The Laura Mulvey Theory

The Male Gaze Theory - Laura Mulvey

The first important part of the theory would parent concept: the gaze. According to Wikipedia, the gaze is a concept used for analysing visual culture which deals with how an audience views the people presented. The types of gaze are usually categorized by who is doing the looking.

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist, who studied psychoanalytically and supports the theory of the ‘male gaze’. Traditional films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men. Such films objectify women in relation to the ‘controlling male gaze’, denoting women as an image for me to look at. Her theory also states that women were shown on screen in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have an erotic impact. This theory can be clearly presented in the modern music industry, which employs a ‘sex cell’ attitude which is done through their music videos and promotion.

If you look at the image to the top right, you can see that the image being sold to men is of an attractive woman, the audience are encouraged to look at her in the same way the men on the curb are; while the image being sold to women is that if they buy the product that they too, can receive male attention.