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Essay
1. How is Male Gaze relevant when analysing the work of Michael Bay?
In this discussion I plan to explore Michael Bay’s Transformers (Released in2007), looking at
the male gaze when studying the character Mikaela (portrayed by Megan Fox). I plan to
discover the reasoning behind the oversexualisation of Megan Fox and Michael Bay’s
motive. I am going to research multiple Michael Bay films which star Megan Fox and study
the viewership of each film. I am going to look at how the film asl portrays masculinity in
accordance to the male gaze. I also plan to study a scene from Transformers (2007)
analysing the use of technical conventions in the construction of the sequence specifically in
the representation of the female body and how the body is used for the gratification of
men.
The male gaze is a manner of treating women’s bodies as objects to be surveyed. Laura
Mulvey said, “The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure... with
[her] appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact.” In Hollywood, women in no
clothing during inappropriate scenes has become normalised due what the audience wants.
According to Mulvey, mainstream film satisfies especially the male spectator by projecting
his desires onto the screen. Women are regarded as objects of fetishist display for the male
viewer’s pleasure. Fundamentally, a woman presented on screen should be very erotic, so
that she attracts the spectator’s attention. Laura Mulvey said “In a world ordered by sexual
imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split by active/male and passive/female. In their
traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their
appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-
be-looked-at-ness” She explains here how women’s role in society is a more passive role
which is made for display. “There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There
are hardly any women.” ― Joanna Russ. This quote emphasises that women are used for
their looks and their bodies for advertisement, and she is made for display. Major
companies and films will use women in roles where they are not accepted in real life. This
could be to have more representation in films and adverts, or the more likely case of just
being used for male gratification. In science fiction films there are a good proportion of
women, however only 24% of the STEM workforce are female.
I will be looking at Michael Bay and his work, specifically on the transformers film series.
According to Wikipedia, his films have “grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide, making him one
of the most commercially successful directors in history." He’s also been known as the
epitome of all style / no substance Hollywood blockbuster film director for years. He does
not have a good reputation as a filmmaker, yet he has received 5 MTV Best Movie awards.
He is also known to have a fixation to sexualising women in the transformers film. “Nobody
in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in Transformers” The way
Michael talks about Megan is slightly possessive when he said that he found her and then he
put her in the film, it makes it sound like she did not have a say in the film. Michael Bay and
Megan Fox have a long history of filming together since Bad Boys in 2003, where Fox was
about 17 years old. There have been controversies involving the audition process and the
actor of Mikaela, Megan Fox. Fox posted a lengthy statement on social media after footage
re-emerged of her talking on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2009 about an incident from her early
career. Fox says: "I had just turned 15 and I was an extra in Bad Boys II. They were shooting
this club scene and they brought me in and I was wearing a stars and stripes bikini and a red
2. cowboy hat and six-inch heels. "[Bay] approved it and they said 'Michael, she's 15 so you
can't sit her at the bar and she can't have a drink in her hand', so, his solution to that
problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet." When
this surfaced, Bay received a lot of backlash but Megan Fox has responded saying: “I was
never assaulted or preyed upon.” This could be argued by many considering she was only 15
wearing a Bikini and then continuously sexualised in multiple of his other films. Arguably,
this makes their relationship inappropriate. The fact that there is a 21-year age gap and
when she was 15, she had to dance in a bikini for him is unusual in itself.
The main production company for Transformers is DreamWorks, and it was distributed by
Paramount pictures. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association,
which representing the 5 major film studios of the US. Paramount Pictures, in full
Paramount Pictures Corporation, one of the first and most successful of the Hollywood film
studios. It became a subsidiary of Viacom in 1994.
The scene I am going to analyse the scene where Mikaela Banes fixes the car. In this scene
Sam is driving Mikaela home after she has an argument with her ‘boyfriend’ and Sam offers
to take him home. It is made obvious to the audience he has an attraction to her. The car
starts breaking down and when they both get out to try and fix it, he can’t fix the car so
Mikaela tries to fix it in a scene that is very objectifying. This scene is infamous for
sexualising women in films. She is wearing a low-cut cropped vest top and is bent over the
bonnet. In the scene the camera pans down to her body from her face and then shows his
face staring at her stomach. This shows that the purpose of the shot was to show off her
body and show that he has a sexual attraction to her. The viewers for transformers are
mainly male (85.3%) so this is male gaze put in action. The viewers are meant to react the
same way that Sam did where they are drooling and sweating over a woman’s body. The
colours in this scene are all very warm colours. This makes the scene feel safe and happy,
this is completely different to the rest of the film where you are supposed to feel on edge,
this scene is like the calm before the storm, so it makes viewers enjoy it even more. The
camera angles are all very close up, this creates a feeling of intimacy between the
characters, therefore creating a feeling of intimacy between the audience and the
characters as we feel closer and more personal.
