The Male Gaze

The Gaze

The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views people presented. For a feminist this can be classed of in three ways: How men look at women, how women look at themselves or how women look at other women.

In 1975 Laura Mulvey a British media professor coined the term 'male gaze' to ensure film audiences view the characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Things such as videos and magazine covers, something in which will sell a product, use figures to catch the gaze. Without noticing, as an audience people will not pay full attention to the information being presented, as the person on screen will distract them due to their actions of sexiness, seductiveness or their invitational body language.

This theory is still relevant in todays society as current Music Artists, celebrities and presenters use the gaze to sell their image to companies in order to create job opportunities such as advertising. Not only that, but people with an aesthetically pleasing body or face to attract both the opposite and same sex are used to endorse the sales of products.  An example of this would be the latest Paco Rabanne Mens Fragrance - Invictus.

Example of 'The Male Gaze' from a TV Drama

 

 

This clip taken from the final season of One Tree Hill includes Quinn and Clay, a couple who have been together for a significant amount of time. The male gaze with in this scene will be Quinn, due to the way she stands, her body language and her tone of voice is an act of seducing the other character. The male audience connect to this, by capturing the image placed in front of them. You may notice that the majority of the camera work displays Quinn's best standing out features which will attract both the opposite and same sex, grabbing a wider audience. Through the theory, the gazers may not take in relevant information from this scene, as they will be too focused on what is displayed, however the significance of what Clay says is huge, as it completely changes the storyline. The reasons for using the gaze in this scene may be the directors intention of gripping more interest, however some viewers may find it distracting. 

 

Examples of 'The Male Gaze' from a Magazine Cover

 

The male gaze in this magazine cover will attract straight men and gay women, who will instantly be captured by the large cleavage Jennifer Aniston is showing. The use of tight clothing also creates attention of those interested as it outlines her sexual features. The colour red which is used both as the background and a darker shade for her clothing symbolises the positive connotations of the colour, such as: love, sex, beauty and romance. Although the text is in white to stand out, you will notice that none of it covers the main gaze features of her body which will sell the magazine. Her bodily features cause a distraction to the content of the magazine which the company use to their advantage to ensure they sell as many copies as possible.

The cover of Elle Magazine featuring David Beckham shirtless attracts mainly the gay male and straight women. The central position on the cover is taken by Beckham's abdomen which is known as his best selling feature, this alone is the covers best selling point, as it attracts a wide range of people as it is aesthetically pleasing. The reason for me stating that the main attraction for the cover would be gay male and straight women, doesn't however mean they are the only audience which is targeted. They are the main, however due to Beckham being shirtless straight men look up to his body as a goal to reach to ensure they look the best they can. The positioning of his head between the magazine cover heading creates a frame for Beckham's facial appearance in which attracts the gaze audience as it allows them to connect with the connotations present through his emotion shown.


Beyoncé, central of this magazine cover stands in a sexual position to attract the male gaze straight away. With her hands on her head, the connotations the audience take from it is that she is trying to seduce them. The main features which stand out are her chest area - this teases the audience as its barely showing, which make them want to look through to see if they can see more. Her thigh gap and large gluteal area which the male gender seem to take a liking to which distracts them from the information on the cover. The small pants Beyoncé is wearing are to tease the audience to distract them from any other irrelevant information in which could be on the cover. The way she I holding her hair you can connote that she has the sexy 'rough and ready' look which attracts the audience in which will buy the magazine. She can act as a role model for females as her figure is exposed, so they look up to her as a goal for what they wish their body to look like.