The “male gaze” is a feminist theory developed by Laura Mulvey (a feminist film theorist from Britain) who argues that story narratives told about women in films are created in a way that limits and sexually objectifies them in order to satisfy the psychological needs of males. The concept has been used with various forms of media and cultural analysis and its not used only for commercial films but it’s also applicable to the analysis of art, literature and other media. The term “male gaze” describes how women are portrayed in the visual arts and media world from a masculine point of view, showing women as the objects of men’s desire.
“the gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses.”
Laura Mulvey
The problem is born from an old-fashioned, male driven and old school way of thinking of “men do the looking, and women are to be looked at.” The target audience for these type of films are clearly male, hence their needs are met with objectifying scenes. The problem is still current as films keep sexualising women in the industry and Laura Mulvey’s theory is still prevalent today as it was in 1975.
According to Mulvey, traditional films tend viewers to adopt a heterosexual male perspective on the world and its female characters by looking through the male lens. This viewpoint frequently objectifies women, seeing them as an object of desire as opposed to a fully well developed character in the movie. One simple reason for this is because the cinema industry is predominantly a male dominated industry. These type of films have being selling for decades in the industry and the business runs after the profits, hence there is no reason to change the formula right? wrong. They are giving a small fraction of the male public what they want and the other fractions are either brain washed or don’t even bother watching these films.
However, since 1975 it has gone better as of recently with new movies such as Barbie where it’s a film with the female perspective, highlighting women’s independence and empowerment, on the other hand we still have famous films such as The Wolf Of Wolf Street who are still revealing women in extremely sexual manners.
As I have already said not only is the Male Gaze theory relevant to cinema, but it also has a clear connection with our every-day life. The male gaze is characterised by the objectification of women’s bodies, an emphasis on feminine beauty, and the portrayal of women as objects of desire for male characters or viewers. Theorists have noted that in advertising, objectification and sexualised portrayals of the female body can be found even in situations where sex or representations of sex have nothing to do with the product being advertised. Hence, the problem is bigger then just the cinema industry but it’s also how we view women in other aspects of life.
References:
What is the male gaze? criticisms of the male gaze in media – 2023 (no date) MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-the-male-gaze (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
What is the Male Gaze? Definition and Examples in Film (studiobinder.com)
A dictionary of gender studies (no date). Oxford University Press.
Your understanding of the male gaze is comprehensive and clearly explains the phenomenon of objectifying women in film. It is also written that this phenomenon is not only reflected in films but also in everyday life. Indeed, advertising is a bigger problem than the film industry and I couldn’t agree with you more.
This paper delves into Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘male gaze’, a feminist critique of how women are portrayed in film and media. Laura Mulvey is quoted in the paper as saying that narratives tend to portray women from a male perspective, confining them to roles that are objectified for a male audience. This theory applies not only to film, but also to art, literature and other media. And it is emphasised that the male perspective represents a power imbalance in terms of gender in a patriarchal ideology, which is evident in both historical and modern cinema, such as The Wolf of Wall Street. The problem extends beyond cinema to everyday life, especially in advertising, where the objectification of women is widespread. This piece highlights the need for change, stressing that despite some progress, overcoming the objectification and oversimplification of women in the media and in everyday life remains a serious challenge. I think this is a very good blog post