Gendering the Gaze

This project follows on from reading Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. There are three separate tasks:

Watch a copy of Vertigo. Make notes on how it stands up to Mulvey's analysis

Précis of the plot

Based on the novel D'entre les Morts.

Policeman dies saving Scottie (James Stewart). Midge (a friend and ex fiancée who is designing new brassier played by Barbara Bel Geddes) says he can only lose acrophobia by shock. Takes time on steps to help himself then faints as he sees the street below. Uses dolly zoo m for first time to accentuate the distortion.

Gavin Estler, an old acquaintance believes that someone dead has possessed his wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak). He followed her for a while but could not ascertain what his wife was doing.

Scottie is reluctant to take the case on, "not my line" he says, but Estler convinces him once Scottie has seen them together.

Follows Madeleine to churchyard where she stands by the grave of Carlotta Valdes. Then to an art gallery at the Palace of the Legion of Honour where Madeleine views a painting of the same young woman. Camera emphasises that Madeleine has her hair exactly as Carlotta in the painting.

Thence to McCittrick hotel where Scottie sees Madeleine at a window. Finds  from receptionist that she has named herself Carlotta Valdes and comes in a couple of times a week to sit in room. Receptionist denies Madeline/Carlotta has even been in.  

Finds from local historian known to Midge that house was built for Carlotta. She became sad and lonely, and slightly mad when her lover deserted her taking their child's with him. Ultimately she committed suicide.

Midge works out clearly thinks Carlotta has come back to life and taken over Madeleine. Madeleine has several items of jewellery that belonged to Carlotta, Madeleine's great grandmother. Madeleine, according to Estler, has no knowledge of Carlotta, hence Estler's contention that she is possessed by Carlotte.

Next time Madeleine drives to Old Fort Point at Golden Gate and after throwing some flowers, jumps into San Francisco Bay. Scottie rescues her and takes her back to his flat. She wakes in his bed in a state of undress, evidently unaware of what has happened. Scottie behaves above reproach.

Madeleine denies she has ever been in the gallery. She has fallen into lakes.

While talking to Gavin on phone. Scottie hears Madeleine drive off (we must assume he drove her back in her own car). Midge sees Madeleine drive away and declares: "Scottie, you have just seen a ghost."Gavin told Scottie that Carlotta committed suicide at 26, the same age as Madeleine.

Next day, Madeleine drives to Scottie's flat. The obsession starts: "I enjoyed (pause) talking to you" he says and she replies in like terms.

They drive together to Muir Woods. Hitchcock makes the setting dark, slightly spooky.. Madeleine sees the rings on a dead tree and starts to talk as Carlotta. She walks off and disappears from view. Discovering her, Scottie interrogates her forcefully.

Later, Madeleine describes walking down a corridor into darkness. She continues that there is someone within her, and they embrace.

Midge wears glasses, providing the single independent working girl look. She paints herself as Carlotta, upsetting Scottie who walks out. She is depicted as the jealous one, and bursts into tears after he leaves, blaming herself.

Madeleine comes to Scottie's house saying she has had another dream. Scottie recognises the subject of her dream to be the Mission of San Juan Bautista and drives Madeleine there. He shows Madeleine that the mission is real, here now, not 100 years. She enters a trance. They embrace again, and declare love. "It is too late" she says, "there is something I must do." They declare mutual love and kiss again before she climbs the tower. Scottie follows but the vertigo overcomes him as Madeleine jumps to her death from the top of the tower.

The coroner was satisfied that Gavin had done the correct thing and that no blame could be attached to Scottie, though was surprised that Ferguson could  not face that fact for the second time that he had been present when someone lost their life from a great height and left the scene. Verdict: suicide while of unsound mind.

Gavin was forgiving: "you and I know who killed Madeleine", he says to Scottie.

At night the nightmares commence for Scottie. Flashing camera effects, dreams himself of falling off the tower.

Midge tries to cheer Johny with Mozart as he is in a sanatorium suffering from post melancholia. He sits there motionless while she tries to bring him back. "I'm here" she says to him. She realises that Johny is in love with Madeleine.