The filmTransformers portrays Mikaela in a more passive way, which links to Mulvey’s
theory. The film also represents masculinity with machinery, fighting and action. There are
no female transformers in any of the films. This is complying with the male gaze as Bay is
linking masculinity to all things generally masculine. In the film there is no actual female
representation other than Mikaela, this leaves the only femininity to be represented as
overly sexualised. Every single aspect of this filmis made for men to please men. The fact
that even all the transformers are male shows the male gaze as the audience are watching
and can feel representation in every aspect of the movie. The female audience can only
really feel representation in Mikaela, who is arguably not the best female role model. She is
showing the audience unrealistic beauty standards because she does not have an easily
achievable body.
I am studying the male gaze and I am going to incorporate some of the Ideas to my FMP.
3. I want my project to have links to feminism, specifically how men effect the way women act.
This project links in with that because I have studied the way Megan Fox’s character of
Mikeala was overly sexualised for the male gaze.
In conclusion, Male gaze is relevant when studying Michael Bays work because he uses
Megan Fox’s body for his male audience. This can be seen clearly in the car fixing scene
when Sam is staring at her body and her face isn’t even on screen. This is a representation
of the Transformers viewers and Michael Bay is showing this is how he wants the audience
to look at Mikaela. I could argue that Megan Fox’s body in transformers could be for women
too as they might look to her as body inspiration, but this is disputed because only 14.7% of
viewers are female. I think male gaze is relevant because I believe Michael Bay used the
male gaze as a big selling point for the film. This strategy has worked because that filmis
now known to be infamous for the car scene. This has worked well for Michael Bay as it was
nominated for 50 awards and won 25 of them.
(2021). Women in STEM - Percentages. Available:
https://www.stemwomen.com/blog/2021/01/women-in-stem-percentages-of-women-in-
stem-statistics
(2020). Megan Fox Says she was 'never preyed upon' by Michael Bay. Available:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53148323
Pulver, A. (2020). Megan Fox responds to outrage over 'sexualised' auditions for Michael Bay.
Available: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/23/megan-fox-responds-to-outrage-
over-sexualised-auditions-for-michael-bay.
Male Gaze Quotes. Available: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/male-gaze.
Transformer Demographics. Available: https://www.zippia.com/transformer-
jobs/demographics/
![How is Male Gaze relevant when analysing the work of Michael Bay?
In this discussion I plan to explore Michael Bay’s Transformers (Released in2007), looking at
the male gaze when studying the character Mikaela (portrayed by Megan Fox). I plan to
discover the reasoning behind the oversexualisation of Megan Fox and Michael Bay’s
motive. I am going to research multiple Michael Bay films which star Megan Fox and study
the viewership of each film. I am going to look at how the film asl portrays masculinity in
accordance to the male gaze. I also plan to study a scene from Transformers (2007)
analysing the use of technical conventions in the construction of the sequence specifically in
the representation of the female body and how the body is used for the gratification of
men.
The male gaze is a manner of treating women’s bodies as objects to be surveyed. Laura
Mulvey said, “The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure... with
[her] appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact.” In Hollywood, women in no
clothing during inappropriate scenes has become normalised due what the audience wants.
According to Mulvey, mainstream film satisfies especially the male spectator by projecting
his desires onto the screen. Women are regarded as objects of fetishist display for the male
viewer’s pleasure. Fundamentally, a woman presented on screen should be very erotic, so
that she attracts the spectator’s attention. Laura Mulvey said “In a world ordered by sexual
imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split by active/male and passive/female. In their
traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their
appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-
be-looked-at-ness” She explains here how women’s role in society is a more passive role
which is made for display. “There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There
are hardly any women.” ― Joanna Russ. This quote emphasises that women are used for
their looks and their bodies for advertisement, and she is made for display. Major
companies and films will use women in roles where they are not accepted in real life. This
could be to have more representation in films and adverts, or the more likely case of just
being used for male gratification. In science fiction films there are a good proportion of
women, however only 24% of the STEM workforce are female.
