A Steamy Starter:
Uncovering the Male Gaze in Carrie
10/27/2021
INTRODUCTION
Understanding the Male Gaze
Before I can begin researching the female gaze, I must first understand its counterpart: the male gaze. The male gaze has dominated much of cinema's history. Its reoccurring presence in film has allowed the male gaze to flourish, becoming the universal standard for film perspective. In order to argue a shift from this perspective, I must familiarize myself this norm. By familiarizing myself with the male gaze, I can better recognize how directors reinforce the objectification of women through their stylistic choices and how these choice influences audience reception. One film that I used to familiarize myself with the male gaze is the 1976 horror Carrie.
Carrie Summary
In the film Carrie, Carrie White, a shy and sheltered girl, gets her period within the showers of her high school locker room. After receiving heckling from her classmate, the bullying only continues at home where Carrie's religious mother, Margaret White, shames Carrie for her period because she perceives menstruation as a sin. Through Carrie's relentless bullying, she discovers that she possesses telekinesis powers; powers that she uses to inflict revenge on those who have mistreated her.
Scene of Interest
One of the most crucial moments of Carrie is the locker room scene. The locker room scene is pivotal in driving the film's climax because it centers Carrie's period, which, as stated above, onsets the bullying that pushed Carrie to murder those at her high school prom. Because of the scene's significance, we will be examining how director Brian De Palma captures this scene and how these choices impact the audience's interpretation of the film. Specifically, we will be analyzing between 00:01:10 - 00:04:00.
(De Palma 00:02:59)
DETAIL DISSECTION
Capturing the Cast
Starting from 00:01:10 and watching until 00:02:30, director De Palma uses the combination of eye-level, medium shots and truck and dolly movements to give his audience the illusion that they are physically walking through the locker room during this scene. The medium shot with an eye level angle give the audience the impression that they themselves were physically peering into the locker room, watching the women shower and dress themselves. The illusion of walking, on the other hand, is emphasized through the camera's truck and dolly movements, which gives the audience the impression that they are physically moving within the locker room. This movement starts by moving left-to-right (truck), glimpsing at Carrie's classmates dressing and socializing by their lockers and then progressively moving forward towards the showers (dolly), where it captures Carrie intimately bathing herself. Because the truck and dolly movements are taken at an eye level in a slow, fluid motion, it gives the audience the impression and sensation that they are physically walking through the locker room.
Hot & Hazy
When analyzing from 00:02:30 to 00:02:50, viewer can notice De Palma's use of steam to fill the frame. In the beginning, these clouds of steam conceal Carrie's naked body from the viewers eyes; however, as the camera continues to move towards the showers, as noted in the paragraph above, Carrie's silhouette is progressively revealed. The use of steam to obscure the visual of Carrie's naked body generates a sense of sexual anticipation for the audience. The viewer is drawn into this scene because they long to see the physical attributes of the silhouette within the steam, thus having to patiently wait until the camera gets close enough to Carrie to fully reveal her naked body. After exposing Carries body to the audience, the steam is then used to suggest Carrie's beauty and innocence. The clouds of steam behind Carrie arguably resemble the clouds of heaven. Because these clouds bear a heavenly resemblance, it, therefore, angelically frames Carrie's body, thus suggesting her beauty and innocence to the audience.
Soap Symbolism
As mentioned in the paragraph above, the heaven-like atmosphere that surrounds Carrie suggests her innocence to the audience. However, De Palma creates a sense of irony that Carrie is not as holy as she appears through the act of Carrie dropping her soap in the shower. When evaluating the film from 00:02:53 to 00:04:00, the viewer physically observes Carrie washing herself using a bar of soap. It is important to consider that soap is a substance used to purify and clean people and /or objects. Therefore, the soap in this scene can represent both the literal cleansing of Carries body, as well as her spiritual cleansing. The soap's symbolic representation of purity is hinted to the audience in the still above taken at 00:03:53. In this scene, Carrie is seen dropping the bar right before she begins her first period. According to Carrie's mother Margaret White, mensuration is bestowed upon a woman as a punishment for her commitment of sin (De Palma 00:14:26 - 00:15:21). With this mentality, the physical dropping of the soap, a substance used for purification, hints to the audience Carrie's unclean, unholy spirit. This insinuation foreshadows Carrie's sinister potential, which is later confirmed during the film's climax where Carrie uses her telekinetic powers to massacre her fellow students and teachers at the prom.
THE EFFECTS OF DE PALMA'S STYLISTIC CHOICES
The Reinforcement of a Male Gaze
Brian De Palma, director of the 1976 horror Carrie, strategically uses the locker room scene to draw attention to Carrie's menstruation by satisfying the scopophilic needs of his male audience. Broadly, scopophilia refers to the pleasure the derives from looking. In her essay “Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey, British film theorist, addresses that there are two forms of pleasure that derive from scopophilia: the “pleasure in using another person as an object of sexual stimulation,” as well as the “identification with the image seen on screen” (61). In his film Carrie, De Palma satisfies the first pleasure of scopophilia, the pleasure of using another for sexual stimulation, by allowing his audience to openly stare at young, fit, naked women. De Palma even relies on this desire to establish a sense of anticipation toward viewing Carrie's naked body. This anticipation captivates De Palma’s male audience because they crave to see the physical feature of the silhouette painted in the steam to satisfy their scopophilic need of sexual stimulation.
In addition to meeting the first pleasure of scopophilia, De Palma is also able to satisfy the second pleasure of scopophilia, the identification with an image, through his use of eye level camera angles and truck and dolly movements. These specifics angles and camera movements give De Palma's male audience the illusion that they are walking through the locker room themselves, watching these women dress and clean themselves. This sensation allows the male viewer to identify with the image they see on screen since it physically feels as if they are in the scene themselves. Therefore, the locker room scene works to reinforce the male gaze because it utilizes the sexualization of women bodies to grab and direct the attention of the film's male viewers to Carrie's menstruation, the scene that ultimately drives Carrie's plot.
WORKS CITED
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Feminist Film Theory: A Reader, edited by
Sue Thornham, New York University Press, 1999, pp. 58–69. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.proxy.uwec.edu/login.aspxdirect=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=mzh&AN=1999088302&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Palma, Brian de, director. Carrie. United Artists Corp., 1976.
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