The Male Gaze

- how men look at women
- how women look at themselves
- how women look at other women

Laura mulvey coined the term 'male gaze' in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to 'view' characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Features of the male gaze:
- The cameras light lingers on the curves of the female body and events with occue to women are present largely in the context of a mans reaction to these events.
- Relegates women to the status of objects. The famile viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

Criticism of Mulvey and gaze theory:
Some women enjoy being 'looked at'. The gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of whcih are sexual such as in comparison of body image.

Categorising facial expressions:
Women
Chocolate box: blands, pleaseing and uniformity of beauty.
Invitational: suggestive of mischief or mystery and a blint of contrast rather than sexual.
Super-Smiler: agressive and attitude.
Romantice/sexual: possible or avaliable.

Men
Seductive: similar to cool, eyes less wide and milder.
Carefree: active and healthy.
Practical: thinking, closed mouth and short hair.
Comic: exaggerated, acting fool and falls.
Catalogue: Neutral look, dummy, artifical and wax like.

Jonathon 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.