I will be looking at Michael Bay and his work, specifically on the transformers film series.
According to Wikipedia, his films have “grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide, making him one
of the most commercially successful directors in history." He’s also been known as the
epitome of all style / no substance Hollywood blockbuster film director for years. He does
not have a good reputation as a filmmaker, yet he has received 5 MTV Best Movie awards.
He is also known to have a fixation to sexualising women in the transformers film. “Nobody
in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in Transformers” The way
Michael talks about Megan is slightly possessive when he said that he found her and then he
put her in the film, it makes it sound like she did not have a say in the film. Michael Bay and
Megan Fox have a long history of filming together since Bad Boys in 2003, where Fox was
about 17 years old. There have been controversies involving the audition process and the
actor of Mikaela, Megan Fox. Fox posted a lengthy statement on social media after footage
re-emerged of her talking on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2009 about an incident from her early
career. Fox says: "I had just turned 15 and I was an extra in Bad Boys II. They were shooting
this club scene and they brought me in and I was wearing a stars and stripes bikini and a red](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/essay-220104232124/85/Essay-1-320.jpg)
![cowboy hat and six-inch heels. "[Bay] approved it and they said 'Michael, she's 15 so you
can't sit her at the bar and she can't have a drink in her hand', so, his solution to that
problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet." When
this surfaced, Bay received a lot of backlash but Megan Fox has responded saying: “I was
never assaulted or preyed upon.” This could be argued by many considering she was only 15
wearing a Bikini and then continuously sexualised in multiple of his other films. Arguably,
this makes their relationship inappropriate. The fact that there is a 21-year age gap and
when she was 15, she had to dance in a bikini for him is unusual in itself.
The main production company for Transformers is DreamWorks, and it was distributed by
Paramount pictures. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association,
which representing the 5 major film studios of the US. Paramount Pictures, in full
Paramount Pictures Corporation, one of the first and most successful of the Hollywood film
studios. It became a subsidiary of Viacom in 1994.
The scene I am going to analyse the scene where Mikaela Banes fixes the car. In this scene
Sam is driving Mikaela home after she has an argument with her ‘boyfriend’ and Sam offers
to take him home. It is made obvious to the audience he has an attraction to her. The car
starts breaking down and when they both get out to try and fix it, he can’t fix the car so
Mikaela tries to fix it in a scene that is very objectifying. This scene is infamous for
sexualising women in films. She is wearing a low-cut cropped vest top and is bent over the
bonnet. In the scene the camera pans down to her body from her face and then shows his
face staring at her stomach. This shows that the purpose of the shot was to show off her
body and show that he has a sexual attraction to her. The viewers for transformers are
mainly male (85.3%) so this is male gaze put in action. The viewers are meant to react the
same way that Sam did where they are drooling and sweating over a woman’s body. The
colours in this scene are all very warm colours. This makes the scene feel safe and happy,
this is completely different to the rest of the film where you are supposed to feel on edge,
this scene is like the calm before the storm, so it makes viewers enjoy it even more. The
camera angles are all very close up, this creates a feeling of intimacy between the
characters, therefore creating a feeling of intimacy between the audience and the
characters as we feel closer and more personal.
The filmTransformers portrays Mikaela in a more passive way, which links to Mulvey’s
theory. The film also represents masculinity with machinery, fighting and action. There are
no female transformers in any of the films. This is complying with the male gaze as Bay is
linking masculinity to all things generally masculine. In the film there is no actual female
representation other than Mikaela, this leaves the only femininity to be represented as
overly sexualised. Every single aspect of this filmis made for men to please men. The fact
that even all the transformers are male shows the male gaze as the audience are watching
and can feel representation in every aspect of the movie. The female audience can only
really feel representation in Mikaela, who is arguably not the best female role model. She is
showing the audience unrealistic beauty standards because she does not have an easily
achievable body.
I am studying the male gaze and I am going to incorporate some of the Ideas to my FMP.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)