Paraphilia In Cinema

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Recommended: Human sexuality throughout history

Paraphilias are sexual impulse disorders and sexual urges that are considered deviant with respect to cultural norms. In clinical terms, paraphilia is defined as: Recurrent intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors that occur over a period of at least 6 months generally involving 1) nonhuman objects 2) the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one’s partners or 3) children or other nonconsenting persons (Criterion A). Such behaviours sexual urges or fantasies cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social occupational or other important areas of functioning. (Criterion B) (Med J 122) Paraphilias produce clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational …show more content…

Women are portrayed as weak or subjugated through pornography. Men brazenly evaluate and judge women sexually and aesthetically with their gaze pre-occupied with voyeuristic inclinations in public spaces and events like beauty contests etc. In 1975, Laura Mulvey with her groundbreaking essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema introduced the key concept of male gaze. The representation of women as an object has invaded in visual culture to a large extent. This essay uncovers the voyeuristic and fetishistic responses of male viewers to the images of women. She criticizes in her essay the Hollywood films because they make use of voyeurism and exhibitionism as boosting factors to sexual desires. Female characters function as erotic objects both for characters within the story and for the viewers. She takes psychoanalysis as frame and within this frame she interprets unusual sexual behaviours that a person adopts in order to give vent to his sexual desires. Male gaze and sexual objectification are directly comparable with each other because both theories have their roots in the theory of feminism. Feminists observe that sexual objectification is an important discursive issue and an important aspect of patriarchal order in which women are not enjoying equality. Through psychoanalysis Mulvey aims to reinforce the pre-existing patterns of passivity of female sex and fear of castration. Woman, who lacks penis, is the symbol of castrated being. Through objectification men try to gain control over

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