Mulvey states that there are two reasons for which people enjoy movies and films: People get pleasure from looking at another person as an object, and through the development of love for ourselves and instinctual drive, our ego thrives off of the images of cinema. Most films are created in America, in a society in which males are dominant, assertive and many times in charge of what is produced for our society.

<pre><code>As a result, women become passive, though perhaps not as much today as maybe fifty years ago. Women, as Mulvey puts it, “In their exhibitionist role, are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact…” Women hold the position of an object, but gain a power within this position. Is the heroine of a movie the reason for its demand?</code></pre>

There are certain instincts and parts of human nature that cause a person to submit to certain forces; the scopophilic instinct and the ego libido are the two reasons that by nature, humans enjoy films and can be satisfied through film. This satisfaction can come from an image or the way in which a story and the images in the narration are presented. The image and symbolic meaning that the image of a woman holds can satisfy or stir-up the desires and pleasures that people have from gazing at another person as an object and identifying and separating the image as something of desire through instinctive drives.

Would not most agree that in American culture and society, there are physical and cosmetic standards for women? Cinema and T.V. are the most common ways one might find examples of these standards. Many women strive to attain these standards because of the power that women in cinema gain from nearly perfected them. Perhaps women feel that if they find themselves able to replicate this power, they will attract the same attention as these idealized women of film do. Women realize, perhaps consciously or subconsciously, that their appearance may contain or lack power in the eyes of the male population and in a different way, female population.

Males praise the images and standards of media and film by the type of power and amounts of attention that they submit to them. Mulvey explains the power women in cinema and the popular media gain through their physical appearance by stating, “The presence of a woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film…” (2186) She also writes, “For a moment the sexual impact of the performing woman takes the film into a no man’s land outside its own time and space.”(2187)

However, isn’t this power one gained only through a sacrifice of certain morals, ethics, and overall well being? “The beauty of a woman as object and the screen space coalesce; she is no longer the bearer of guilt but a perfect product, whose body, stylized and fragmented by close-ups is the content of the film and the direct recipient of the spectator’s look.” (2189) The film’s focus is a woman’s body, her appearance, unnatural and maybe even damaging to her physical health, and naturally, her overall mental and emotional wellbeing.

Women in American society strive to attain these standards seen in the media and film while sacrificing their self-respect, dignity, and perhaps their reputation that they had been valued for. Men do not demand that women meet these standards, and perhaps do not feel that women should meet them. But the standards that women must meet to become like these images receives enormous amounts of attention. The public receives these images with a warm welcome, insinuating that they, our society, our neighbors, friends and relatives, are not tired of such entertainment. Does all of this mean that we approve and would like to see more women presenting themselves in this way?

From nationally broadcasted Miss America Pageants to the covers of magazines found in most every grocery store and mini-market, we will find images of women that represent an idealized authority. Do we want our world, our friends, and our wide-eyed, young minds to absorb the messages emanating from the women that we praise with a God-like awe?

And over time, these standards do change. If one compares catalogs and magazines from twenty, ten and even five years ago, one may realize the stark differences of a woman’s size and form. Each day that passes, our society looks for greater perfection. Marketing needs to satisfy the consumer, businesses need to supply the demand, and the consumer looks to these well crafted techniques for guidance. In America, we strive to become greater, more powerful. Do we not use the appearance of perfection as an ultimate strength to intimidate our competition? Perhaps this is how we perceive the woman of film and media. The woman’s role of power and authority within the idealized story or news blurb causes a woman’s competition to wilt in submission to her image.

This type of representation shows the woman as confident, self-assured in her position of aesthetic power. Men and women alike enjoy this presentation of women. Women that view these images and this type of presentation of the woman in movies and media enjoy relating to the image. We find a power in affiliation, either as a woman, or one beholding a woman as a visual object. But more than affiliation, our society encourages both the youngest and eldest of women to present themselves this way. Doesn’t this plastic representation of the self create a society sterile of intrinsic thought, community, and most of all an ambiguous and self-fulfilling future?

These standards deal with the individual, with the self, just as films and movies are created for the individual. Likewise the individual relates to the presentation of the self in the media, and on the movie screen. We compare ourselves to images of ultimate beauty. We become self-critical about the length of one’s hair, the shape of a one’s face, teeth, nose, mouth and eyes. Is woman only powerful or meaningful through an image, a visual creation?

We neglect to think that we help create the woman of our time, what she represents, and the societal impact of this representation. We are entertained by the media. Yet, it is the media that begins to entertain us when we feed it our week points, our heart rendering cares and concerns.