Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze

Description of the Gaze

• Gaze is the notion of how the audience perceive characters which are presented to us.

• Laura Mulvey suggests that the male gaze is where the camera adapts the males point of view- for the benefit of the assumed male audience

• Feminists view the concept of male gaze in three different ways:

• How men look at women

• How women look at themselves

• How women look at other women

Common Features

• The camera tends to linger on female bodies which draws attention to the fact that women are represented as ‘sexual objects’ .

• These particular camera movements are used in order to gratify male audiences.

• Mulvey argues that mainly the protagonists are male which in addition allows the male audiences to relate to the character.

• The fact that the central active characters are always mostly male presents women as passive and sexual objects.

• Female audiences are forced to identify with the male gaze