precisely to afford spectacles of bulging
either turning her into an object or subjugating pectorals and other parts. Nor are these exam-
her by other means. ples from contemporary film new developments
In summary, Mulvey situates the visual plea- in film history. Before Stallone, there was Steve
sure in Hollywood cinema in the satisfaction of Reeves and Charles Bronson, and before them,
the male's desire to contemplate the female form Johnny Weismuller. Indeed, the muscle-bound
erotically. This contemplation itself is poten- character of Maciste that Steve Reeves often
tially unpleasureable, however, since contem- played originated in the 1913 Italian spectacle
plation of the female form raises the prospect of Cabiria.
castration anxiety. Cinematic strategies corre- Nor is the baring of chests for erotic purposes
sponding to fetishism and voyeurism-and em- solely the province of second-string male movie
blematized respectively by the practices of von stars. Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Yul Bryn-
Sternberg and Hitchcock-provide visual and ner-the list could go on endlessly-all have a
narrative means to protect the structure of male beefcake side to their star personae. Obviously,
visual pleasure, obsessively opting for cinematicthere are entire genres that celebrate male phy-
conventions and schemata that are subordinated siques, scantily robed, as sources of visual plea-
to the neurotic needs of the male ego. Feminist sure: biblical epics, ironically enough, as well as
film practice of the sort Mulvey champions seeks other forms of ancient and exotic epics; jungle
to subvert the conventions that support the sys- films; sea-diving films; boxing films; Tarzan
tem of visual pleasure deployed in Hollywood adventures; etc.
filmmaking and to depose the hegemony of the Nor are males simply ogled on screen for their
male gaze. bodily beauty. Some are renowned for their great
I have no doubt that there are conventions of facial good looks, for which the action is slowed
blocking and of posing actresses before the cam- down so that the audience may take a gander,
era that are sexist and that alternative nonsex- often in "glamor" close-ups. One thinks of John
ist styles of composition are worth pursuing. Gilbert and Rudolph Valentino in the twenties;
Moreover, as noted earlier, I will not challenge of the young Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Henry
Mulvey's psychoanalytic presuppositions, though Fonda and Laurence Olivier in the thirties; of
I believe that this can and ought to be done. For Gregory Peck in the forties; Montgomery Clift,
present purposes, the only comment that I will Marlon Brando, and James Mason in the fifties;
make about her invocation of psychoanalysis is Peter O'Toole in the sixties; and so on. 12 Nor is
that, as already noted, it does not seem method- it useful to suggest a constant correlation be-
ologically sound. For even if psychoanalysis, or tween male stars and effective activity. Leslie
specific psychoanalytic hypotheses are genuine Howard in Of Human Bondage and Gone With
scientific conjectures, they need to be tested the Wind seems to have succeeded most memo-
against countervailing hypotheses. Neither Mul- rably as a matinee idol when he was staggeringly
vey nor any other contemporary psychoanalytic ineffectual.
feminist has performed this rudimentary exer- If the dichotomy between male/active images
cise of scientific and rational inquiry and, as a versus female/passive images ill-suits the male
result, their theories are epistemically suspect. half of the formula, it is also empirically mis-
Moreover, apart from her psychoanalytic com- guided for the female half. Many of the great
mitments, Mulvey's theory of visual pleasure female stars were also great doers. Rosalind Rus-
rests on some highly dubitable empirical sup- sell in His Girl Friday and Katherine Hepburn

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354 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

