RepresentationTheory ; Laura Mulveys: Male Gaze theory

Laura Mulvey; A British feminist film theorist.

How women are represented in the media, she states that women are there to be seen and the use of cinematography portrays them as sexual objects through shot  types and movements.

1) How men look at women
2) How women look at themselves from those images
3) How women look at other women in the media





Male gaze typically focuses on;

• emphasising curves of the female body
• refering women as objects and not people
• the display of women is how men think they should be percieved
• female viewers view the content through the eyes of a man.

Male gaze describes how the audience or a viewer is put into the perspective of heterosexual male i.e. camera lingers over the curves of a womans body.
Camera uses particular movements to percieve women in an idealistic view.
The man emerges as the dominate power within the created film fantasy.

Mulvey also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze because women look at themsleves through the eyes of men.

I have looked at some film trailers to see if Mulveys theory was applied. Sometimes the audience watch films without noticing the portrayal of women in media.  For example in the trailer ''Sex tape''. As the trailer starts in the voice over it says '' do you remember the first time the man saw you naked?''

This matches Mulveys theory and it tells the auidence that perhaps some ladies like to see thmesleves through the eyes of men so that they feel sexy. However this also gets the female viewers interested because this is a direct question to them and therefore should feel enganged to the trailer and feel connected to the female character. This could also make certian women feel insecure as the intentions of a female to portray herself for other wowen to feel jealous. Later on the trailer we see more and more of the actress eventually fully naked and having sex.



Another trailer that meets Laura Mulveys theory is film called ''Let's be cops''. In this trailer we see ladies partying with short dresses on and 4 girls running in red bikinis with polices running behind them. This tells the audience that ladies are seen as objects for men to enjoy rather than modest women.