Male and female gaze, objectification, facial expressions, lovingly pinched from various internet sources

1. The concept of the gaze

2. What is the gaze?
• How an audience views the people presented
• Male gaze
• Female gaze

3. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• How men look at women
• How women look at
themselves
• How women look at other
women
• Coined phrase in 1975
• Audiences have to view characters from the
perspective of a heterosexual male

4. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• Denies women human
identity
• Status of objects
• Admired for physical
appearance
• Women often watch from a secondary
perspective; viewing themselves only from a
man’s perspective

5. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• Women seen as vital in
film/TV
• Often has no real
importance herself;
it’s how she makes the man
feel or act that becomes
important
• The female only exists in
relation to the male

6. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• Male gaze leads to Hegemonic
ideologies in our society – the
idea of dominance in political
and social contexts
• Mulvey argues that women find
themselves taking the male gaze
in a society where the media
presents women from the male perspective
• Women end up objectifying women in the
same way a man would

7. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• Visual pleasure
• The role of women
has 2 narrative
functions:
– Erotic object for
characters to view
– Erotic object for
audience to view

8. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• Characters looking at others are active (male)
• Characters being looked at are passive
(female)
• Passive characters under control of male
• Only exist for visual pleasure
• Females (passives) often slow narrative down
– are inspiration for men to act
• Males (actives) push narrative on and create
the ‘action’

9. Objectification
• Linked to male gaze
• People gazed upon are
objectified
• Sole value to be enjoyed
or possessed by voyeur
• Devalued and humanity
removed

10. Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze
• Patriarchal society sets
rules
• Constructs and represents
ideal visions, roles and
male dominance over
women
• Passive audience may
be influenced by this
representation of reality

11. Criticism of Mulvey
• The question around male/female dichotomy
• Ethnicity, class, age, etc. not considered
• Not always men who have power over passive
women
• Suggests that gaze cannot be conceived of
representation outside of heterosexuality
• Suggests women cannot be strong
protagonists
• Some women like the ‘gaze’ and play up to it

12. Facial expressions of the male gaze
• Women:
– Chocolate box
– Invitational
– Super-smiler
– Romantic or sexual
• Marjorie Ferguson (1980)
– See blog

13. The female gaze
• Argument that there’s
no such thing
• Argument that it isn’t
equivalent to the male
gaze
• What is fetishized in the female gaze is
strength, virility, vigor, capability, fortitude,
power.
• Reaffirming male power and dominance.

14. The female gaze
• Men can be motivation
• Men are rarely decorative
• Male sexuality is
celebrated
• Opposed to the view that:
– Women are the prize (motivation)
– Women are decoration
– Female sexuality is dangerous (Femme Fatale, Vamp,
Honey Trap, etc).

15. The female gaze – not…
• Men save themselves
or are helped by other
men
• Pressure on actors
to ‘buff up’ is about
asserting male virility and physical embodiment
of male power – rather than pleasing women
• Men rarely passive or dominated by women
(without some form of ‘comeuppance’ or
resolution where ‘balance’ is restored

16. Facial expressions of the female gaze
• Men:
– Carefree
– Practical
– Seductive
– Comic
– Catalogue
• Trevor Millum (1975)

17. Is the gaze really just about gender
and sexuality?
• Jonathan Schroeder – the gaze represents
psychological relationship of power. The
person with the ‘gaze’ is superior to the
person being ‘gazed’ upon.