in Bringing Up Baby hardly stop moving long illusion of looking in on a private world. I5 But
enough to permit the kind of visual pleasure what can be the operative force of private here?
Mulvey asserts is the basis of the female image In what sense is the world of The Longest Day
in Hollywood cinema. Moreover, it seems to me private rather than public? Surely the invasion of
question-begging to say that audiences do not Normandy was public and it is represented as
derive visual pleasure from these performances. public in The Longest Day. Rather one suspects
Furthermore, if one complains here that my that the use of the concept of private in this
counterexamples are from comedies, and that context will turn out, if it can be intelligibly
certain kinds of comedies present special cases, specified at all, to be a question-begging dodge
let us argue about The Perils of Pauline. that makes it plausible to regard such events as
After hypothesizing that visual pleasure in the re-enactment of the battle of Waterloo as a
film is rooted in presenting the woman as pas- private event.
sive spectacle through the agencies of conven- Also, Mulvey includes under the rubric of
tional stylization, Mulvey claims that this proj- voyeurism the sadistic assertion of control and
ect contains the seeds of its own destruction, for the punishment of the guilty. This will allow
it will raise castration anxieties in male spec- her to accommodate a lot more filmic material
tators. Whether erotic contemplation of the fe- under the category of voyeurism than one might
male form elicits castration anxiety from male have originally thought that the concept could
viewers is, I suppose, a psychoanalytic claim, bear. But is Lee Marvin's punishment of Gloria
and, as such, not immediately a subject for criti- Grahame in The Big Heat voyeurism? If one
cism in this essay. However, as we have seen, answers yes to this, mustn't one also admit that
Mulvey goes on to say that the ways in which the notion of voyeurism has been expanded quite
Hollywood film deals with this purported prob- monumentally?
lem is through cinematic structures that allow One is driven toward the same conclusions
the male spectator two particular avenues of with respect to Mulvey's usage of the concept of
escape: fetishism and voyeurism. fetishism. Extrapolating from the example of
One wonders about the degree to which it is von Sternberg, any case of elaborate scenogra-
appropriate to describe even male viewers as phy is to be counted as a fetishization mobilized
either fetishists or voyeurs. Indeed, Allen Weiss in order to deflect anxieties about castration. So
has remarked that real-world fetishists and voy- the elaborate scenography of a solo song and
eurs would have little time for movies, prefer- dance number by a female star functions as a
ring to lavish their attentions on actual boots and containing fetish for castration anxieties. But,
furs, on the one hand, and living apartment then, what are we to make of the use of elaborate
dwellers on the other. '3 Fetishism and voyeurism scenography in solo song and dance numbers by
are literally perversions-involving regression male stars? If they are fetishizations, what anx-
and fixation at an earlier psychosexual stages- iety are they containing? Or, might not the elab-
in the Freudian system, whereas deriving visual orate scenography have some other function?
pleasure from movies would not, I take it, be And if it has some other function with respect to
considered a perversion, ceterisparibus, by prac- male stars, isn't that function something that
ticing psychoanalysts. Mulvey can only be speak- should be considered as a candidate in a rival
ing of fetishism and voyeurism metaphorical- explanation of the function of elaborate scenog-
ly. 14 But it is not clear, from the perspective of raphy in the case of female stars?
film theory, that these metaphors are particu- In any case, is it plausible to suppose that
larly apt. elaborate composition generally has the function
In general, the idea of voyeurism as a model of containing castration anxiety? The multiple
for all film viewing does not suit the data. Voy- seduction jamboree in Rules of the Game, ini-
eurs require unwary victims for their intrusive tiated by the playing of Danse Macabre, is one
gaze. Films are made to be seen and film actors of the most elaborately composed sequences in
willingly put themselves on display, and the view- film history. It is not about castration anxiety; it
ers know this. The fanzine industry could not is positively priapic. Nor is it clear what tex-
exist otherwise. Mulvey claims that the conven- tually motivated castration anxiety could under-
tions of Hollywood film give the spectators the lie the immensely intricate scenography in the

