it embarrasses me to be asking so elementary a question in such a sophisticated forum, but i've been trying to rethink as carefully as i can some complex foundational issues and i find myself stuck on something that i thought i had long since worked through . . . so any guidance on this will be most appreciated here's the question: in the system of film analysis associated especially with SCREEN, it was taken for granted that, to quote jane gaines, "the ways in which the masculine gaze controls viewing within the film, sets up the spectator's viewing position, and coincides with the look of the camera in the classic realist text" all serve the "construction of male pleasure" now, assuming for the moment that this is analysis of the classic realist text is accurate, what causes this to be the case, that is to say, why is it true? the following possibilities present themselves: 1. in classic narrative film the story told is almost invariably that of a man; thus the narrative focus forces the look to be a man's look ? note that if this is the case then simply telling a woman's story and suturing the spectator into an exchange of women's glances would work differently . . . the masculine force of the text is then circumstantial, not a function of the textual system itself 2. in our [patriarchal/late-capitalist/post-modern] culture the gaze is owned by males; it has become so much a feature of masculine hegemony that even the gaze of a woman [or women] is coded as male . . . thus an economy of looking is always oppressive to women's subjectivity ? note that in this view the gaze CAN be female, but not in the present cultural climate 3. given the psychodynamic foundations of masculinity and femininity, the gaze cannot but be male . . . the regime of the visual is inherently patriarchal . . . female subjectivity and women's pleasure require a radically different mode no doubt there are other ways of explaining this as well which do not come immediately to mind, and i suspect that different theorists ?even those who seem to agree ? might have different takes on which of these is central in any case, i would be most grateful for any light that might be shed on this thanks very much ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite mike