What Is Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

, , , ,

The Male Gaze theory, in a nutshell, is

where women in the media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man

, and that these women are represented as passive objects of male desire. … The Male Gaze suggests that the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

Did Laura Mulvey coin the male gaze?

Filmmaker and

theorist Laura Mulvey first coined the

term “the male gaze” in her seminal 1973 paper Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Mulvey’s essay, published two years later in Screen magazine, was written for an academic audience so it can be a little difficult to understand.

Who is Laura Mulvey male gaze?

Mulvey argued that most popular movies are filmed in ways that satisfy masculine scopophilia. Although sometimes described as the “male gaze”, Mulvey’s concept is more accurately described as

a heterosexual, masculine gaze

. Visual media that respond to masculine voyeurism tends to sexualise women for a male viewer.

What does it mean to subvert the male gaze?

Mulvey’s main argument is that Hollywood narrative films use women in order to provide a pleasurable visual experience for men. … The first,

scopophilia

, involves the objectification of the image, where visual pleasure is the result of subjecting someone to one’s gaze and being sexually stimulated by this sight.

Who came up with male gaze?

This worksheet introduces you to one influential theory developed by

the filmmaker and academic Laura Mulvey

in the 1970s: the male gaze.

Does the male gaze still exist?


The Male Gaze Still Dominates In Movies Around The World

, New Study Shows. … It found that the women portrayed in leadership positions were more likely to depicted as sexual objects or with nudity, compared with their male counterparts, representing how movies are often told from the “male gaze.”

What is the male gaze examples?

Examples of the Male Gaze


Extraneous nudity by female characters

.

Slow camera pans of women’s bodies

.

Women wearing tight or occasion-inappropriate clothing when male characters are appropriately dressed

.

What is the male gaze vs female gaze?


The female gaze

is a feminist film theoretical term representing the gaze of the female viewer. It is a response to feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s term “the male gaze”, which represents not only the gaze of a heterosexual male viewer but also the gaze of the male character and the male creator of the film.

Why is there a male gaze?

Essentially, the male gaze sees

the female body as something for the heterosexual male

(or patriarchal society as a whole) to watch, conquer, and possess and use to further their goals.

How do you escape the male gaze?

Talk openly and honestly about what being a woman feels like in regards to the existence of the male gaze. Find solidarity in other women’s experiences. Create change in the viewpoints and experiences of men.

What does Scopophilia mean?

Definition: Scopophilia. SCOPOPHILIA: Literally,

the love of looking

. The term refers to the predominantly male gaze of Holloywood cinema, which enjoys objectfying women into mere objects to be looked at (rather than subjects with their own voice and subjectivity).

What is gaze theory?

In Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, the gaze is

the anxious state of mind that comes with the self-awareness that one can be seen and looked at

. … Theoretically, the gaze is linked to the mirror stage of psychological development, in which a child encountering a mirror learns that they have an external appearance.

What is the male gaze in art?

In 1975, film critic Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘the male gaze’. It refers to

the presentation of women in visual arts and literature from a male, heterosexual perspective where women are depicted as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer

. Men have agency; women are passive and dehumanised.

Is the male gaze objectification?

The male gaze includes but is not limited to turning women into objects in film, television, or other visual media. Specifically, the male gaze is an always-incomplete solution to anxiety produced by looking. In other words, objectification

is an attempt at a solution to the problem of the (male) gaze

.

What is Laura Mulvey known for?

Laura Mulvey (b. 1941) is best known for the

groundbreaking essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

‘ (1973, published 1975) in which she coined the term ‘male gaze’ and tackled the asymmetry at the heart of cinema – the centrality of the male viewer and his pleasure.

How do you use male gaze in a sentence?

Examples of male gaze

I would

argue that ideas of the male gaze have little to do with the ways in which these images were crafted or received

. Her female ‘captives’ signal a profound lack of personal liberty, whereas freedom is equated with masculinity and the penetrating force of the male gaze.

Leah Jackson
Author
Leah Jackson
Leah is a relationship coach with over 10 years of experience working with couples and individuals to improve their relationships. She holds a degree in psychology and has trained with leading relationship experts such as John Gottman and Esther Perel. Leah is passionate about helping people build strong, healthy relationships and providing practical advice to overcome common relationship challenges.