The Male Gaze
Question 1
'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves ' (Berger 1972:47). Discuss how this proposition of the ‘male gaze’ has been applied to feminist studies of the media.
“One thing I really envy about men, ' a friend once said to me, 'is the right to look ' (Dyer 1982)
Johnathan Schroeder posited ‘...to gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.(Schroeder, 1998)’ Keeping this in mind, in Laura Mulvey’s article ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’, she proposes that the male gaze is paramount in how women are looked at and presented throughout film and other mediums in media, using this study as a political weapon. In conjunction with John Berger’s 'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’(Berger, 1982) statement, she explores how psychoanalysis displays the view of the audience. Her essay is heavily influenced by Freud’s work, including his work on scopophilia into the study. Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory is key in feminist studies.(Mulvey, Autumn 1975) In order to understand the media, we must dissect the meanings that are embodied throughout all mediums and how this affects our cultures, in past and present. Not only is feminist studies important in this essay, but gender studies is key. This essay will explore Mulvey’s feminist theory, highlighting the power imbalance between men and women, how it has changed and how it applies to the feminist studies of the media, in the 1960’s in which the essay is applied, and today, divulging the effects of the gaze on media then and now.
Mulvey’s arguments are in context to classic Hollywood films. According to her work, women are objects there to provide visual pleasure to men and it is just assumed that the
'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves ' (Berger 1972:47). Discuss how this proposition of the ‘male gaze’ has been applied to feminist studies of the media.
“One thing I really envy about men, ' a friend once said to me, 'is the right to look ' (Dyer 1982)
Johnathan Schroeder posited ‘...to gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.(Schroeder, 1998)’ Keeping this in mind, in Laura Mulvey’s article ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’, she proposes that the male gaze is paramount in how women are looked at and presented throughout film and other mediums in media, using this study as a political weapon. In conjunction with John Berger’s 'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’(Berger, 1982) statement, she explores how psychoanalysis displays the view of the audience. Her essay is heavily influenced by Freud’s work, including his work on scopophilia into the study. Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory is key in feminist studies.(Mulvey, Autumn 1975) In order to understand the media, we must dissect the meanings that are embodied throughout all mediums and how this affects our cultures, in past and present. Not only is feminist studies important in this essay, but gender studies is key. This essay will explore Mulvey’s feminist theory, highlighting the power imbalance between men and women, how it has changed and how it applies to the feminist studies of the media, in the 1960’s in which the essay is applied, and today, divulging the effects of the gaze on media then and now.
Mulvey’s arguments are in context to classic Hollywood films. According to her work, women are objects there to provide visual pleasure to men and it is just assumed that the
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