Male Gaze.

Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey Theory (1975)
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:

• How men look at women - hot/see what is attractive
• How women look at themselves - need look good for men
• How women look at other women - get ideas/ influence look at competition

Laura Mulvey believes that in film audiences have to “view” characters from a perspective of a heterosexual male.
Features of Male Gaze

• Camera lingers of curves of the female body
• Events which occur to women are presented through the context of a man’s reaction to the events
• Relegates women to the status of objects
• The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily by identification with the male character/s

Some theorists have noted that the female body is often sexualised in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product or event being advertised.
Gaze can be directed toward members of the same sex in other ways than sexual such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.

Facial Expressions:

Female theory- Marjorie Ferguson (1980)

• Chocolate box
• Invitational
• Super smiler
• Romantic/sexual

Male theory- Trevor Millum (1975)

• Carefree
• Practical
• Seductive
• Comic
• Catalogue