The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey's 1973 germinal essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"  motivated a vibrant conversation about relationships between camera (shots, angles), characters, and viewers. From her essay emerges the term "the male gaze." 

A few key points offer vibrant points of controversy, conflict, and potential. These include:

1. The notion of cinematic POV as white, male, and heterosexual
2. Audience participation in this POV 
3. Cultural coding that is reinforced and empowered by this POV
4. Scopophilia
5. Camera focus techniques that objectify and make female characters less than whole (physically, psychologically, and in terms of power or agency)
6. Identification with the look of the "hero," furthering the power and normalization of the male gaze
7. Passive female vs. Active male

Mulvey drew on Fredian and Lacanian psychoanalysis to help argue her concepts, though very few popular conversations do much with that frame. Instead, the clarity and logic of Mulvey's contributions revealed interest in exploring the problematic nature of the male gaze. Many filmmakers, theorists, critics, academics, and others have become fascinated with the project of disrupting the male gaze. 

There are many ways to explore this concept. Thousands of explainer videos and slide decks exist. I am including a few that seem helpful, starting with this one from The Take, a female-driven film and media collaboration: 

I will add others, but perhaps you know of some that offer value?
Please share at your respective blogs, tyvm!

Many contemporary feminists find Mulvey's thesis perpetually compelling, but there are questions about its potential for disruption, its focus on white heteronormative POV and audience identification therewith, and the "question" of pleasure. However, others, like feminist filmmaker Nina Menkes is committed to exploring the gaze as a cultural mainstay that will require a lifetime's effort to undermine. Her film Brainwashed: Sex - Camera - Power premeired at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival (see press from the festival here) and is now touring, with Menkes lecturing. We'll explore a bit from teh trailer and website. I also encourage you to look for hte MANY interviews with Menkes as well as critiques about some of her approaches to considering Mulvey's take. 

The trailer, Brainwashed:

Related questions about ways of seeing and gender have been famously explored by John Berger. I encourage you to study his work. Here is ep 1 of his series, and some introductory text. Enjoy! 

Finally, probably my favorite way to imagine the male gaze is to consider its longevity and its emergence from the heart of Art History. If you haven't watched Hannah Gadsby's Nanette, run to do so. In class today, we'll watch a 10 minute clip. You're welcome!