THE SCOPIC REGIME OF DOMESTIC WORK: AN APPROACH PSYCHOANALYSIS OF CINDERELLA (1950)

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.558582507053

• Palavras-chave: Psychoanalysis; Animated cinema; Domestic work; Gaze; Gender representations.

• Keywords: Psychoanalysis; Animated cinema; Domestic work; Gaze; Gender representations.

• Abstract:

  This study investigates the different structures of the gaze (maternal, animal and masculine) and their implications for the representation of female domestic work in Disney's Cinderella (1950). Based on the Lacanian psychoanalytic theory of the gaze, in dialogue with feminist contributions on domestic work, we analyse how these visual structures operate in the film narrative to naturalize, sublimate or promise transcendence of female work in the domestic space. Using a methodology of film analysis with a psychoanalytical perspective, we examine representative scenes that show how: (1) the vigilant maternal gaze institutes domestic work as punishment and submission; (2) the animal gaze functions as an identificatory support and sublimation mechanism; and (3) the male gaze operates as a promise of individual transcendence of domestic work. The results reveal a complex scopic regime that simultaneously reinforces the naturalization of domestic work as feminine and offers imaginary ways of psychic compensation for its exploitation, providing elements for understanding the psychic mechanisms that sustain the cultural representations of this historically devalued domestic work.