The Male Gaze vs. The Female Gaze: What’s the Difference?
You may not realize it, but with every book, movie, or TV show you watch, you’re staring at fiction through the lens of the male gaze or the female gaze.
The idea of “the male gaze,” originated in feminist theory in one of Laura Mulvey’s essays. Her theory was that women in media, most often get depicted through a masculine, heterosexual perspective (“the male gaze”) — and because of this, they get objectified and sexualized. Mulvey states that the camera figuratively takes on the heterosexual male perspective.
To look at a woman through the male gaze isn’t to see her as a whole human being, but as a sexual object there for your viewing pleasure. And, fictional female characters created from the male gaze only exist to further a male character’s development or story.
What does an example of the male gaze look like in film?
Even if you’ve never heard of the male gaze before, you’ve certainly seen it play out on your TV screen. One of the most blatant and popular examples of the male gaze is Megan Fox’s character, Mikaela Banes, in the Transformers movie.