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 Carroll Women in Film 355

nightclub scene of Tati's Play Time. That is, cinema there is pleasure-even visual pleasure-
there is elaborate scenography in scenes where that
it is remote from issues of sexual difference.
seems castration anxiety is not a plausible con- It is with respect to these concerns that I think
cern. Why should it function differently in other that the limitations of psychoanalytic film criti-
scenes? If the response is that castration anxiety cism become most apparent. For it is that com-
is always an issue, the hypothesis appears unper- mitment that drives feminist film critics toward
suasive. 16 generalizations like Mulvey's that are destined
Grounding the contrast between fetishistic and for easy refutation. If one accepts a general
voyeuristic strategies of visual pleasure in the theory like psychoanalysis, then one is unavoid-
contrast between von Sternberg and Hitchcock ably tempted to try to apply its categorical
initially has a strong intuitive appeal because framework to the data of a field like film, come
those filmmakers are, pretheoretically, thought what
to may, irrespective of the fit of the categories
be describable in these terms-indeed, they come to the data. Partial or glancing correlations of
pretty close to describing themselves and their the categorical distinctions to the data will be
interests that way. However, it is important to taken as confirmatory, and all the anomalous
recall that when commentators speak this way, or data will be regarded as at best topics for further
even when Hitchcock himself speaks this way, the research or ignored altogether as theoretically
notions of voyeurism at issue are nontechnical. insignificant. Psychoanalytic-feminists tend to
Moreover, the important question is even if in force their "system" on cinema, and to regard
some sense these two directors could be inter- often slim correspondences between films and
preted as representing a contrast between cine- the system as such that one can make vaulting
matic fetishism and voyeurism, does that oppo- generalizations about how the Hollywood cin-
sition portend a systematic dichotomy that maps ema "really" functions. The overarching pro-
onto all Hollywood cinema?17 Put bluntly, isn't pensity to fruitless generalization is virtually
there a great deal of visual pleasure in Holly- inherent in the attempt to apply the purported
wood cinema that doesn't fit into the categories success of general psychoanalytic hypotheses
of fetishism and voyeurism, even if those con- and distinctions, based on clinical practice, to
cepts are expanded, metaphorically and other- the local case of film. This makes theoretical
wise, in the way that Mulvey suggests? Among conjectures like Mulvey's immediately problem-
the things I have in mind here are not only the atic by even a cursory consideration of film
kind of counterexamples already advanced- history. One pressing advantage, theoretically,
male objects of erotic contemplation, female pro- of the image approach is that it provides a way to
tagonists who are active and triumphant agents, avoid the tendency of psychoanalytic film femi-
spectacular scenes of the Normandy invasion nism to commit itself to unsupportable gener-
that are difficult to connect to castration anx- alizations in its attempt to read all film history
ieties-but innumerable films that neither have through the categories of psychoanalysis. 19
elaborate scenography nor involve male charac-
ters as voyeurs, nor subject women characters to III. THE IMAGE OF WOMEN IN FILM

male subjugation in a demonstration of sadistic

control. One film to start to think about here The investigation of the image of women in film
might be Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker for begins with the rather commonsensical notion
which Patty Duke (Astin) received an Academy that the recurring images of women in popular
Award. (After all, a film that receives an Acad- media may have some influence on how people
emy Award can't be considered outside the Hol- think of women in real life. How one is to cash
lywood system). 18 in the notion of "some influence" here, how-
Of course, the real problem that needs to be ever, will be tricky. In fact, it amounts to find-
addressed is Mulvey's apparent compulsion to ing a theoretical foundation for the image of
postulate a general theory of visual pleasure for women in film model. Moreover, there may be
Hollywood cinema. Why should anyone sup- more than one way in which such influence is
pose that a unified theory is available, and why exerted. What I would like to do now is to sketch
would one suppose that it would be founded one answer that specifies one dimension of in-
upon sexual difference, since in the Hollywood fluence that recurring images of women in film

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 356 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

