The Patriarchal Male Gaze - 1365 Words

While talking to my Indian friends about our summer project, â€Å"Adolescents’ Health Awareness Program†, I listened to their stories about harassment and eve teasing while travelling alone. I had also come across some of the situations where I feel uncomfortable and hate my body. When I walk down the streets of the city, a person’s stare and taunts, make me feel as if I have done a crime by being born as a girl. The constant gazes are not so unusual now. Gaze, as the Longman dictionary defines is â€Å"a long steady look†, but I would say it is much more than that long look. It is a constant look with admiration for something. It simply turns a subject to an object where male values the body of a female to fulfill their desires. The term ‘male gaze’ was first brought up by Laura Mulvey and has come from film theory and is basically used to describe the idea of putting the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. With the development of the media, we see films, â€Å"a major form of visual popular culture† (â€Å"The Patriarchal Gaze†), portraying women as sexually objectified bodies. Laura Mulvey in her article, â€Å"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema†, says that male gaze is an erotic look of power and of objectification. The view of the camera, and thus of the male protagonist, is that of the intended male ‘gaze’ (Mulvey). With the male gaze, female bodies present ed in the movies are sexualized and their body is objectified. Females are shown offering up their femininity for theShow MoreRelatedWomen Are Controlled And Guided By Patriarchal Male Gaze2331 Words   |  10 Pagesasserts that women are characterized as â€Å"others† or as â€Å"not male† . This distinction would not be possible if women were not recognizable by sight as not male. Due to this, it is relevant to look at film and its associations with visual representations of the woman and the male gaze. As John Berger recognises â€Å"men act, women appear†¦men look at women†¦women themselves being looked at† . This succinctly defines that the position of women in patriarchal culture depends on look and elucidates that women existRead MoreEssay on Patriarchal Structure of An Active Male Gaze 1678 Words   |  7 PagesIn the early 1990s Laura Mulvey’s thesis concerning the patriarchal structure of an active male gaze has influenced feminist f ilm critiques and Hollywood. Mulvey’s project is to use psychoanalysis to uncover the power of patriarchy in Hollywood cinema. Patriarchal influence upon cinema is found primarily in pleasure (pleasure in looking) or as Freud’s has put it, scopophilia. Mulvey suggests that it may be possible to create a new for of cinema due to the fact that patriarchy power to control cinematicRead MoreRelationship Between Masculinity And Femininity1177 Words   |  5 Pagesbetween masculinity and femininity. I will be focusing primarily on how the feministic features are different from today’s patriarchal films. The features include: a strong female main character, her reversed gender role, the female gaze, the film’s female screen writers, unusual narrative, genre, and the ideological meanings from this film. Female characters in today’s patriarchal films are placed in stereotypical roles. Females are usually â€Å"overtly feminine, have weak character, lack confidenceRead MoreFeminist Criticism Of Bridesmaids1618 Words   |  7 Pagesidentify how Bridesmaids transcends traditional feminine desire it is important to mention the ways the film still fits to the nature of patriarchal norms and the present hegemony (Buckley 14). This feminist criticism of the film must be made because it reveals an underlying paradox to ideologies of women in cinema. As Laura Mulvey explains, â€Å"cinematic codes create a gaze, a world, and an object, thereby producing an illusion cut to the measure of desire. It is these cinematic codes and their relationshipRead MoreTheory of the Male Gaze1400 Words   |  6 Pagestheory of the male gaze is still prominent. The phallocentric narrative is still an underlining feature within the main body of the film. The castrated female is represented as a char acter in dire need for the influence of the male, be it in a voyeuristic or scopophilic presence. Contemporary animations such as Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Mulan and Frozen all encounter Mulvey’s notions of the male gaze and show the female as passive within the narrative, whilst in today’s patriarchal society theyRead MoreThe s Confident Didacticism?1415 Words   |  6 Pagesin the form of popularity and power over one s peers. Female power in teen makeover films also manifests itself through the ability to gain the attention of the opposite sex, but it simultaneously absolves the male gaze and constructions of gender fantasy that are enforced by the patriarchal socio-culture of any blame for the behaviour. Instead, as Laura Mulvey suggests, the woman in films is an object that is meant to be consumed by the viewer, while the man is always assumed to be the â€Å"bearer ofRead MoreHollywood Film Analysis1305 Words   |  6 Pagestwentieth century. As a r esult of the traditional patriarchal society of the era it was the men who owned the studios, the men who wrote the scripts, the men who worked behind the scenes, and the men who held the leading roles that dominated the industry. In this paper, I will discuss in brief my experience in viewing the short film by Tracy Moffatt (2003). Second, examine the feminist theories of Mulvey (1975) that provide a psychoanalysis of the ‘male gaze’ and how these views of sex and gender wereRead MoreVisual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema980 Words   |  4 Pagespleasure of looking as the active dominant male, and the pleasure in being looked at as the passive female. I plan to analyze Mulvey’s ideas of patriarchy in film, specifically the â€Å"male gaze† and how these ideas are portrayed through the film of Eyes Wide Shut. The male protagonist in film is often caught by the viewer, in the pleasuring act of looking at females. Through film, Mulvey argues that the male is seen as the dominant figure, imposing a â€Å"male gaze† on his female victim. This phenomenonRead MoreGender Representation Of Sex And The City1590 Words   |  7 Pagesargument for major ethical implications in regard to public stigma and subsequent prejudice. This essay shall critically consider gender representation in Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004) and the extent to which these characters challenge the patriarchal privilege. Studies regarding gender roles in media show that the feminine essence tends to be depicted as inferior, with women often being marginalized, disempowered and humiliated through a status that is based on their youth and looks; whilstRead MoreKubrick And Lynch On The Patriarchy1581 Words   |  7 Pagestraditionalism in society. Arguably one of the most consistent links between Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch is their portrayal of women in film. Stanley Kubrick does not choose to emphasize the struggles of being a woman in a patriarchal society. Instead, he shows women through the patriarchal gaze. In A Clockwork Orange, women are literally objectified, as plastic statues of naked women are used as coffee tables in the Korova Milk Bar. This introduces the viewers to the protagonist, Alex, who serves as the perpetrator