On leaving the sanatorium, Scottie retraces his steps, seeing 'Madeleine' several times. On seeing one woman who reminds him of Madeleine, he manages to get his way into the room of Judy Barton (also played by Kim Novak) She is distrustful, doubting his intentions. She divulges her identity and that she comes from Salina, Kansas. Judy realises that Johny 'has it bad' and agrees a dinner date in an hour.

'Judy' gets the flashback, only this time writes a note to him telling the truth that she was an accomplice to the killing of Estler's wife. Johny had been following Judy all along. Estler had set him up with the false tale, and threw Madeleine off the tower, allowing Judy to escape. She later rips up the letter, as in love with Scottie.

They dinner together. Scottie seems obsessed, though Judy believe a it is only because she reminds him of Madeleine. He convinces her to see him next day, they walk, dine, and Scottie buys Judy gifts and clothes. But the clothes become an obsession; he wants the suit that Madeleine wore. Judy is totally controlled as he chooses all the clothes, she becomes alarmed and wants to be left alone.

She pleads that he should like her as she is, not as a resemblance to Madeleine. "If  I do as you tell me, will you love me?" Judy goes to have her hair and nails done. He fusses around and the store supervisor eventually says "we know what you want."

Returning to the hotel, and slightly altering her hair,  Judy is unmistakably the same person as Madeleine. They embrace.

On seeing the necklace that  is common to Madeleine and Carlotta, Scottie realises the truth. He drives them to the mission. One final thing I have to do", he says, "then I shall be free of the past".  "I need you to be Madeleine for a while" he says to Judy, and takes her to the church tower, recounting the events of Madeleine's death jump.

Scottie makes Judy walk the stairs up the tower. He lets on that he knew what happened, that Estler murdered his wife, that Judy was Estler's pupil and that Scottie was set up.

They complete the climb. Scottie guessed that Estler ditched Judy, giving her some money and the necklace. She says she loves Scottie. They embrace but at that moment a nun, hearing voices, startles Judy, who steps back to her death.

Mulvey's analysis

Mulvey argues that male heroes are central to many Hitchcock films. Scopophilic eroticism can be the subject of the film, but it is the role also of the hero 'to portray the contradictions and tensions experienced by the spectator.' The erotic drives of the heroes leads them to compromised situations.

"The power to subject another person to the will sadistically or to the gaze voyeuristically is turned onto the woman as the object of both. Power is backed by a certainty of legal right and the established guilt of the woman..."

More particularly with Vertigo, Mulvey sees the voyeurism as blatant: Scottie follows the woman and falls in love with her. The sadistic side is manifested by Scottie following, watching, falling in love with a 'perfect image off female beauty and image'. When Scottie meets Judy, he plays out his obsession by reconstructing her as Madeleine (invoking the sideways rebuke from the store supervisor noted above). This repetition breaks Judy and succeeds in exposing her guilt.

The male hero has all the attributes of the 'patriarchal superego' and consequently the spectator finds himself exposed as complicit.

"Far from being simply an aside on the perversion of the police, Vertigo focuses on the implications of the active/looking, passive/looked at split in terms of sexual difference and the power of the male symbolic encapsulated in the hero."

It is persuasive writing and seductively simple: man sees attractive woman in deliberately voyeuristic fashion, confronts her, and ultimately dominates her. But there are criticisms of Mulvey's analysis:

She omits or misstates some key facts:

 Scottie is not a policeman. He is a retired policeman, the retirement resulting from his acrophobia (vertigo in simple speak). This is absolutely key to the story, as the condition and that it led to Scottie having nothing to do as a result of the retirement are key reasons that Estler selects Scottie to be a unwitting player in his dark plan. Mulvey almost seems to miss the point of the title of the movie;

Scottie does not 'break' Judy by his repetition per se. The key to the exposure of her complicity is the wearing of Carlotta's red necklace; this is a mistake by Judy who has shown no desire to admit her guilt since tearing up her repentant note. On the contrary, she can retain Scottie's 'erotic interest' only by not acceding to the obsessive voyeurism.