may have on spectators, especially male specta- paradigm scenario from her repertoire to it. This
tors, in order to give the model some theoretical does not mean that the individual can fully artic-
grounding. However, though I elucidate one strut ulate the content of the scenario, but that, in a
upon which the model may rest, it is not my broad sense, she can recognize that it fits the
situation before her. This recognition enables
intention to deny that there may be others as well.
Recent work on the emotions in the philoso- her to batten on certain features of the situation,
phy of mind has proposed that we learn to iden- to explore the situation for further correlations
tify our emotional states in terms of paradigm to the scenario, and to make the inferences and
scenarios, which, in turn, also shape our emo- responses the scenario suggests. Among one's
tions. Ronald de Sousa claims repertory of love-scenarios, for example, one
might have, so to speak, a "West Side Story"
my hypothesis is this: We are made familiar with the scenario which enables one to organize one's
vocabulary of emotion by association with paradigm thoughts and feelings about the man one has just
scenarios. These are drawn first from our daily life as met. Furthermore, more than one of our sce-
small children and later reinforced by the stories, art narios may fit a given situation. Whether one
and culture to which we are exposed. Later still, in reacts to a situation of public recrimination with
literate cultures, they are supplemented and refined anger, humility or fortitude depends on the choice
by literature. Paradigm scenarios involve two aspects: of the most appropriate paradigm scenario.23
first a situation type providing the characteristic ob- I will not attempt to enumerate the kinds of
jects of the specific emotion type, and second, a set of considerations that make the postulation of para-
digm scenarios attractive except to note that it
characteristic or "normal" responses to the situation,
has certain advantages over competing hypoth-
where normality is first a biological matter and then
very quickly becomes a cultural one.20 eses about the best way to characterize the cog-
nitive and conative components in emotional
Many of the relevant paradigm scenarios are states.24 Rather, I shall presume that the notion
quite primitive, like fear, and some are genet- of paradigm scenarios has something to tell us
ically preprogrammed, though we continue to about a component of emotional states in order
accumulate paradigm scenarios throughout life to suggest how recurring images of women in
and the emotions that they define become more film may have some influence on spectators,
refined and more culturally dependent. Learn- which influence is of relevance to feminists.
ing to use emotion terms is a matter of acquiring Clearly, if we accept the notion of paradigm
paradigm scenarios for certain situations; i.e., scenarios, we are committed to the notion that
matching emotion terms to situations is guided the paradigm scenario we apply to a situation
by fitting paradigm scenarios to the situations shapes the emotional state we are in. Some para-
that confront us. Paradigm scenarios, it might digm scenarios-for example, those pertaining
be said, perform the kind of cognitive role attrib-to the relation of an infant to a caretaker-may
uted to the formal object of the emotion in pre- be such that recognition of them is genetically
ceding theories of mind.21 However, instead of endowed. But most paradigm scenarios will be
being conceived of in terms of criteria, para- acquired, and even those that start out rather
digm scenarios have a dramatic structure. Like primitively, like rage, may be refined over time
formal objects of given emotions, paradigm sce- by the acquisition of further and more complex
narios define the type of emotional state one is paradigm scenarios. There will be many sources
in. They also direct our attention in the situation from which we derive these paradigm scenarios:
in such a way that certain elements in it become observation and memory; stories told us on our
salient. caretaker's knee; stories told us by friends and
Paradigm scenarios enable us to "gestalt" school teachers; gossip, as well, is a rich source
situations, i.e., "to attend differentially to cer- of such scenarios; and, of course, so are news-
tain features of an actual situation, to inquire paper articles, self-help books, TV shows, nov-
into the presence of further features of the sce- els, plays, films and so on.
nario, and to make inferences that the scenario These scenarios may influence our emotional
suggests."22 Given a situation, an enculturated behavior. Male emotional responses to women,
individual attempts, generally intuitively, to fit a for example, will be shaped by the paradigm

