‘Scopophilia'

This is a subject I find fascinating

‘Scopophilia - Pleasure in Looking at another person as an erotic object’
There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at. Originally, Freud associated Scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze. Although the instinct is modified by other factors, in particular the constitution of the ego, it continues to exist as the erotic basis for pleasure in looking at another person as object.
Laura Mulvey is a feminist film-maker and Professor of Film at Birkbeck College, London. She is probably best known for her highly influential article ‘Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema’ in which she uses psychoanalytic theory to explore the social and psychic processes involved in the ‘male gaze’.
Within the article Mulvey identified that the viewing of films involved an erotic process of voyeurism. Mulvey argues that films are both voyeuristic and fetishistic, in that they seek to objectify and beautify women who are represented as objects of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’.
For Mulvey, the act of looking is never a neutral process, thus, the male look or gaze constructs a fantasy of women, an erotic spectacle which satisfies male pleasure and which conforms to the ‘language of the dominant patriarchal order’.

any and all comments would be welcomed
Jack:icon176:

well that can work both ways...i look at some males and view them erotically..the way they are built, the way they present themselves..etc..males shouldn't have all the fun...my mouth can fall open on occasion, drooling excessively over a certain male body type...

o and i also look at women erotically depending on the pose, the situation in the picture or film or what have you...o lord i'm not making sense..it's just that i know what this article is saying..i think...sighs..

Erotic objectification is something we are definitely interested in around here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JackLavanta

This is a subject I find fascinating

‘Scopophilia - Pleasure in Looking at another person as an erotic object’
There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at. Originally, Freud associated Scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze. Although the instinct is modified by other factors, in particular the constitution of the ego, it continues to exist as the erotic basis for pleasure in looking at another person as object.
Laura Mulvey is a feminist film-maker and Professor of Film at Birkbeck College, London. She is probably best known for her highly influential article ‘Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema’ in which she uses psychoanalytic theory to explore the social and psychic processes involved in the ‘male gaze’.
Within the article Mulvey identified that the viewing of films involved an erotic process of voyeurism. Mulvey argues that films are both voyeuristic and fetishistic, in that they seek to objectify and beautify women who are represented as objects of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’.
For Mulvey, the act of looking is never a neutral process, thus, the male look or gaze constructs a fantasy of women, an erotic spectacle which satisfies male pleasure and which conforms to the ‘language of the dominant patriarchal order’.

any and all comments would be welcomed
Jack:icon176:

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And I guess she never looks at anyone that way? Male or female?

Wake up, this is a perfectly normal function of being alive.

i thinkw hat's she's talking about isn't simply sexual looking, but seeing someone as only a sexual object, as opposed to just a person with sexual chracteristics/needs. The difference being that in one case we view a sexual object and in the other a sexual person.

The feminism rears it's pretty head in this view of mine, I must say. :)