Write 1-2 typed paragraphs in which you illustrate how the male gaze applies to a clip from a film or music video. Here are some key points to remember from Laura Mulvey’s theory:
Below is a summary of Mulvey:
Laura Mulvey (1975):
- The concept of the male gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. The male gaze includes:
- How men look at women,
- How women look at themselves
- How women look at other women.
- She defines it in terms of Voyeurism (i.e. Erotic pleasures gained from looking at women as sexual objects)
- She argues that the presence of women is solely for the purpose of display (rather than narrative function)
- Female on display is passive and objectified for a male gaze regardless of viewers gender
- Voyeuristic treatment of female body in ‘male’ videos – use of dancers as adornments to the male ego.
- The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man’s reaction to these events.
- The inclusion of women for display is a staple element in music video’s – across all genres
- The lens relegates women to the status of objects. The female view must experience the narrative by identifying first and foremost with the male. That is, women’s sense of who they are, their bodies and sexuality is primarily experienced through men and how they view them.
SSU English 100 