<P> Mulvey believes that avant - garde film "poses certain questions which consciously confront traditional practice, often with a political motivation" that work towards changing "modes of representation" as well as "expectations in consumption ." Mulvey has stated that feminists recognize modernist avant - garde "as relevant to their own struggle to develop a radical approach to art ." </P> <P> Mulvey incorporates the Freudian idea of phallocentrism into "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". Using Freud's thoughts, Mulvey insists on the idea that the images, characters, plots and stories, and dialogues in films are inadvertently built on the ideals of patriarchies, both within and beyond sexual contexts . She also incorporates the works of thinkers like Jacques Lacan and meditates on the works of directors Josef von Sternberg and Alfred Hitchcock . </P> <P> Within her essay, Mulvey discusses several different types of spectatorship that occur while viewing a film . Viewing a film involves unconsciously or semi-consciously engaging the typical societal roles of men and women . The "three different looks," as they are referred to, explain just exactly how films are viewed in relation to phallocentrism . The first "look" refers to the camera as it records the actual events of the film . The second "look" describes the nearly voyeuristic act of the audience as one engages in watching the film itself . Lastly, the third "look" refers to the characters that interact with one another throughout the film . </P> <P> The main idea that seems to bring these actions together is that "looking" is generally seen as an active male role while the passive role of being looked at is immediately adopted as a female characteristic . It is under the construction of patriarchy that Mulvey argues that women in film are tied to desire and that female characters hold an "appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact". The female actor is never meant to represent a character that directly effects the outcome of a plot or keep the story line going, but is inserted into the film as a way of supporting the male role and "bearing the burden of sexual objectification" that he cannot . </P>

In visual pleasure and narrative cinema mulvey argues that