Grappling with Theory - the Male Gaze

While I am trying to get the grip on feminist film theory (for that I recommend Anneke Smelik’s Feminist Film Theory article) I thought that it might be a good idea to write about one of the most basic ideas, namely, the male gaze.

The concept of gaze deals with the reception of the characters presented in a film. The notion of male gaze was created by Laura Mulvey (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 1975) and it argues that film has a tendency to automatically put audiences into a perspective of a heterosexual male. This is reflected in the way camera works (i.e. sex scenes overwhelmingly focus on female body and reactions, non-sexual scenes also feature frequent shots of women’s body parts), fragmenting, and objectification. As a result female viewers experience the narrative by identifying with the male. 

Here is an example and a quick experiment in one.
 

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Now having watched the video try to answer these questions:

-         What color top was he and she wearing?

-         What bowling lane was used?

-         What color belt did he and she wear?

-         What color shoes did he and she wear?

-         What color eyes did he and she have?

You might not have known the answers to all the questions.You were too busy looking at the woman. (Source  http://www.slideshare.net/missSbennett/the-male-gaze-26907936?next_slideshow=1)

The term ‘male gaze’ applies to different visual media. If you are into games you might have heard about Anita Sarkeesian who is a feminist critic of games and popular culture. Her YouTube channel Feminist Frequency is a treasure trove of ideas. 

If anyone doubts the existence of the male gaze phenomenon here is some food for thought – Movies Are for Men – an informative short documentary examining the male gaze with many examples.