Male GazeThe theory of the ‘Male Gaze’Afreen Shahid 13T

Laura Mulvey

0The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented.

0Laura Mulvey wrote a very influential essay called “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in 1975.

0The essay mentions that women are viewed in cinema as ‘unequal’ and the camera necessarily presents women as ‘sexualized’ for the pleasure of men.

0Women are seemed like sexual objects through voyeurism.

“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

0 In her essay it says “Women are presented as sexual spectacle and objects of pleasure for the character and audience”

0Men have this gaze to avoid being “castrated”0Men Fetishize women imbuing them with an

overvalued and unrealistic status.

Mulvey’s three types of “looking”

0 1) The look of the camera as it records the filmic event – This usually means the use of camera shots which sexualizes a female.

0 2) The look of the audience as it watches the final product – This is basically the perception of the audience.

0 3) The look of the character at each other in the visual images of the screen illusion.

Jonathan Schroeder

“Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of

women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view” -

1998