My Fox Searchlight

Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” states that mainstream cinema uses style in a way that subconsciously reinforces the male dominant gender hierarchy of society. In Mulvey’s words, it has “coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.” This is often achieved through objectification of females in films, the presentation and endorsement of a passive/female and active/male dichotomy, and through the strong presence of a male figure that seems to “control the film fantasy” and serves as the “bearer of the look of the spectator.” This reinforcement of gender hierarchy is also present in actions or themes within a film. A film’s subconscious support of patriarchal society can be potentially damaging, instilling the same thoughts or expectations within the viewer.
A recent film that engages in these stylistic tactics is 2008’s adolescent vampire romance “Twilight.” Interestingly, the film was directed by a female director, Catherine Hardwicke; adapted by a female screenwriter, Melissa Rosenberg; based on a book by a female author, Stephenie Meyer; and aggressively marketed to young women. Despite all of the female control within the production of the film, it still holds true to the same principals of style outlined by Mulvey that help subconsciously reinforce a patriarchal society. The fact that the film is marketed to young women is potentially alarming in that the ideas of patriarchal society that the film seems to endorse may be internalized by its viewers.
The primary way the film supports this position is through the pairing of its male and female romance in Bella and Edward. The two represent a clear passive/active dichotomy, with Bella following and doing nearly anything she is told, and Edward being the one in control. In their first meeting in a classroom, they are not introduced until Edward finally does so, Bella simply sits. The passive/active dichotomy even plays out throughout the rest of the scene as they work together on an assignment, with Edward double checking all of Bella’s work and Bella simply accepting Edward’s as correct. The camerawork of the scene even plays up the passive/active difference of the two, with Bella being looked down on in a high angle, and Edward looked up at in a low angle. Neither angle even makes sense as they are both on the same level in the scene sitting at a table, but the implication of the angles takes power away from Bella and gives power to Edward. Their relationship remains the same throughout the film, with Bella essentially following Edward’s command.
Bella also falls into the classic sexual role Muley refers to as an “erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and an erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium.” Even though she is the protagonist in the film, Bella is still very much a sexual object within the film; with the minor male characters in the film competing for her affection. She is even a sexual object to the audience with the film camerawork and editing at times deconstructing her into pieces of her body. Even though Edward may be a sexual object to the females at his school, he is not made into one for the film, as Mulvey says, “the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification.” Instead, he is “the bearer of the look of the spectator,” being given point-of-view shots within the film, many of which are slow pans looking Bella up and down. Bella is given no point-of-view shots throughout the entire film; never made “bearer of the look.” Throughout the film, Edward is described as being “perfect” in his appearance and actions. However, Edward’s perfect characteristics do not make him a sexual object, “but those of the more perfect, more complete, more powerful ideal ego” that Mulvey describes in the mirror phase as that who the audience aspires to be in watching a film. The power of Edward’s gaze within the film also works as a reading of “fetishistic scopohilia” which “builds up the physical beauty of the object,” being Bella, “transforming it into something satisfying in itself.” It can also be seen as voyeurism, which Mulvey states has “associations to sadism” as it relies on “asserting control” over the individual. The act of scopophilia or voyeurism is even enacted within the film, with Edward sneaking into Bella’s room and watching her sleep. This act starts long before the two have even been introduced, and when Bella learns about it, she is not the least bit alarmed by it. Her nonchalant response can even be seen as a veiled endorsement of the act and of male control over females in general.
“Twilight” uses style, themes, and actions endorse an oppressive form of politics to its viewers. Through the film’s uneven passive/active dichotomist relationship between Bella and Edward, the use of style to mark Bella as a sexual object and as an inferior person, and through the film’s endorsement of sadistic control through voyeurism, “Twilight” reinforces the beliefs of a patriarchal anti-feminist society.