A2 MEDIA  PORTFOLIO

Before starting on the Male Gaze theory, it is important to understand the meaning behind the gaze itself. The Gaze referrs to the way people are gazed upon, depending on the audience of the film. The Male Gaze derrived from the idea of the gaze, however it mostly focuses on how men perceive women in films through the director's use of camera angles and other filming techniques. The way women are represented in films often link to the Male Gaze theory because of the importance of male audience gratification. Laura Mulvey, in her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in 1975, took a Freudian approach to the idea of the gaze. According to Mulvey, scopophilia (the enjoyment of watching other people's bodies in an erotic way) played a big part in the objectification of women characters in film. The usual Hollywood film not only portrays the story through a male protagonist but also assume a 'male spectator' which is why female characters in film are so often used more as accessories to the male protagonist as opposed to narrators of the story. Often than not female characters are expected to portray voyeristically pleasurable stereotypes, which Mulvey argues need to be recognised and improved including assuming a female spectator and better representation of women in movies in general. 

 

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