“An active/passive heterosexual division of labour has similarly controlled narrative structure. According to the principles of the ruling ideology and the psychical structures that back it up, the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze at his exhibitionist like” (Mulvey 2089).
This section is interesting in that the narrative gaze is focusing on the male characters within film and claiming that men, within the audience, cannot view another male while being engaged with their own exhibitionist self. I believe this is the instance where the male would narcissistically project themselves onto the leading male character in order to distance themselves from the voyeuristic gaze of viewing another “dominant male” vying for the sexual attraction of the leading woman. It seems that it may be a subconscious survival of the fittest battle taking place within the mind of the watching male. Not wanting to be in direct conflict with a dominant male (due to the male on the screen, seeming to be in complete control over, not only his, but the film’s destiny) the viewing male will project himself into the dominant role that allows access to this patriarchal world in which he is the master over that world.
A Certain Sense of Trouble 