Male gaze

Male gaze is looked at in three main ways:

• How men look at women.
• How women look at themselves. 
• How women look at other women.

Laura Mulvey came up with the male gaze in 1975, because she believed that people viewed the female characters in a certain way, and they were presented in a certain way. The theory also suggest that women are looked at as objects and within movies they are very sexualised, by the clothes they wear, and the way that there characters behaves. The camera usually focuses a lot on the body and events that the female are engaged in that will make the audience react. 

Jonathan Schroeder (1998) said; '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 gaze'. 

Here is a medium shot taken from 'Cabin in the wood', this is a girl getting ready whilst a male character watches without her knowing, as it is a one way mirror. This links to one of the three points of male gaze; how men look at women. He see her as an object of entertainment, he wants to watch her (gaze at her). 

Here is a low angle point of view shot again taken from 'Cabin in the woods' this female is being watched by the other characters, and we as the audience get to see the characters point of view. This female character is very sexualised, for example mise en scene has been picked very carefully, for example she is wearing shorts to show of her legs and her blouse is open, so she can appeal to a male audience as she dances for the men in the clip. 

Here is a two shot taken from the film 'Eden Lake', this female is sexualised to the male gaze audience. However she breaks stereotypes because usually the males take an active role and the women are sidelined. However in this case she has the most active role within the movie, which challenges male gaze because she is presented in a sexualised way, but its her who has to fight to the end in order to survive. 

Here is a medium shot taken from 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D' this female is very sexualised because of the minimum clothing she is wearing within the shot. They have focused on her physical attractions which is her figure and breasts. Laura Mulvey's thoery would suggest that she is represented as sexually active and powerless. She is simple a gratification for the male audience.

All of the women in the above images are objectified sexually within the film, Laura Mulvey says that; 'Women in any fully human form, have almost completely been left out of film'. Female roles are gradually changing within the movie industry, they are starting to be given dominant roles. So when considering our characters we need to think whether we will challenge or conform to the male gaze theory.