The Male Gaze.

As part of the As media course it is esential that we have a range of understanding about numerous theories and there creators. In this case we were tought about The Male Gaze by Laura Mulvey.

The Male Gaze basically means the way in which a person is presented on the screen. In this case Mulvery concentrates on the way women are viewed on screen, an object or an actual human being. With numerous references to femenism;
-How do men look at women,
-How women look at themselves,
-How women look at other women.


Laura Mulveys theory consists of numerous elements. Laura Mulvey Coined the term the Male Gaze in 1975. She beleives that film audiences have to 'view' characters from the perspective of the hetrosexual male. Meaning the ways in which women are looked as is just for there appearnace.
 Features included in the male gaze.
The camera lingers on the shape of the female body, and the event of which occur in the way the women are presented, largely in the context of a mans reaction to these events. This basically saying women are always shown as the sex symbol, there just there for the hetrosexual male to 'gaze' at.


There of course are controversies about peoples theories, some women may like being loked at, for instance beauty pagents. Women are more than happy to show there beauty in the form of a competition. 


The gaze may also be aimed at mebers of the sasme gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as some women man enjoy looking at women in terms of comparrison, in clothing or body image.

:)