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 Carroll Women in Film 357

scenarios that they bring to those relations. Such the woman Alex that it portrays is relevant to
paradigm scenarios may be derived from films, feminists because it illuminates one pattern of
or, more likely, films may reflect, refine, and emotional attention toward women that is avail-
reinforce paradigm scenarios already abroad in able to men, which pattern of emotional atten-
the culture. One way to construe the study of thetion, if made operational in specific cases, can be
image of women in film is as an attempt to oppressive to women, by, for example, reducing
isolate widely disseminated paradigm scenarios claims to fair treatment to the status of persecu-
that contribute to the shaping of emotional re- tory, irrational demands.
sponses to women.25 That a paradigm scenario like Fatal Attraction
The recent film Fatal Attraction, for example, is available in the culture does not imply that
provides a paradigm scenario for situations in every man or even any man mobilizes it. But it
which a married man is confronted by a woman does at least present a potential source or re-
who refuses to consider their affair as easily source for sexist behavior. That such a potential
terminable as he does. Armed with the Fatal even exists provides a reason for feminists to be
Attraction scenario, which isn't so different from interested in it. One aspect of the study of the
the Crimes and Misdemeanors scenario, a man image of women in film is to identify negative,
might "gestalt" a roughly matching, real life recurring images of women that may have some
situation, focussing on it in such a way that its influence on the emotional response of men to
object, correlating to Alex (Glenn Close), is, as women. Theoretically, this influence can be un-
Dan (Michael Douglas) says, "unreasonable," derstood in terms of the negative, recurring im-
and "crazy," and, as the film goes on to indi- ages of women in film as supplying paradigm
cate, pathologically implacable. One might use scenarios that may shape the emotional responses
the scenario to extrapolate other elements of the of real men to real women.
scenario to the real case; one might leap induc- Recurring, negative images of women in film
tively from Alex's protests that her behavior is may warp the emotions of those who deploy
justified (you wouldn't accept my calls at the them as paradigm scenarios in several different
office so I called you at home), which are associ- ways. They may distort the way women are
ated in the film with madness, to the suspicion attended to emotionally by presenting wildly
that a real-life, ex-lover's claims to fair treatment fallacious images such as the "spider woman"
are really insane. Like Dan, one guided by the of film noir. Or, the problem may be that the
Fatal Attraction scenario may assess his situa- range of images of women available is too im-
tion as one of paralysing terror, persecution and poverished: if the repertoire of images of wom-
helplessness that only the death of the ex-lover en is limited in certain cases, for instance, to
can alleviate. contraries like mother or whore, then real wom-
I am not suggesting that the Fatal Attraction en who are not perceived via the mother scenario
scenario causes someone who matches it to a real may find themselves abused under the whore
life situation to kill his ex-lover, though embrac- scenario. The identification of the range of ways
ing it may be likely to promote murderous fan- in which negative images of women in film can
tasies, in terms of the response component. In function cognitively to shape emotional response
any case, matching it to a real life situation will is a theoretical question that depends on further
tend to demote the ex-lover to the status of an exploring the variety of logical/functional types
irrational creature and to regard her claims as a of different images of women in film. That is a
form of persecution. This construal of the wom- project that has hardly begun. Nevertheless, it
an as persecutrix, of course, was not invented by seems a project worth pursuing.
the makers of Fatal Attraction. It finds precedent I began by noting that the image approach
in other films, like Play Misty For Me, and might appear to some to be without proper the-
stories, including folklore told among men in the oretical credentials. I have tried to allay that
form of gossip. misgiving by suggesting that the program fits
Fatal Attraction provides a vivid exemplar for nicely with one direction in the theory of the
emotional attention that reinforces pre-existing emotions. From that perspective, the study of
paradigm scenarios. However, even if Fatal At- the image of women in film might be viewed
traction is not original, studying the image of as the search for paradigm scenarios that are

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358 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

