The Male Gaze
Essentially, the male gaze refers to the idea that texts are usually told from the perspective of a man.
Essentially, the male gaze refers to the idea that texts are usually told from the perspective of a man.
"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female."
- Laura Mulvey
"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female."
- Laura Mulvey
Consider movies, for example. Usually, the camera is positioned and moved in a way to suggest that the perspective of the camera is a male perspective. The most obvious example of this is when women are sexualized by the camera slowly tilting up from their legs or fixating on a part of their body. Directing the audience's attention towards women in this way suggests the perspective of the camera is that of a heterosexual man. As a result of this, women in movies are often objectified and dehumanized whilst male perspectives are normalized and neutralized. This is not unique to movies, we can see it elsewhere in other texts.