Laura Mulvey Male Gaze Theory

Male Gaze Theory - Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist who coined the idea of the ‘Male Gaze’; the male gaze is essentially the way in which the visual arts, such as film and television are structured around the male viewer, that is, that producers assume that the viewer is male. The theory describes the way that media depicts women in terms of what men see. Mulvey also upholds the belief that we live in a patriarchal society in which men set the vast majority of rules and construct the views of the ideal visions, roles and male dominance over women, This is backed up by the fact that only about 16% of media creators are female. Mulvey believed that women were 'the bearers of meaning and not the makers of meaning.' Within the male gaze theory, There are 3 parts of the male gaze:

Men looking at women-

Men tend to look at women's curves, this is the idea that men tend to look at other parts of a women's bodies and not their eyes. Which is why the camera in films also focus on other parts of the women's bodies.

Women looking at themselves-

Women are made to look at themselves in a negative way, thinking that personality does not matter and that it’s all about how they look and their appearances. It triggers women's self esteem and leads to women aspiring to be like women in the media such as Katie Price.

Women looking at women-

Women generally compare themselves to other women, which is why women are perceived in such a bad way in the media. In particular models, who are giving off the impression to women that they need to have large breasts and small hips.

The theory includes ideas based on what Freud called ‘scopophilia’, which is the pleasure that is evoked from looking at other people’s bodies normally as a sexual object.  Mulvey is quoted with saying “In the darkness of the auditorium it is notable that one may look without being seen either by those on screen or by other members of the audience”.

According to Mulvey, there are two types of male gaze, the voyeuristic and the fetishishistic, The former involves an element of control as you can see without being seen, which Mulvey argues has associations with sadism, as “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).

   

The latter, the fetishist looking, involves a contrast as it includes ‘turning the represented figure itself into a fetish which then builds up the physical beauty of said object’, which in turn, leads to the overvaluation of the female image. The theory claims that the audience oscillates between the two types of looking in their viewership.

Within the theory, it is stated that multiple parts of the cinema experience allow the moviegoer to both act voyeuristically, that is, by the objectification of women’s bodies, while also engaging the  narcissistic element of them as well by giving them the opportunity to identify with the characters in an egotistical relationship.

This theory can also be applied to the music video,  as similarly to film, women are often heavily objectified. Good examples of this is within modern pop music as well as rap, The male protagonist is seen to be surrounded by beautiful women by his expensive house and cars as a symbol of his success; this shows us that the protagonists view these women in such a way that they are seen to be nothing but material objects and aren’t even credited with being human.

Even in music videos with female protagonists, the male gaze theory can be applied as the protagonists are not concerned as much with financial gain as with sexual desirability. The women are seen to be scantily clad and hyper sexualised.

However the Male gaze isn’t entirely about men looking at women as the title suggests, it also covers women looking at other women, however contrastingly to men, women do not sexualise other women, instead look at other women with admiration, such as thinking that they’re dressed really nicely or their hair looks pretty. This is said to be a secondary consequence of the male gaze as women want to be the object of male desire, as well as this women are taught that this is the way that women are supposed to be, which can have the negative effect of causing hyper reality (The inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.)

A good example of the male gaze present in a music video is in the video for She’s so lovely - Scouting for girls:

The women present in the video is wearing red high heels. The red colour connotes sexuality, love, lust et cetera. Throughout the video there is a lot of close ups used of the women's body focussing on her curves, this is showing the women to the audience, making her the main focus in the video. Which also supports the theory of the Male Gaze.

This is a great example of the Male Gaze and how it is used in the Music Industry. The camera angles and movements are used purely to draw the audience's attention to the female character in the music video. The audience's attention will be solely on the women and will therefore hardly notice the male characters in the music video. Focusing on the 'perfect' women that is being portrayed.