Male Gaze
The “male gaze” invokes the sexual politics of the gaze and suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire.
A key idea of feminist film theory, the concept of the male gaze was introduced by scholar and filmmaker Laura mulvey in her now famous 1975 essay, visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Adopting the language of psychoanalysis, Mulvey argued that traditional Hollywood films respond to a deep-seated drive known as “scopophilia”: the sexual pleasure involved in looking. Mulvey argued that most popular movies are filmed in ways that satisfy masculine scopophilia.
Although sometimes described as the “male gaze”, Mulvey’s concept is more accurately described as a heterosexual, masculine gaze. Visual media that respond to masculine voyeurism tends to sexualise women for a male viewer. As Mulvey wrote, women are characterised by their “to-be-looked-at-ness” in cinema. Woman is “spectacle”, and man is “the bearer of the look”.
The postman always rings twice (1946) offers a famous example of the male gaze. In the scene below, the audience is introduced to Cora Smith, the film’s lead female character. Using close-ups, the camera forces the viewer to stare at Cora’s body. It creates a mode of looking that is sexual, voyeuristic, and associated with the male protagonist’s point-of-view.
It also establishes some important plot points: that the hero desires Cora, and that Cora recognises his lust. But the strongest message is that Cora is sexy. Indeed, the viewer learns that Cora is sexy before they even learn her name. Even if a viewer isn’t attracted to women in “real life”, the scene still makes sense. A lifetime of seeing women sexualised in television, music videos and advertisements has made us very comfortable with assuming the male gaze.
The male gaze takes many forms, but can be identified by situations where female characters are controlled by, and mostly exist in terms of what they represent to, the hero. As Budd Boetticher, who directed classic Westerns during the 1950s, put it:
"What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance."
This can be see in the different ways the camera repeatedly positions us to look at women’s bodies. Think of rear window (1954), for a literal framing of women’s bodies, or she's all that (1999), which revolves around a make-over. For a modern example, the transformers film series (2006-2014) presents women as sexual objects to be desired.
The “male gaze” invokes the sexual politics of the gaze and suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire.
A key idea of feminist film theory, the concept of the male gaze was introduced by scholar and filmmaker Laura mulvey in her now famous 1975 essay, visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Adopting the language of psychoanalysis, Mulvey argued that traditional Hollywood films respond to a deep-seated drive known as “scopophilia”: the sexual pleasure involved in looking. Mulvey argued that most popular movies are filmed in ways that satisfy masculine scopophilia.
Although sometimes described as the “male gaze”, Mulvey’s concept is more accurately described as a heterosexual, masculine gaze. Visual media that respond to masculine voyeurism tends to sexualise women for a male viewer. As Mulvey wrote, women are characterised by their “to-be-looked-at-ness” in cinema. Woman is “spectacle”, and man is “the bearer of the look”.
The postman always rings twice (1946) offers a famous example of the male gaze. In the scene below, the audience is introduced to Cora Smith, the film’s lead female character. Using close-ups, the camera forces the viewer to stare at Cora’s body. It creates a mode of looking that is sexual, voyeuristic, and associated with the male protagonist’s point-of-view.
It also establishes some important plot points: that the hero desires Cora, and that Cora recognises his lust. But the strongest message is that Cora is sexy. Indeed, the viewer learns that Cora is sexy before they even learn her name. Even if a viewer isn’t attracted to women in “real life”, the scene still makes sense. A lifetime of seeing women sexualised in television, music videos and advertisements has made us very comfortable with assuming the male gaze.
In this clip from the film 'Bad Teacher' the idea of the male gaze is very much prominent and Cameron Diaz's teacher is very much sexualised. The first shot we see of her is a close up of her leg which immediately plays upon the idea of fragmentation, reducing her to just a part of her body and not a full human being,instead reducing her to just an object, implying she isn't a human being and that she is just an object to men and nothing else. Her character is also dressed in minimal clothing that is both tight and revealing, once again not showing her for the personality she has and instead just showing her body to appeal to the males. Although it can be argued that she's using her sexuality to get what she wants in raising money with the car wash but with he shots used it reduces her to an object and dent give her any power.
"Woman as image, man as bearer of the look"
The “male gaze” invokes the sexual politics of the gaze and suggests a sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. In the male gaze, woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire.
A key idea of feminist film theory, the concept of the male gaze was introduced by scholar and filmmaker Laura mulvey in her now famous 1975 essay, visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Adopting the language of psychoanalysis, Mulvey argued that traditional Hollywood films respond to a deep-seated drive known as “scopophilia”: the sexual pleasure involved in looking. Mulvey argued that most popular movies are filmed in ways that satisfy masculine scopophilia.
Although sometimes described as the “male gaze”, Mulvey’s concept is more accurately described as a heterosexual, masculine gaze. Visual media that respond to masculine voyeurism tends to sexualise women for a male viewer. As Mulvey wrote, women are characterised by their “to-be-looked-at-ness” in cinema. Woman is “spectacle”, and man is “the bearer of the look”.
The postman always rings twice (1946) offers a famous example of the male gaze. In the scene below, the audience is introduced to Cora Smith, the film’s lead female character. Using close-ups, the camera forces the viewer to stare at Cora’s body. It creates a mode of looking that is sexual, voyeuristic, and associated with the male protagonist’s point-of-view.
It also establishes some important plot points: that the hero desires Cora, and that Cora recognises his lust. But the strongest message is that Cora is sexy. Indeed, the viewer learns that Cora is sexy before they even learn her name. Even if a viewer isn’t attracted to women in “real life”, the scene still makes sense. A lifetime of seeing women sexualised in television, music videos and advertisements has made us very comfortable with assuming the male gaze.
In this clip from the film 'Bad Teacher' the idea of the male gaze is very much prominent and Cameron Diaz's teacher is very much sexualised. The first shot we see of her is a close up of her leg which immediately plays upon the idea of fragmentation, reducing her to just a part of her body and not a full human being,instead reducing her to just an object, implying she isn't a human being and that she is just an object to men and nothing else. Her character is also dressed in minimal clothing that is both tight and revealing, once again not showing her for the personality she has and instead just showing her body to appeal to the males. Although it can be argued that she's using her sexuality to get what she wants in raising money with the car wash but with he shots used it reduces her to an object and dent give her any power.
The male gaze takes many forms, but can be identified by situations where female characters are controlled by, and mostly exist in terms of what they represent to, the hero. As Budd Boetticher, who directed classic Westerns during the 1950s, put it:
"What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance."
This can be see in the different ways the camera repeatedly positions us to look at women’s bodies. Think of rear window (1954), for a literal framing of women’s bodies, or she's all that (1999), which revolves around a make-over. For a modern example, the transformers film series (2006-2014) presents women as sexual objects to be desired.
"Woman as image, man as bearer of the look"
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