available in our culture and which, by being how they may play a constitutive role in the
available, may come to shape emotional re- shaping of oppressive emotional responses to
sponses to women. This aspect of the project women. It is not committed to the kinds of
should be of special interest to feminists with specific causal laws that Mulvey must accept
regard to negative imagery since it may illumi- as underlying her account. It can nevertheless,
nate some of the sources or resources that mobi- acknowledge causal efficacy to some paradigm
lize sexist emotions. Obviously, the theoretical scenarios-indeed, it can acknowledge causal
potentials of the image of women in film model efficacy to paradigm scenarios of all sorts, there-
need to be developed. What I have tried to estab- by accommodating the richness of the data.
lish is the contention that there is at least a Indeed, it is interesting to observe that the
theoretical foundation here upon which to build. image approach can accommodate certain of
This, of course, is not much of a defense Mulvey's insights in a way that does not provoke
of the image approach. So in my concluding the kind of objections Mulvey's position does. It
remarks I shall attempt to sketch some of the can acknowledge that it is the case that there is
advantages of this approach, especially in com- a recurring image, of undoubtedly unnerving
parison to some of the disadvantages of the psy- statistical frequency, of women in film posed
choanalytic model discussed earlier. as passive spectacles. Not all images of women
First, the image of women model seems better in film are of this sort; but many are. Unlike
suited than the psychoanalytic model for accom- Mulvey, the proponent of the image approach
modating the rich data that film history has can point to this as a statistical regularity without
bequeathed us. It allows that there will be lots of claiming any over-reaching generalizations, and
images of women and lots of images of men and then go on to show how this sort of imagery
that these may play a role as paradigm scenarios reinforces a range of paradigm scenarios which
in lots of emotional reactions of all kinds. One mobilize a wide variety of oppressive emotional
need not attempt to limit the ambit of emotional responses by men toward women, encountered
responses to fetishism or voyeurism. on the beach, on the street, and in more ominous
Of course, the image of women model may circumstances as well.
take particular interest in negative images of One objection that might be raised here, of
women in film, for obvious strategic purposes, course, is that I have presented the image ap-
but it can also handle the case of positive images proach as a rival to Mulvey's theory. But it might
as well. Whereas Rosalind Russell character in be countered that Mulvey's theory is about the
His Girl Friday may be an inexplicable anomaly pleasure taken from Hollywood cinema, and the
in the psychoanalytic system, she can be com- image approach, as described so far, says noth-
prehended in the image approach. For this model ing about pleasure. So though it may be a rival to
allows that there can be positive images of women Mulvey's model with respect to attempting to
in film which may play a role in positive emo- isolate the way in which Hollywood cinema func-
tional responses to real women.26 It is hard to see tions in patriarchal society, it has not answered
how there can be anything of genuine value in the question of how it is pleasurable.
Hollywood film in Mulvey's construction. The One admittedly programmatic response to this
image approach can identify the good, while objection is to note that insofar as the image
acknowledging and isolating the evil. approach is connected with engaging emotions,
The image of women in film model is less and insofar as indulging emotions in aesthetic
likely to lead to unsupportable generalizations. contexts is generally thought to be pleasurable,
What it looks for are recurring images of women then the proponent of the image approach can
in film. It has no commitments about how wom- explain the pleasure to be derived from Holly-
en always appear in film.27 Rather it targets wood films in virtue of whatever its defender
images that recur with marked frequency. More- takes to be the best theory or combination of
over, it makes no claims about how all viewers theories that accounts for the pleasure we take
or all male viewers respond to those images. It from exercising our emotions in response to
tracks images of women that reappear in film artworks, popular or otherwise. That is, where
with some significant degree of probability and, the rivalry between the image approach and
where the images are negative, it can elucidate Mulvey's approach is about pleasure, the sup-

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 Carroll Women in Film 359

porter of the image approach has a range of the still controversial tenets of psychoanalysis.
options for developing theories. This, of course, is hardly a recommendation that
On the other hand, I wonder whether the inter- I expect committed psychoanalytic film critics
est on the part of feminists in Mulvey's theory is to find moving. I offer it, without further argu-
really in its account of pleasure rather than in ment, to concerned third parties.28
the way that it provides a means for analyzing
the way film functions in patriarchal society. NOEL CARROLL

And if the latter is the real source of interest, two Sage School of Philosophy
things need to be said: 1) the question of plea- 218 Goldwin Smith Hall
sure is only of interest insofar as it illuminates Cornell University
the function of film in abetting sexism, and Ithaca, NY 14853
2) the image approach is a competing perspec-
tive in relation to that question, even if it makes
1. The distinction between sources and resources above is
the issue of pleasure less central to feminism
meant to acknowledge that it is generally the case that
than does Mulvey's approach. popular film more often than not reinforces rather than
Lastly, consonant with the preceding objec- invents ideology, sexist and otherwise. Thus, film is pri-
tion, it may be urged that Mulvey's theory is a marily a resource rather than a source of ideology. However,
at the same time, I have no reason to assert dogmatically that
theory of visual pleasure, and though we have
a film could never invent ideology. If this happens, I suspect
spoken of images, even if we could advance a that it happens very, very rarely. But I have no investment in
theory of pleasure, it would not be specifically aclaiming that it could never happen.
theory of visual pleasure, for images in the sense2. I say a "potential rival" because, as already noted, one
we have used it are not essentially or necessarilycould marry the study of the image of women in film with a
psychoanalytic perspective. Thus, the theoretical rivalry that
visual. Here, two points need to be made.
I envision in this paper is between a study of the image of
First, it is not clear that Mulvey herself is women in film that is neutral with respect to psychoanalysis
always talking about uniquely visual pleasure, and psychoanalytically informed film feminism.
nor that it is possible, with respect to Hollywood 3. This essay first appeared in Screen in 1975. It has been
reprinted often, most recently, with respect to the writing of
film images, to suppose that we can find some
this essay, in Laura Mulvey's collection of her own writings
substratum of interests that are exclusively visual entitled Visual and Other Pleasures (Indiana University
in nature. Press, 1989). All page references to this article pertain to
Second, Mulvey's putative answer to the riddle that volume.

