The Male Gaze theory

The theory of "The Male Gaze" was created by Laura Mulvey -"Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema". She uses this to look at how male audiences view a female performer within a piece of visual media text i.e. Film, music video.
There are several features of the theory which must be taken to consideration: male ego

1.   The representation of women as a sexual fantasy and from a heterosexual male point of view
2. Scopophilia - The pleasures involved in looking at other peoples bodies
3. Patriarchal society
4. Objectification of female characters
5. Active male and Passive female
6. Men- the controlling subject
7. Women as an image
8. Men do the looking and the women are there to be looked at
9. Needs of the male Ego.

This is very common within music videos, especially the fact that men do the looking and the women are there to be looked at. The ways that the camera work presents a female to the audience - for example, a camera present at the woman's hips, face and clothing in which the camera shows the male looking at her in amazement. This is a classic example of this and backs up this theory.

Here is one video in which a female artists music video can be used to back up the "Male gaze" theory :


Miley Cyrus is a classic example to use as she is idolised, not only for the way she sings and presents the audience her songs, but the way she uses her body within the videos. here for example, there is one section where she is on the wrecking ball:

This scene would conform to pint two and how now the male audience is used to such indecent images such as this and crave in more music videos. however, this is the choice of many female artists to gain the attention as they crave of it and the success such attention brings.

Some women enjoy being ‘looked’ at e.g. beauty pageants. The gaze can also be directed toward members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.

However, there are some women (Feminists) who believe that this type of attention is wrong and the fact that men should not do this as they belittle many women in to thinking that they are the object of men. Some feminists may find this good for the fact that these women are showing their full potential, but there will be some again who objectify these actions. For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:

How men look at women?, How women look at themselves?,  How women look at other women?

There are some theorists who have defined this theory and how a Gaze can be reflected - Here is one example:

• Jonathan Schroeder (1998), “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.”  - This I feel backs up the feminist view and how they would feel about the aspect of men viewing females as objects.

Overall The gaze theory has many valid points in which how a male viewer sees women  in such visual media. The example proves that women can chose what they want to do but proves that as nudity and other forms of revelations towards the female body, men will expect and continue to want such content later on in other visual products.