The Camera as an Irigarayan Speculum

Abstract

Irigaray’s analysis of the objectification of women and the superficiality of their representation in patriarchy equally describes the traditional role of women in cinema, as discussed by Mulvey and Doane:

For centuries, woman has appeared as superficiality itself — save for the natural profundity which is in the service of love and, above all, in the service of maternity, that is, physical interiority. She has been considered fickle, capricious, the one to whom thought and interiority always remain foreign. To make man come out of himself, to awaken him from his dreams, she is asked to attract him in the game of seduction and love. (2000b: 58)