Laura Mulvey: the male gaze

Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist who believes that women in the media are often represented through the 'male gaze' -we are shown women from the perspective of heterosexual men. For example, close ups are shown sexualizing female body parts, women are dressed in revealing clothing designed to be attractive to a male audience. 

Mulvey stated that 'In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly'. 

This means that the media products assume the audience is straight and male based, and presents women to them for their pleasure. 

Something that Mulvey noticed during her research was that men in film were often in the centre of the action and narrative; often presented as powerful and dominant, playing an active role in the plot. She found that women were primarily passive, playing only minor roles in the narrative. Women had things done to them rather than doing things themselves (stereotypically). In conclusion, she believed that narratives are heavily gendered in a binary way, with men being the active heroes, and women being the passive decorations/damsels. 

Mulvey also argues that for women, the result of media being presented from the perspective of men and through the male gaze, women find themselves, at time, taking of the male gaze- only being able to view themselves through a man's eyes. Women therefore gaze at other women in the same way a male would, and thus end up objectifying other women. This has proven toxic in today's society as women constantly compare themselves to other women in order to make themselves feel attractive towards heterosexual men.