Laura Mulvey's Theory.

In “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey wants to talk about women, and their roll in the cinema.  Of course the female actresses do their job by acting, and providing a great performance, but it is much more than that.  To Laura Mulvey, it’s about portraying a hot, sexual image to the public.  She wants to stress scopophilia: “the pleasure in using another person (usually female) as an object of sexual stimulation through sight” (Class Notes 10/21).  Generally speaking, Mulvey wants to emphasize that women serve as an erotic image throughout films.  Laura talks about how the editing of a particular film will help add the sexual image that the public wants.  Editors can do this by taking shots that are close-ups of the body, using shots that involve only certain areas of the body, or even adding slow motion to a certain shot.  The editors use simple techniques to edit the shots, so it makes it easy for them to provide for the audiences.  In turn, this produces a huge capital…

In accordance with today’s media, it is easy to find Laura Mulvey’s theory still present.  It is clear to see her theory in Cameron Diaz’s performance in Bad Teacher when she opens up a car wash to raise money.  In this particular scene, Diaz is wearing shorts, a cut-off shirt, and heels, which makes this scene even more stereotypical.  The edited shots of this film are put together in a way to to show off Diaz’s best features, presenting itself in an erotic fashion.  In the clip, you see Diaz sliding across the hood of the car, spraying herself with the hose, and of course, bending over to only see her behind.  Scopophilia is shown at it’s best in this scene because you can see how much power the women figure holds.  

http://youtu.be/OjSmSXblWRM

-Cameron Diaz Car Wash Scene