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Paranormal Activity and the revenge of the Mulveyan male gaze

2013; Palgrave Macmillan; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1057/pcs.2012.50

1543-3390

Hugh S. Manon,

Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

This paper argues that the film Paranormal Activity crystallizes a dialectics of the gaze for the new millennium. The film's unseen demon can be seen as representing the return of an aggressive male gaze directed at its female protagonist. At the same time, the film lays bare the paradox of the contemporary digital gaze: the fact that we have left behind the era of scopophilia based on the unattainability of visual desires and are now immersed in the era of pornodomesticity, in which all things are presumed to be fully and freely viewable.