For feminist it can be in 3 ways:
How men look at women
How women look at themselves
How women look at other women
Laura coined the term male gaze in 1975 as she believes that film audiences have no choice but to view a character from a heterosexual men perspective. In a movie the camera depends to focus on the woman's body, her curves etc. and they are viewed as an object, females therefor become secondary viewers to males.
Some theorists also notice that this is in situations when the sexiness is not even required or needed.
The clever use of the word gaze implies more than just just an look you are completely focused on the object, and gazing makes the gazer more powerful than the object being gazed at.
There are critical views against this theory for example, woman want to be looked and there beauty admired as you have woman who enter beauty pageants and also models who are paid for there beauty. Also woman can be showed to so others can compare and admire them, also as inspiration or to view there clothes and possessions.
Improvements:
When we viewed a clip in class from a music video where a woman was showed sexually, people could not generally answer questions about the rest of the clip, for example what the colors of the other actors clothes were and details of the surroundings. This is because we were more focused on the woman and therefore put all concentration onto her rather than anything else in the clip, so she is the main focus and becomes a distraction. This was because she was dressed and done up to stand out. Most shots were also focused on her and lingered on her longer than other characters, therefore we was forced to look at her and see her in this way as a male would without any choice as the theory states.
Male and female's expressions are shown very differently because woman's facial expressions are described as a chocolate box, inviting, welcoming, romantic and sexual explained by Marjorie Ferglision. And on the other hand men's expressions are carefree, practical, comical and catalogue explained by Trevor Milium.
When we viewed a clip in class from a music video where a woman was showed sexually, people could not generally answer questions about the rest of the clip, for example what the colors of the other actors clothes were and details of the surroundings. This is because we were more focused on the woman and therefore put all concentration onto her rather than anything else in the clip, so she is the main focus and becomes a distraction. This was because she was dressed and done up to stand out. Most shots were also focused on her and lingered on her longer than other characters, therefore we was forced to look at her and see her in this way as a male would without any choice as the theory states.
Male and female's expressions are shown very differently because woman's facial expressions are described as a chocolate box, inviting, welcoming, romantic and sexual explained by Marjorie Ferglision. And on the other hand men's expressions are carefree, practical, comical and catalogue explained by Trevor Milium.
WWW: You have explained in a clear and understanding way the theory in question.
ReplyDeleteEBI: You had explained why male and female expressions are shown so differently, linking this to the Male Gaze theory. Homework task: You had shown how the female character was represented and used in the music video and linked this back to the theory in question.
SBT