by Daniel Stephens

Created on: January 24, 2007   Last Updated: February 21, 2009

Looking at feminist writer Laura Mulvey's analysis of the classical Hollywood film it is interesting how Alien (Scott, 1979) defies her claims about scopophilia, in that the film both subverts her ideas about voyeuristic visual pleasure and narcissistic visual pleasure. (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 353)

Mulvey claims that scopophilia (the desire to see) is a fundamental drive according to Freud and that it is sexual in nature. Therefore film uses this in two ways - one is that of voyeurism, both of character, figure and situation, and the second is that of narcissism within the story and the image. She sees scopophilia as a structure that functions on an axis of activity and passivity and that this is gendered. From a voyeuristic point of view, her analysis of classical Hollywood film established 'the male character as active and powerful: he is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds and the look gets organised. The female character is passive and powerless: she is the object of desire for the male character.' (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 353) This appears to be reversed in Alien as the active and powerful character who defeats the alien and outlives all, including the men, is female.

Furthermore, the dramatic action unfolds around her, and the male characters are presented as weak - Captain Dallas makes mistakes, he breaks quarantine laws and cannot protect his team, eventually dying; and robot Ash, whose look and appearance is that of a man, malfunctions and fails his duties. From a narcissistic point of view, Mulvey argues that the audience is forced to see the male character as the powerful, idealised one over the female because she cites Lacan's concepts of ego formation as the driving force. Lacan claimed that a child derives pleasure from a perfect mirror image of itself and forms its 'ego' based on that idealised image. Mulvey therefore says, the 'representation of the more perfect, more complete, more powerful ideal ego of the male hero stands in stark opposition to the distorted image of the passive and powerless female character.' (Mulvey, 1975/1989, pg. 354) In Alien the roles are clearly reversed, as Ripley is the strong female character who makes active judgements and survives what is trying to kill her. The male character's activity is largely passive - most die quickly, others wait for her command. It is Ripley who makes the plan to defeat the alien which works, while the 'powerless' male Captain makes bad judgements as his unsure plan fails

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