Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of the "male gaze" in 1975, which refers to how audiences are meant to view characters in films from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The male gaze objectifies women by reducing them to objects that are lingered on for their physical attributes and defined by a man's reaction. While Mulvey's theory focused on film, some note its presence in other media where the female body is unnecessarily sexualized. However, others criticize that not all gazing is meant to be sexual or reduce women, as gazing can be empowering or directed toward same-gender individuals for various reasons beyond sexuality.

1. Laura Mulvey
Male Gaze – Ella McLeod

2. Concept of Gaze
• The gaze deals with how an audience views the people presented.
• For feminists it is often thought of in 3 ways…
1. How Men look at women
2. How women look at themselves
3. How women look at other women
• Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘male gaze’ om 1975. In films, she believed,
audiences had to view characters from the perspective of a hetrosexual male.

3. Features of the Male Gaze
• 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.
• Reduces women to the status of objects, experiencing the narrative
secondarily, by identification with the male.

4. Use of the Male Gaze in everyday life.
• Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations
where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product nor narrative…
• Critisisms of Mulvey’s theory is that some women enjoy being looked at, as it is seen
as empowering and therefore the theory shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a way of
reducing females.
• Also the gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender for
multiple reasons, not all of which may be sexual – for example it could be due to
the choice of clothing or makeup.