Film theorist Laura Mulvey (1941 - ) is best known for her seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (1973) which mobilized a psychoanalytic frame to argue for a feminist avant-garde in modern cinema. The essay proposed a break from the traditional cinematic techniques that asserted a male voyeuristic or fetishistic gaze. With Peter Wollen, Mulvey co-wrote and co-directed numerous films, including Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974) and Riddles of the Sphinx (1977). In 1980, Mulvey participated in the ”Television, Society, and Art” lecture series at The Kitchen, during which she discussed television's engagement with audience and its potential to manifest social reform.
