1. The male gaze
MEDIA LANGUAGE

2. The "male gaze" in feminist
theory
 In Mulvey's 1975 essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Laura Mulvey introduced the
feminist concept of "male gaze" as a feature of gender power asymmetry in film.
 Mulvey stated that women were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of
the camera. Hollywood films played to the models of voyeurism and scopophilia.[The concept has
subsequently been influential in feminist film theory and media studies.
 The male gaze[occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual
man. It may linger over the curves of a woman's body, for instance.[
 The woman is usually displayed on two different levels: as an erotic object for both the characters
within the film, as well as the spectator who is watching the film.
 The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to
the active gaze from the man.
 This adds an element of 'patriarchal' order and it is often seen in "illusionistic narrative film".
[]Mulvey argues that, in mainstream cinema, the male gaze typically takes precedence over the
female gaze, reflecting an underlying power asymmetry.
 Mulvey's essay also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze. This means that
women look at themselves through the eyes of men.[
 The male gaze may be seen by a feminist either as a manifestation of unequal power between
gazer and gazed, or as a conscious or subconscious attempt to develop that inequality.
 From this perspective, a woman who welcomes an objectifying gaze may be simply conforming to
norms established to benefit men, thereby reinforcing the power of the gaze to reduce a recipient
to an object. Welcoming such objectification may be viewed as akin to exhibitionism.