Since "the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification"3 they are given an active power over the screen while women remain a passive image.
At the end of her essay Mulvey establishes three 'looks' in which this scopophilic dialectic can take place: between the camera and what is being shot, between the audience and the final product, and between the characters of the narrative themselves. The final look is what primarily concerns this essay as all of the films contain an awareness of the elements of objectification and scopophilia either in the characters themselves or through subtext. She subtly bemoans these tendencies and offers hopes to "[transcend] outworn or oppressive forms, or [dare] to break with normal pleasurable expectations in order to conceive a new language of desire."4 This implies that an awareness of the way pleasure and beauty elicits a scopophilic gaze gives the power to surpass or subvert these patriarchal tendencies. The following films are partially aware of their own scopophilic elements. .
The first film, and the oldest chronologically, clearly delivers a misogynistic and patriarchal view of women and society. In Memorias del subdesarollo, Sergio, a 38 year old bourgeois aspiring writer, views the political conditions of Cuba through his various relationships with women. The movie is delivered deliberately and wholly through Sergio's subjective perspective. Thus we are thrust into a male gaze of the world and see things through his patriarchal vantage point. Sergio is extremely confident, misogynistic, and condescending, looking down on the women he is involved with as well as the country he lives in, which he often neglects to distinguish between, referring to both as 'underdeveloped' yet still remaining with them.5 He has a negative view of women claiming "they always need someone to think for them." He has an undeniable power over them and views them as things to be controlled: "Women look into your eyes as if asking to be touched by your look.