The male Gaze, developed by feminist, Laura Mulvey describes how the audienced, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey, came up with the concept of male gaze in 1975. Here Mulvey wrote a very influential essay 'visual pleasure and narrative cinema'. Stating that women are used for visual pleasure, women are made to seem like sexual objects through voyeurism. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of 'The Gaze' is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Mulvey states that women in films are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera come from factors such as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audiences for most film genres.
The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may, for instance linger over the curves a woman's body.
The woman is usually displayed in two different levels:
- as an erotic object for both the characters within the film
- the spectator who is watching the film
The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man. Mulvey argues that, in mainstream cinema, the male gaze typically takes precedence over the female gaze, reflecting an underlying power asymmetry.
Mulvey also stated that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze because women look at themselves through the eyes of men. A feminist may see the male gaze as either a manifestation of unequal power between gazer and gazed, or as a conscious or subconscious attempt to develop that inequality.
The Male Gaze typically focusses:
- Emphasising curves of the female body
- Referring f women as objects rather than people
- The display of women is how men think they should be perceived
- Female viewers, view the content through the eyes of a man
There are some flaws and disagreements with the theory, However:
- some women enjoy being 'looked' at such example can be seen with beauty pageants and models who enjoys the lime light
