Laura Mulvey and ‘Shaun of the Dead’
how the theory could be useful in my Independent Study

The main cast of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ has an equal representation of males and females. There are 3 males, there is the protagonist ‘Shaun’ and his helper ‘Ed’ and David and 3 females; Shaun’s girlfriend Liz, Shaun’s mother and Dianne.

Unlike other texts female objectification is not so obvious in this text and is probably not in the text at all. However, Mulvey’s other ideas can still be applied to the text. There is a use of phallic symbols in the text as Liz has a hockey stick to use against the zombies and Dianne has a long piece of wood that is too phallic; this could be seen as penis envy. Each character has a phallic symbol and for the male’s it can be seen as a representation of their masculinity.

There is the identification with the male protagonist as there are some point of view shots and over the shoulder shots that force the audience to identify with Shaun. Also the whole narrative is based on Shaun’s experience of the “Z-day” and is told through Shaun; this encourages cross-gender identification; however, most of the audience are likely to be male.

Shaun is shown to take care of his mother in the film; this could relate to Freud’s theory that every boy at one point has feelings for their mother and by showing Shaun constantly worrying for Barbara this theory is reinforced. This could also play into the audience’s narcissism at they could see themselves as their mothers hero. It also reinforces the patriarchal society; Shaun, Ed and David take care of all the females.

Also in the beginning there is a scene where Ed and Shaun attack a female zombie; in a psychoanalytical way this could be interpreted as an act of the unconscious misogyny. Shaun and Ed fear the female, womb envy, and so attack her.

Phallic Objects ^