The 'Male Gaze' Theory - Laura Mulvey

The Male Gaze

The term 'Male Gaze' was constructed by Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist in 1975. She believes that film audiences are forced to 'view' characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This makes women appear as objects to men.

Some of the key features of the male gaze include the camera lingering on the curves of the female body or when the female body is being sexualised even when it is irrelevant to what is going on in the scene or advertisement.   

Some examples of videos which use the Male Gaze are:

In this video we can see Megan Fox being objectified by her clothing being quite revealing which will appeal to heterosexual males as well as the position she is put in, as the male character is seen to like her. The camera shots here emphasise that the audience should be focusing on her body when there are shots showing her body from her legs to her face. The way as she walks away he is looking at her, this puts the audience in the position of the male character so everyone is forced to look at her. 

 Another example of a video which uses the Male Gaze is:

This video also objectifies women as Nicki Minaj is shown in her bikini which highlights the Male Gaze because me are being forced to look at the women in a sexual manner. The close ups of the women's bodies are the main focus throughout the video, therefore this supports Laura Mulvey's theory.

These images show Nicki Minaj as being confident with her body by the poses she does in order to make herself stand out and emphasises the Male Gaze however, she is creating a certain image for herself which will make females not attracted to her even though the intention is to draw in the male audience.

The long shot of the women all standing together with hardly any clothes on highlights their intentions to the audience as they are performing extremely confidently and looking at the camera shows their expression towards what they are doing. The stretching of their legs here is another sexual image which will reel in the heterosexual males.

This image of Nicki Minaj standing by herself in her bikini allows the audience to engage with her and feel like they can look at her body as she is exposing herself freely. The extra women in the background are also exposing themselves but not to the same degree and their sexual poses emphasises the nature of the video and its purpose.