Mulvey Related Ramblings

Since the beginning of my film studies career the greatest emphasis has consistently been placed upon the notion of deconstruction- exposing the apparatus and its working ideology, revealing patriarchy and subsequently the hierarchical structure of gender constructions, etc. While I understand that deconstruction is a prerequisite for reconstruction, I can't help but feeling that it is finally time to rebuild. Feminist film theory appears deeply indebted to Laura Mulvey, whose famous article "Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema" seems to be the fundamental basis for the majority of feminist film theorists in her wake. While Mulvey indeed deserves such triumph, particularly considering her context in comparison to that of her contemporaries, I can't help but feel as if it is well past time to move on...Mulvey's solution, the development of a counter-cinema that offers a genuine female space by refusing the cinematic language of patriarchy in the construction of a cinema that denies all pleasure, first and foremost scopophilia (the pleasure of looking), is neither productive nor has positive implications. A cinema of displeasure has little if no appeal- i am aware of the fact that this is the point- it would exist purely as a novelty and yet again, the feminine would be denied agency and a space within the mainstream- left yet again within the realm of the a-historical margins. I refuse to believe that this is the only option for true alterity...