Gaze and why Mulvey is such a boss!

If this image doesn't show what Mulvey was on about, I don't know what will! 

Mulvey was a complete boss in her time, she basically started off the theory that women serve no purpose in advertising apart from being objectified by men, as "thing" of desire. This was all during the suffragettes movement and really attached to people beliefs on advertising, and a lot more effort was placed on agencies and creatives to realise that women are realising whats going on, and it isn't good!

But how can you ban something which proves to be so successful in engaging someones attention. SEX SELLS! A women is the perfect analogy of an attention grabber, and relies off our subconscious needs, and uses them to extort out emotions.

This is where the theory on Visual Methodologies applies, And there are different ways we can create this underlying, unforgettable attention. The methods are:
- The Unconscious
- Subjectivity
- Scopoillia (the pleasure of looking with sexual desire)
- Voyerism
- Fantasy
- Desire

All this means tat there are many different ways advertisers can appeal to your "needs", and place the reader in situations where you can "visualise" yourself, with power and the idea of domination being the top two conveyers.

This can be rounded off with Jacques Lacan's Mirror Stage which states;

"An advert is a mirror into the conscious mind, and when the mirror is stared into reveals a loss of ego, and which to claim that ego back by buying the product/service"

This advert really sums up what the gaze means. The women is on the floor, being "dominated" with other men staring down at her. Its as clear as day/ However more importantly, something which often get overlooked is the position of where the models eyes are.

The eyes are the single most universal face recognition element, with it being transposed over animals like wise. Eyes control where we look, and in turn where eyes are pointed create a "Focus point". To demonstrate, here is the same advert with the direction of eyes highlighted.