Mulvey concentrates on Scottie and his sadistic voyeurism, firstly the passive voyeurism of viewing Madeleine in the gallery or the churchyard, then the sadistic  side as he seeks to change Madeleine into Judy. This is a key part of the story but  the story is more  involved than that. In particular:

Mulvey omits discussion of Midge. Midge is portrayed as an independent career woman (to the point of being stereotyped by wearing glasses). She says early on that 'You are the only one for me, Johny', but has seemingly got over the failed relationship until she practises her artistic skills with a self portrait as Carlotta. Scottie is mad with her and leaves, Midge breaking down and blaming herself.

This is an important side story in Vertigo: the jilted woman's actions reveal her underlying jealousy of Madeleine/Judy and her unwise method of winning her formal lover round. Midge is the third point in a love triangle yet Mulvey omits any discussion of her, perhaps because her involvement muddies the simple dialectic Mulvey wishes to portray.

More important is the absence of reference to the controller of the whole sad plot: Estler. It is Estler's plan to rid himself of his wife in a fiendish way. It is Estler who brings Judy under his control (we know not how) and who dupes the unknowing Scottie into believing that Madeleine is being taken over by Carlotta. He selects Scottie to follow 'Madeleine' because he knows of Scottie's acrophobia. In this sense, Scottie is as much a victim as Judy. Turn the plot on its head and you can see until the tragic denouement that we might have a triumph of good over evil: the two people who were controlled by Estler fathom out the truth, find love together and expose the villain for what he is. Scottie may actually expose Estler despite (or because of) the death of Judy; the genius of Hitchcock being to leave that for the audience to surmise.

The movie is therefore multi layered; therein lies its intrigue. Mulvey concentrates on one element and thereby does not do justice to the movie. She simplifies what she identifies as the main plot. As an audience, I find myself  as interested in the overarching plot of Estler's evil cunning, and of the side story of Midge's relationship with Scottie as I am with the obsessive interest of Scottie in Judy.

Lastly, I think you have to ask why Hitchcock might have chosen D'entre les morts as a basis for the film. At one level, he was fascinated with psychological story line with a sadistic twist, and, as Mulvey claims, used voyeurism in his films. Mulvey seems to imply that that is part of the problem: Hitchcock emphasises the active/looking passive/looked at genre, the male domination, female subjugation.

But looked at another way, Hitchcock is merely portraying the story written by someone else. By focussing on voyeurism, perhaps the movie helps to understand what it is to be a woman who is obsessively controlled and a man who seemingly cannot control himself.

How does the portrayal of some contemporary black music in video match up to Mulvey's analysis

Misogynoy in hip hop culture has generated a deal of academic research and comment, indeed even warrants its own Wikipedia entry. 

Hip hop is big business. Jay-Z, one of its best known proponents, is reckoned to be worth $520m by Wikipedia. He has sold $75m and is married to Beyonce. One of his signature tunes is Money, Cash, Hoes , the lyrics of which include:

Sex murder and mayhem romance for the street
Only wife of mines is a life of crime
And since, life's a bitch in mini-skirts and big chests
How can I not flirt with death
That's life's a nigga, long as life prevent us
We gonna send a lot and pray to Christ forgive us

Bitch Betta Have My Money by AMG released in 1991 is another example of the genre:

Bitches need dick, so they buying it
G with the high top fade
Open up ya coach bag; bitch, so I can get laid
And take off your G-string drawers
Bitch eat your Wheaties, cause I don't pause
What are you laughing at, ain't a damn thing funny
(Bitch betta have my money)
I don't charge by the inch, I charge by the foot
Think I'm lyin, bitch here take a look

(Available from Lyrics and Music)

Hip hop videos have latched onto the fact that sex sells and that scantily clad women in provocative poses makes money:

 "In the rap world, women represent success, and they are treated almost as accessories: a means for rappers to prove that they have made it to the top. It is not that rappers feel that women are inferior, but they feel treating women like a collector’s item is how they should go about displaying their new-found success. Artists always try to have the hottest girls in their videos which makes other people, predominantly young men, think “Wow! They are definitely living the good life!” " (Albert, 2009)

This video posted on YouTube is a mashup of visual and lyrical content demonstrating woman as sex objects linked with the power and status of men in the video:

