Adapted from TES resource

1. Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male
Gaze’ theory
“To gaze implies more
than to look at – it
signifies a psychological
relationship of power, in
which the gazer is
superior to the object of
the gaze.”
Jonathan Schroeder
(1998)

3. Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory
• Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema -
Laura Mulvey.
• This essay coined the term “Male Gaze”.
• In film, the male gaze occurs when the
is assumed to be filtering content through the
‘lens’ of a heterosexual man. For example, a
scene may focus on the curves of a woman’s
body, inviting you, the viewer, to examine the
scene through the eyes of a male.
• Specific cinematic conventions such as slow
motion, deliberate camera movements and
cutaways are deployed to this effect.

4. L
• The
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory
• ‘The male gaze’ denies women their own
autonomy and identify, relegating them
to the status of objects, of interest only for
their physical appearance.
• The theory suggests women can more
often than not only watch a film from a
secondary perspective, as onlookers who
who are defined exclusively by the male
perspective. The Masculinisation of the viewer

5. L
• The
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory
• Though the presence of a woman in mainstream
film is vital, she is only decorative, an ornament
who is not central to the narrative. Her character is
relegated to the incidental.
• Often a female character has no real importance
herself, it is how she makes the male feel or act that
gives her relevance.
• The female therefore only exists in relation to the
male.
• She is there only as a foil to the dominant male
characters.

6. L
• The
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory
• The male gaze reflects and contributes to hegemonic
ideologies within our society
• (Hegemonic = ruling or dominant ideas in a political or
social context, reflecting the interests of dominant social
groups.)
• Mulvey argues that as a result of being consistently framed
within the perspective of men, women also find themselves,
at times, utilising the male gaze.
• Women then gaze at other women in the same way as a
man would, and thus end up objectifying other women.
• Thus, many women end up unwittingly reproducing
hegemonic patriarchal behaviours.

7. L
• The
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory
• Mulvey states that the role of a female
character therefore has two functions:
1. As an erotic object for characters within the
narrative to view.
2. As an erotic object for spectators of the
media (us, the audience) to view.

8. L
• The
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory –
Gender Roles
The characters who assert their ‘gaze,’ (from the
vantage point of the camera) occupy the active role
(male)
The characters that are to be regarded are passive
(female).They are under the control of the male gaze
and only exist for pleasure, and only at all for as long
as they can maintain the male gaze’s interest.
Females often slow the story down, they act as
narrative triggers for the men to act.
Males on the other hand push the narrative forward ,
they make things happen and are seen as active
participants and creators of the story .

9. Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze
Theory – Female Objectification
Objectification is related to the
gaze.
The persons gazed at are
objectified, treated as an object to
be enjoyed or possessed by the
onlooker/voyeur.
Objectified characters are
devalued and their humanity and
autonomy removed.
They exist only for the pleasure of
the onlooker.

10. L
• The
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory
• Patriarchal society = Men dictate the
rules
• Mulvey argued we live in a patriarchal
society in which men set the majority
of the rules, constructing social roles,
conventions and norms to reflect their
interests, thereby ensuring the
reproduction of male dominance over
women.
• The concern is that a passive audience
may be influenced by this
representation of reality and seek to
copy, reproducing these images and

11. L
• The
Traditional Media Representation of
Reality
• The mass media were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and
thereby reflecting a wider social reality to what you, the individual,
would see in your local environment.

12. L
Post Modernism Version of Reality
• Now reality is only definable in terms of the
reflections of that mirror.
• It is not a question of distortion, since that implies
reality still exists outside of the influence of the media.
media.
• Now we are copying copies of reality, representing
hyper reality as reality and thus being influenced by
by a fake constructed representation of reality.
• The actual reality seems to have been lost, successive
generations drift further and further from the
original templates upon which the media
commented.
• Pure reality is thus replaced by the hyperreal where
any boundary between the real and imaginary is
eroded. What we see on television we see as real and

13. L
• The
Are We Being Influenced by a Hyper
Reality?
• Has Hyper reality become reality?
• Does the Male gaze influence and contribute to
the suppression of females?
• Is there any evidence of female objectification
via male the conventions of the media?

14. Consider the contemporary examples of the male
gaze reproduced in our lived realities.
LINKS FOUND ON BLOG (underneath this presentation)
And what might this be doing to young brains?

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• The
James Bond and the Male Gaze
• The Male Gaze can easily be illustrated by considering
James Bond films
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml75GSIY8mw
• Video on blog

16. List 3 elements from the scene that
you think prove the statement below is
correct:
• The James Bond franchise is a clear example of film objectifying
females and obliging the audience to view females via the male
gaze. The scene within “Die Anther Day” when James Bond
meets the character Jinx demonstrates …

17. List 3 elements from the scene that
you think prove the statement below is
correct: Suggestion
• …female objectification. When the character Jinx enters the story she has been swimming in the sea
and is coming onto the shore. Bond picks up binoculars to watch Jinx swim ashore from a beach
bar. As Bond picks up the binoculars and looks through them, the camera assumes the binocular’s
perspective, obliging the audience to regard the female through Bond’s Gaze. Male or female , the
audience has been compelled to objectify the character via a masculine and voyeuristic viewpoint.
1. The female character is created to have a strong visual and erotic impact, with full figure,
flawless skin, tiny waist and in full make-up, even when swimming. This draws the viewer into
the shot then shows Jinx walking to the bar on the beach dripping wet in a bikini. The film is
edited to show Jinx walking almost in slow motion.
2. Her body movements are sexualised and amplified, her hips sway side to side and her facial
expression is suggestive. This slow motion edit represents the intense scrutiny and examination
Bond is giving the female form. We at this point could argue that this racy and suggestive body
language is not how she is actually moving , it is how Bond sees her move in his mind. The
character of jinx has been objectified before we even know her name or her role.
3. The objectification is not discreet and is confirmed with Bond’s first words when meeting Jinx:
“Magnificent view”, ‘playfully’ making fun of the female character, misleading her into
believing he is referring to the landscape. Having been invited to regard Jinx through the lens of
the male gaze, the audience are in on the joke. Bond is ridiculing her intelligence, reproducing
patriarchal assumptions about the relative intelligence levels of male and female.

18. The Post Modern ‘Joke’
In fact, this very modern Bond is both simultaneously satirizing male chauvinism, and
having his cake and eating it by indulging in the same old sexist routines. The scene is a
pastiche of, or homage to Dr. No, the first James Bond movie where Ursula Andress and
Sean Connery ‘share’ an almost identical scene.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lAjyUUS1g

19. Revision Exercise
1. Define the key features of Mulvey’s theory.
2. What effect could this theory have upon woman viewers?
3. What effect could this theory have on male viewers?
4. Do you believe the male gaze is present in films/adverts and
T.V. today? Provide reasons for your response.
5. What effect could the suggested objectification of women
have upon society?

20. CONTROVERSY! Some theorists have also noted the
sexualising of the female body even in
situations where female sexiness has
nothing to do with the product being
advertised.

21. Hitchcock
• Case Study
• See Blog for
details