of how viewers can take visual pleasure in the 4. It should also be noted that Mulvey herself has at-
tempted to modify, or, perhaps more accurately, to sup-
female form in cinema presupposes that there is
plement the theory that she put forward in "Visual Pleasure
a riddle here to be solved, which, in turn, de- and Narrative Cinema." See, for example, her "After-
pends upon the conviction that the image of a thoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in-
woman on screen, in some lawlike fashion, pro- spired by King Vidor's Duel in the Sun" in Visual and Other
Pleasure, pp. 29-37. The latter essay, while not denying the
vokes castration anxiety in male viewers. There
analysis of male pleasure in the former essay, offers a supple-
is no problem of visual pleasure without the mental account of female pleasure with respect to narrative
supposition of regularly recurring male castra- film. Space does not allow for criticism of that supplemental
tion anxiety with respect to visual emphasis on account. However, it is interesting that its structure is analo-
female form. So if, like me, you are skeptical gous to the structure of her psychoanalysis of male pleasure
insofar as Mulvey attempts to "deduce" female pleasure at the
about this supposition, then Mulvey has not
movies from an earlier stage of psychosexual development
solved the problem of visual pleasure, for there whose masculine phase film narratives may, supposedly,
was no problem to solve in the first place, and, reactivate.
therefore, no pressure on rival theories to ad- 5. I stress that what is accepted without sufficient critical
dress the issue. distance in this matter is the scientific viability of psychoanaly-
sis. Feminist film critics, including Mulvey, are aware of
Moreover, if, again like me, you are worried and seek to cancel the patriarchal biases of psychoanalysis.
about accepting generalizations that are derived But unless the elements of the theory show sexist prejudices,
from psychoanalysis and treated like laws by they tend to accept its pronouncements on matters such as
film critics, then the image of women in film psychosexual development and visual pleasure without re-
course to weighing psychoanalytic hypotheses against those
approach has the virtue of providing means for
of competing theories or to considering the often commented
analyzing the function of film in the service of upon theoretical flaws and empirical difficulties of psycho-
sexism without necessarily committing one to analysis.

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 360 The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

