The male gaze

Laura Mulvey; The Male Gaze

"visual pleasure and narrative cinema"

 

 

The concept of the gaze is how an audience views the people present. This can be thought of in 3 ways;

• how men look at women
• how women look at themselves
• how women look at other women

Jonathan Schroeder (1998)-

"To gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object at the gaze."

 

Laura Mulvey invented the term 'male gaze' in 1975. she believes that in film audiences have to 'view' characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. she argued that most media reflect a 'male' eye where women are looked at, and men are 'lookers'. women are often objectified.

 

Features of the male gaze;

The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction of these events. It relegates women to the statues of objects.

 

Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised. For example this theory works for many food product adverts. An example that stood out in particularly for are Galaxy adverts, that almost certainly include a beautiful women.

 

Criticism of Mulvey

This theory doesn't always work, as some women enjoy being 'looked' at, for example in beauty pageants. The gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.