Critical PerspectivesLO: explore Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze.

Laura Mulvey (1975)Visual Pleasure and Narrative

Cinema Female characters are seen as visual

pleasure of the male characters or spectators within music videos.

Audience put into masculine or voyeuristic positions by Hollywood films.

Men are often the ones that look whereas women are the ones who are looked at.

‘The Gaze’Criticisms of the theory?

Women are the main object of ‘the gaze’, as they are the ones who are looked at. Male characters or spectators are the subject of the gaze, as they are the bearers of the look.

Women connote ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ as they are the focus of the male gaze. Mulvey identifies process, women are the object of ‘the gaze’ and are often represented sexually.

Key Words:

Voyeurism: practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at the sexual objects or acts; secretively.

Fetishism: compulsive use of some object, part of body, stimulus in course of attaining sexual gratification.

Scopophilia: “love of watching”.