Sunanda Karsoliya

Fashion Year 1
Whistling woods International School of Fashion

Male Gaze
with example of “ Kuch Kuch hota hai “

The male Gaze invokes the sexual politics & suggests a sexualised way of looking
women , Male gaze arose men towards women visually . In male gaze women is
visually positioned as an ‘Object’ of male desire , Her feelings thoughts and her own
sexual drives are less important than her being framed by male desire .
.The gaze deals with how the audience views the people presented in visual culture, in
this case, adverts, magazines and Cinema. The ‘male gaze’ is the male ability to
exercise control over women by representing them in visual means as passive, sexual
objects of male desire. The concept of male gaze is to create visual pleasure by
looking . Male gaze is widely used in films & advertising . While the idea behind the
concept we’re present in earlier uses of women as a visual gaze to attract men The
power of men over women has always existed. They are seen as the more powerful
and clever species. This control over women has been seen predominately in
linguistics senses in past times. It is clear that there are more derogatory terms for
women than there are for men. Men can also wolf whistle or cat-call in order to harass
a woman but there is no such response for women. Men also have more linguistic
power over women due to their social status in modern society. In more current times
men have turned to visual arts to implement their control and power over women. In
this essay I hope to demonstrate how women are and have been portrayed in relation
to the ‘male gaze’ and how it is still very prevalent in contemporary modern culture
through photography and other mediums, such as, cinema and advertising.

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This traditional representation of women is a problem, not because it is wrong to want
women to be sexy or striking but rather because their beauty is being defined as a
means to male power through strategic admiration. Most adverts on television and in
magazines have pretty, sexy women with the idea being that if you buy what they are
selling than you will get the girl in the avert, or in a woman’s case, be the girl who
gets her man. A good example of this is Scooty Pep advertising; in this ad women is
portrayed as a visual of male gaze while showing off a strong and bold personality of
females in advertising criticising male gaze . The women appear to play strong roles
but the ‘male gaze’ is clear as though they may have strong positions, they are still
portrayed as sexual objects.

I will be analyzing the movie “ KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI “ for explaining better
about the Male gaze .in the movie

In the beginning of the movie Kajol “Anjali” plays a role of a tomboy girl who is not
into girly stuff, but more into sports and rough activities which girls usually avoids ,
she don't wear short clothes , put on makeup she just want to be in her sneakers and
tracksuit or sports wear , while Rani “ Tina “ is hot, sizzling & she is the most
beautiful girl of the college , she looks pretty and well dressed always, running with
the new fashion is like hobby of tina ! . Shahrukh who is playing role of ‘Rahul ‘ is
the charming guy of the college , he is good looking , top on sports . Rahul gets
attracted more towards girls who are hot looking , wear short clothes , he usually flirts
with all good looking girl of the college and as Tina is the hottest and the most
beautiful girl of the college,her dressing and appearance are way different from other
girls, As example of male gaze in this movie , When rahul saw Tina for the first time
he got down with her hot legs , figure and her style while Anjali was not attractive for

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Rahul , in the movie they have clearly depicted that the sexual arose of men as Male
Gaze , the men are more attracted towards women appearance . For rahul a girlfriend
should be hot and sizzling , he goes for the looks and body not for the heart . Rahul
falls in love with Tina gives no Response to Anjali , But after 8 years when Rahul
see’s a different Anjali he was shocked , his view towards her got changed
completely , Anjali a tomboy girl pop up to be a beautiful girl , he was sexually
aroused and Anjali was placed as a object of“ Male gaze “ , The camera shows the hot
figure of Anjali , while being a pretty girl she is also good in sports as well , This all
got Rahul on his knees , He falls in love with anjali like it was a past connection , his
feelings were way different towards Anjali than tina , as you can see in the later Rain
dance and intimate scenes shows the example of male gaze . Men are usually more
attracted towards women body , they observe the skin on women like nothing , Gaze
can be worst and sometimes it is not noticeable . The way of men positions women in
their mind or the way they visualise them is unpredictable , or can be predictable . We
are well aware and matured enough to understand the way of visualising or by the way
of watching , expressions reflects many meanings but yes its a real bad issues in
todays society .

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