Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze suggests that in traditional films, the camera adopts the perspective of the assumed male viewer by objectifying and sexualizing female characters. This objectification is achieved through techniques like lingering shots of women's bodies and by primarily featuring male protagonists that male audiences can relate to, which presents women as passive objects for the male gaze. The male gaze is viewed by feminists as how men look at women, how women look at themselves, and how women look at other women in films.

1. Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze

2. Description of the Gaze
• Gaze is the notion of how the audience perceive characters
which are presented to us.
• Laura Mulvey suggests that the male gaze is where the
camera adapts the males point of view- for the benefit of the
assumed male audience
• Feminists view the concept of male gaze in three different
ways:
• How men look at women
• How women look at themselves
• How women look at other women

3. Common Features
• The camera tends to linger on female bodies which draws
attention to the fact that women are represented as ‘sexual
objects’ .
• These particular camera movements are used in order to
gratify male audiences.
• Mulvey argues that mainly the protagonists are male which in
addition allows the male audiences to relate to the character.
• The fact that the central active characters are always mostly
male presents women as passive and sexual objects.
• Female audiences are forced to identify with the male gaze