Male gaze - Feminist theory

Laura Mulvey, 1975 - 'visual pleasure and narrative cinema'

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

Most males produce films to it is seen through a mans eye, can women relate to this?

Features of the male gaze

The camera lingers on the womanly "curve" and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction to the events.

Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

As a class we looked at Scouting for girls, she's so lovely, music video. Picking out the bits which the male gaze apples to, then analysing the results to see wether the girls or boys picked out more information about what there wearing etc. As predicted the girls noticed more than the boys spend more attention looking at the girl!


The use of the male gaze in everyday life

- some theortists also have noted that sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product



Critcism 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 which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing

How this relates to Lily

Lily Allen does use sex to sell, for example she wears revealing clothing when performing.




Although in the fear music video, she is wearing and performs in a way that doesnt shout sex. The line, 'I will take my clothes off, and this will be shamless, but everyone knows thats how you get famous.' This line confirms that she agrees with the theory, and that she conforms to it in a way. Although I do not think that I will be using sex to sell as this will not fit into my idea of animation.