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The Representation Of Women In Mulvey's Psycho

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Secondly, the basic scale of mainstream film productions is anthropomorphic. Thus, the body is to be gazed upon. As Mulvey says there is “a fascination with likeness and recognition” (836) of the form, which is the second of the presented author’s points; put in her words there is a “to-be-looked-at-ness” (837) prescribed to women. To elaborate, the aspect with evaluating such an implementation is that it contracts a woman`s role to a sexual level; and leaves scopophilia (the sexual excitement one gets from looking or being looked at, without the inclusion of genital areas, as studied by Freud) as a result. In the instance of Psycho, we are presented with numerous examples of Marion`s poorly dressed body, which culminates in the shower scene and is before that accompanied with Norman`s obsession with her. …show more content…

However, Marion goes from being the object of sexual desire towards being represented with no portrayal at all, as we see at the end of the picture. As Klinger suggests, she becomes “an almost complete visual nonentity” (334). Mulvey in her lecture Hicthcock Blonde, argues of a mannequin-like, cosmetic body, which audiences are presented with, and which creates a “surface that conceals” and deceives. Unarguably, the points of such an overview can be applied to numerous works of mainstream cinematic art; however, in the case of the chosen picture, the analysis lies

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