The Male Gaze

Both the play Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez and the movie adaptation make an attempt to communicate the message of female empowerment through their respective protagonists, Estela and Ana. Men resolve most of Ana’s problems, whereas Estela relies on herself and other women. The play conveys the theme of female empowerment because it is female-centric, successfully addresses the issues of body image, and focuses on women’s independence and self-validation. Lopez’s play serves as an example of what can happen when women uplift and depend on each other, as opposed to men.

The studies of this article examine the images of men and women that advertisements perpetuate. Mass media is a widely accessible resource that presents positive and negative portrayals. In today’s society, the traditional differences between genders are constantly reinforced. The male figure is usually characterized as the strong, successful, dominant gender. When advertisements create a target message for men, they exploit the male ego. This means that men are thought provoked to look or be

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain who is known for her essay on visual pleasures in narrative cinema. Being inspired by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s ideology combined with psychoanalysis, Mulvey comes up with the ‘Male Gaze Theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media. The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and the literature portrays women and world from a masculine point of view presenting women as objects of male pleasure regardless of being heterosexual male or female, thus the formula of cinema becomes comprised of “women ad image, man as bearer of the look.” The male gaze consists of three different gazes: - look of the camera that records the film, - the look of the characters in the film and – the look of the audience that views the film. Mulvey then went on to classify women’s role on film functions “on two levels: as erotic objects for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects for the character within the auditorium.” She then criticise Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘the rear window’ made in 1954 for his portrayal

Aaron Devor discusses the patriarchally-expected gender roles of today’s society. He delves into the discussion of femininity versus masculinity. Society associates femininity with weakness, whilst associating masculinity with greatness.

Humans are social creatures and have become increasingly susceptible to suggestion in the modern era of technology; free information. Their thoughts and opinions are strongly based on what they hear and see around them. For that very reason, advertisements have become an important tool for corporations to use in order to get their products and services across to their buyers. Advertisements attempt to manipulate their viewers mainly through three appeals. These are pathos; using emotions to get through to the viewers; logos; tying their claims to logic and statistics. Again, this is to breakthrough to their viewers. Finally, the use of ethos, appealing to their sense of trust, therefore winning them over. The John Frieda advertisement published

Choose one or two examples of media texts and explore how they might challenge or disrupt Mulvey’s concept of ‘the male gaze’.

In Laura Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she writes about the relationship between voyeurism, cinema, and gender. She begins by describing the concept of scopophilia, which means to gain pleasure from looking. She writes that scopophilia is inherently active/masculine, and that pleasure is derived from looking at other people as mere objects. On the other hand, the passive/feminine is derived from the experience of being looked at (pg.188). Mulvey sees this binary relationship between viewer and object being viewed as a part of our culture, and the greatest example of this is found in cinema. She argues that the act of moviegoing satisfies these voyeuristic desires in people. She writes, “The mass of mainstream film portray a hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically, indifferent to the presence of the audience, producing for them a sense of separation and playing on their voyeuristic fantasy,” (pg. 186). In this essay, I will further discuss her viewpoints on cinema and voyeurism, and how it connects to the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock.

One aspect of an author’s argument is their ethical character. This is important in assessing how credible and fair the author is being when considering their subject. [Transition] Jean Kilbourne has spent most of her professional life studying and analyzing women in advertisements. She has produced the award winning documentaries Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women (1979) and Slim Hopes, serves on the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Sexual and Domestic Abuse, and is a senior scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College (420). Kilbourne appears to be qualified to speak on the matters of women and advertising and a reader can trust that she has done the necessary research to have an informed opinion them.

Feminist theatre came into being as a by product of the experimental theatre movement of the 1970s’ and 1980’. It was an alternate theatre which enabled women to explore their creative talents on stage independently. Feminist theatre served as a means of constructing an exclusive feminist discourse on stage that questioned the patriarchal norms of female subjugation. Its movement was towards the construction of a theatre space where women are no longer mere stage props. They started functioning as the creators of drama rather than being confined to the roles of wife, lover, mother or lunatic. It was a paradigm shift from women being the objects of male gaze to the creation of a self sufficient female gaze, from being objects to being the subject

Advertisement two: Calvin Klein is a dark-full colour advert, for Calvin Klein Jeans advertisement (Figure II). Nudity combined with the body position and body language make this a highly sexual ad and a solid reason for its inclusion in the study. The Calvin Klein advertisement features a woman with a nude torso positioned on top of man with a nude torso. The visual elements presented in the second ad by Calvin Klein create visual texture; the ocean/rocks surrounding the human figures creates a frame focusing the eye on the bodies in the centre. The woman’s fixated body pulling away from the male model attracts the viewer down her arm, to her waist pointed at the logo at the bottom of the page (right-hand-side). The females almost exposed breast in the centre of the ad is positioned under the man’s arm. This juxtaposition

This chapter challenges all levels of knowledge, according to the ‘Bloom’s taxonomy’ method. Within this chapter the aim is to focus on a specific US clothing line called American Apparel, founded in 1989 by a Canadian named Dov Charney. Today, this company is based in all corners of the world, however its main quarters are in Los Angeles, California. The way in which this is evaluated is under sub-headings that will break down the analysis: American Apparel- public perception, target audience, tracing campaigns, and American Apparel versus their competition.

Silko’s essay is about how women are portrayed as the weaker sex or targeted by males because females appear weaker to males. Females are “… targeted as easy prey by muggers, rapist, and serial killers” (808). Throughout Silko’s essay she talks about how her father taught her to be independent by teaching her how to shoot and handle guns in order for her to protect herself. Her essay also talked about different situations in which either she or her family members have been put in when they may have needed to use deadly or lethal force. Silko quotes, “Women have the right to protect themselves from death or bodily harm” (812). In summary, this essay portrays how a father teaches his daughter to be just as strong as the opposite sex. “…a

The objectification of women contains the act of ignoring the personal and intellectual capacities and potentialities of a female; and reducing a women’s value/worth or role in society to that of an instrument for the sexual pleasure that she can produce in minds of another. The representation of women using sexualized images that have increased significantly in the amount and also the severity of the images that’s been used explicitly throughout the 20th century. Advertisement generally represent women as sexual objects, subordinated to men, and even as objects of sexual violence, and such advertisements contribute to discrimination against women in the workplace, and normalize attitudes which results in sexual harassment and even violence

From deodorant advertisements to clothes, women are shown as constantly running behind these hunky men as though they are a prized catch. This shows women in the worst light, that they would fall for the smell of a perfume or for a well dressed man. Men are barely portrayed as doing housework or taking care of children, since it has been stereotyped that this is a woman’s job. When sexual imagery is used, advertisements often consist of nonverbal cues as a signal to show that women lack control and authority than men. Women are shown as relatively smaller in height and their body language as being submissive, whereas the men stand tall and strong. This places men in a position of power and rank. The only similarity between the portrayal of men and women in advertisements is their perfect physical appearance. Men have perfect skin; heads full of thick hair, a square jaw line and six pack abs. Men are also falling prey to the cultural ideals of beauty.

As stated that “the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous” (Mulvey 490), she relates to the fetishistic looking, in which women can be seen as curiously and admirationaly look on; or it is considered as a bust to look fetish/ desired.