6. I have discussed the tendency in contemporary film castration anxiety in response to the female form. But then
theory to embrace theoretical frameworks without consider- we would have to know under what conditions castration
ing rival views at some length in my Mystifying Movies: Fads anxiety will fail to take hold. Moreover, we will have to ask
and Fallacies in Contemporary Film Theory (Columbia Uni- whether these conditions, once specified, won't undermine
versity Press, 1988). Mulvey's theory in other respects. Of course, another reason
7. Indeed, John Berger makes such a distinction-be- why one might deny that Mulvey's claims involve a system-
tween the male as active and the female as passive-with atic dichotomy between fetishistic and voyeuristic strategies
respect to the iconography of Western easel painting without is that she believes that there are other strategies for contain-
invoking psychoanalysis. See his Ways of Seeing (London: ing castration anxiety. But then the burden of proof is on her
Penguin, 1972), especially chapter 2. to produce these as yet unmentioned alternatives.
8. Like many contemporary film theorists, Mulvey ap- 18. This film was, of course, based upon a highly ac-
pears to believe that through point-of-view editing Holly- claimed Broadway production. So, it is a counterexample
wood film masks two other "looks"-those of the camera on that should also be considered by theater critics who wish to
the profilmic event and of the spectator on the finished film. apply the generalizations of feminist film critics to the study
Point-of-view editing, in this respect, functions to abet what of their own artform. Likewise, TV critics, with the same
contemporary film theorists call "transparency." I have ambition, should want to ponder the relevance of this exam-
challenged the overall advisability of hypotheses of this sort ple to the successful remake of the theater and film versions
in my Mystifying Movies; see especially the discussion of of The Miracle Worker for TV in 1979 by Paul Aaron where
suture. Patty Duke (Astin) plays the Anne Sullivan role.
9. Ibid. Also, it should be obvious, contra Mulvey, that not all
10. Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," visual pleasure in film is rooted in sexual difference. Con-
p. 21. sider the visual pleasure derived from recognition, from
11. Ibid., p. 20. detail, from shifts of scale, and, more specifically, from
12. Other commentators have also questioned Mulvey 's gen- machinery, from casts of thousands, and so on (I owe these
eralizations in this regard. See Kristin Thompson, "Closure examples to Cynthia Baughman).
Within a Dream? Point of View in Laura" in Breaking the 19. There is another line of argumentation in Mulvey's
Glass Armor (Princeton University Press, 1988), p. 185; essay that I have not dealt with above. It involves a general
and Miriam Hansen, "Pleasure, Ambivalence, Identifica- theory of the way in which cinema engages spectators in
tion: Valentino and Female Spectatorship," Cinema Journal identification and mobilizes what Lacanians call "the imagi-
25 (1986): 6-32. nary. " The sort of general theory that Mulvey endorses
13. Allen Weiss in the introduction to his unpublished concerning these issues is criticized at length in my Mystify-
doctoral dissertation on the films of Hollis Frampton (New ing Movies.
York University, 1989). 20. Ronald de Sousa, The Rationality of the Emotions
14. Mulvey may reject this interpretation of her essay. She (MIT Press, 1987), p. 182. The idea of scenarios is also
may think that she is using these psychoanalytic terms liter- employed by Robert Solomon, "Emotion and Choice" in
ally. In the "Summary" of her essays (p. 26), for example, Explaining Emotions, ed. Amelie Rorty (University of Cal-
she speaks of the neurotic needs of the male ego. But this ifornia Press, 1980).
seems tantamount to implying that the male ego is, at least, 21. E.g., Anthony Kenny's Action, Emotion and Will
in our culture, inevitably and essentially neurotic. And I am (London: Routledge, 1963).
not convinced that this is the way that clinical psychoanalysts 22. Ronald de Sousa, "The Rationality of Emotions" in
would use the idea of neurosis as a technical classification. Explaining Emotions, p. 143.
Nor would the classification be of much scientific value if it 23. This example comes from Cheshire Calhoun's "Sub-
applied so universally. Furthermore, Freud himself, in his jectivity & Emotions, " The Philosophical Forum 20 (1989),
study of DaVinci, talks of sublimation as an alternative p. 206.
formation to perversions like fetishism. Why has sublima- 24. See the de Sousa citations above for some of the
tion dropped out of Mulvey's list of options for visual relevant arguments.
pleasure? 25. Of course, there could also be a research program
15. Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," dedicated to studying the image of men in film for the same
p. 17. purposes.
16. Christian Metz, perhaps the leading psychoanalytic 26. Kristin Thompson, in conversation, has stressed that
film theorist, appears to hold such a view. For arguments determining whether a paradigm scenario is positive or nega-
against this hypothesis, see the second chapter of my Mysti- tive may crucially hinge on contextualizing it historically.
fying Movies. 27. Whereas psychoanalytic-feminism, given its avowal
17. Here one might object that Mulvey is not committed of the general laws of psychoanalysis, is tempted to say how
to regarding the fetishism/voyeurism dichotomy as system- woman must always appear as a result of deducing film
atic; so I am attacking a straw position. But I think she is theory from a deeper set of "scientific" principles.
committed to the notion of a systematic dichotomy. For if the 28. This paper was read at the 1990 Pacific Division Meet-
problem of castration anxiety with respect to the female form ings of the American Philosophical Association where Laurie
is general, and fetishism and voyeurism are the only re- Shrage provided helpful comments. Other useful criticisms
sponses, then where there is no castration anxiety, won't that have been offered by Ellen Gainor, Kristin Thompson, David
have to be a function of strategies of voyeurism and fetish- Bordwell, Sally Banes, Peggy Brand, Carolyn Korsmeyer,
ism? Perhaps Mulvey does not believe that there is always Sabrina Barton, and Cynthia Baughman.

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