'The Male Gaze'
Laura Mulvey 1975 (visual pleasure and narrative cinema)
The male gaze is a theory that is viewing from a hetrosexual males point of view, it says that there are 4 ways that the audience view media:
- How men look at women
- How women look at themselves
- How women look at other women
- Relegate women to objects - sexual objects
Laura Mulvey coined the term 'male gaze' in 1975, she believes that in film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a hetrosexual male.
Features of 'the male gaze':
- The camera lingers on the curves of the females body, events occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction to these events.
- Relegates women to the status of objects, the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification which the male.
Use of 'the male gaze'
- Some theorist also have noted the sexualising of the female body even in situation where female sexiness is nothing to do with the product being advertised
Categorising Facial Expressions:
Women:
- Chocolate box
- Inviting
- Super- Smiler
- Romantic
Men:
- Care-free
- Practical
- Seductive
- Comic
- Catologue
Johnathan Schroeder (1988)
The gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.
WWW: You have written up the theory well using notes and resources from the lesson.
ReplyDeleteEBI: Fully explain your notes. What has ‘beauty pageant’ got to do with criticism of theory? Why do you think men and women are represented differently when looking at their facial expressions? You need to incorporate the homework into the write up and explain how the theory links to this. (Look at other blogs if you’re unsure).
SBT