  

Black women feature in many rap videos:

Race and Media:Rap and Rap Videos Portrayal of Black Women

Available from http://raceandmediagroup.blogspot.co.uk/. Accessed on 1 September 2014

Rap video mages such as ones above may be viewed as no more than soft porn, satisfying the scopophilic instinct identified by Mulvey. Further than that, however, is that the degradation of women, the casual power driven motives behind the lyrics above as identified by Albert. Mulvey (1973)  argues that "...going far beyond highlighting the woman's to be looked-at-ness, cinema builds the way she is to be looked at into the spectacle itself." Substitute 'rap video' for 'cinema' and the assertion stands as read. Perhaps Mulvey was prescient; more likely is that the concepts of women being viewed in both voyeuristic controlling scopophilic ways remains relevant in newer media forms. Rap takes Mulvey's sadistic voyeurism further; compared to the bald lyrics of rap songs, the sadistic voyeurism of Scottie in Vertigo seems tame. The rap songs make no pretence of imagining control through the medium of the film, subtlety is completely removed. Women are portrayed as sex objects, their function is only to provide sexual pleasure on demand. 

There is complexity here. On the one hand there are women such as Conyer (2013) who despair at the depiction of women. As a young black woman, she is not concerned with marriage, "because according to rap lyrics, I’ll probably never be worthy of being “wife-d”. She continues: 

"...even if I want a trustworthy, loyal relationship, hip hop is telling my strong black men to “get as many women as one can handle”, and treat them like objects, not as queens...I’m a young black woman, and if I listened to what Hip Hop told me I was, I’d be doomed. Defeated. Useless"

On the other hand, Holden (2013) urges men to stop playing the 'White Knight.' Holden likes rap music; her gripe is against what she calls 'Explainers'  who like to tell women how misogynist rap is:

"Sure, rap will occasionally blindside its female listeners with a particularly ugly line or cringeworthy video, but generally the sexism in rap remains at a consistent and manageable level; a fact you’ll no doubt have made peace with if you like to enjoy rap while female—of course rap is frequently sexist: all of pop culture is frequently sexist, because sexism permeates our entire society. No, the cloud on the horizon for female rap fans isn’t a rap-shaped one, it’s a dude-shaped one; and one type in particular: dudes who like to explain to women how sexist rap is."

Holden elicits two arguments:

1. That the Explainers confuse 'strippers and pussy popping' with misogyny. Sexual explicitness is not inherently sexist in her view; 
2. That explaining to women that rap is misogynist is itself  sexist:
   
   
   "When you dictate to a woman what she should listen to and what she should find offensive, you shit on her autonomy and insult her intelligence."  
   

By all means be against sexism, she says, but not against rap in particular. Do not assume women want or need the male perspective. Holden's argument is perhaps more against women being patronised rather than latent sexism; she does not mention women who are against the sexist messages in rap. There is an element of egocentricity here: Holden likes rap, and does not want to be reminded of its inherent sexism by do gooders who she believes do not understand it. 

Holden's arguments show how complex gender issues in visual culture are. It is easy to slip beyond the academic into the polemical when discussing such a sensitive subject and thence into condescension. Always in the background is the latent acceptance of sexism within society: in Barthesian terms, sexism is a myth that appears to be the natural order of things. 

Annotate Manet's Olympia  in terms of the gaze and the various characters, within and without the image

The annotated image may be seen here.

 

References:

Albert (2009) Hip-Hop: The False Advertisement of Women Available from http://www.mhlearningsolutions.com/commonplace/index.php?q=node/3792. Accessed on 1 September 2014

Conyer (2013) What Hip Hop Says To A Young Black Woman  Available from http://raprehab.com/what-hip-hop-says-to-a-young-black-woman/. Accessed on 1 September 2014


Holden (2013) Dear Men, Stop Explaining Rap Music to Women
Available from http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/dear-men-stop-explaining-rap-music-to-women. Accessed on 1 September 2014

Mulvey (1973) Visual Pleasure and narrative Cinema in Evans and Hall, eds, Visual Culture: the Reader Sage Publications Ltd London