In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer.
The idea of male gaze was introduced by a film maker named Laura Mulvey, and was introduce in 1970s, when she wrote an essay on visual pleasure and narrative cinema. She claims that most popular movies are filmed in ways to satisfy masculine scopophilia.
It is linked to the Bechdel test (see earlier blog post), as both are done for the pleasure of male viewers.
Here is a video explaining the male gaze theory in detail.
The idea of male gaze was introduced by a film maker named Laura Mulvey, and was introduce in 1970s, when she wrote an essay on visual pleasure and narrative cinema. She claims that most popular movies are filmed in ways to satisfy masculine scopophilia.
It is linked to the Bechdel test (see earlier blog post), as both are done for the pleasure of male viewers.
Here is a video explaining the male gaze theory in detail.
Useful, but a little limited; messy (font/sizes); possible uncredited quote/s (can YOU explain what ‘scopophilia’ means??), and needs some simple APPLICATION rather than relying on someone else’s video: can you provide screenshots/clips (that aren’t too explicit) from your genre to anchor the idea yourself?? Links list…
ReplyDeleteYou’re also missing the counter-critique by a rival feminist, Carole Clover – I’ve blogged on her in the dbhorror blog + elsewhere. She’s credited with popularising the concept of the final girl + argued that Mulvey fails to give AGENCY to the female characters + ignores the central role of the nerdy final girls (a binary opposite to the scream queens who better fit Mulvey’s critique, which was also inspired by horror films).
No matter what sub-genre of horror you tackle you should know such key theory – very useful too for Eval Q1 + Q2.