The Male Gaze

12/8/2010
Ginger Singer
The definition of “gaze” is to look steadily, intently, and with fixed attention. Gaze

suggests looking fixedly at an object which excites admiration, curiosity, or interest.

Jonathan Schroeder (1998) defines gaze as implying more than to look at – it signifies a

psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the

gaze.

In advertising, the gaze of the audience is extremely important. Magazines are filled with

articles and many advertisements. It is common for the audience to flip through the

pages without thoroughly looking at each advertisement. The ad must be attractive and

enticing to get the person holding the magazine to stop on the page and remember the

advertisement at another time. The problem with capturing the audience’s gaze is the

difference in gender of the audience.

Two terms have become more common in our society; male gaze and female gaze. In

this paper I will be discussing the male gaze in media. My thesis is that by using the

theory of male gaze I will be able to prove that women are portrayed as the object of a

man’s affection in advertising.

The concept of gaze in analyzing visual media deals with how an audience views other

people presented. This concept has become popular with the rise of postmodern

philosophy and social theory. French intellectuals Foucault and Lacan first discussed the

“gaze” in the 1960s. This concept became the framework of feminist theory, known as
male gaze. Male gaze deals with how men look at women, how women look at

themselves, and how women look at other women.

Laura Mulvey, a professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London,

wrote an essay entitled “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In her essay she

discusses that viewing a film involves subconsciously engaging in the understanding of

male and female roles. She discusses three different looks in how films are viewed. The

first look refers to the camera as it records the actual events in the film. The second look

describes the act of the audience as they engage in watching the film. The third look

refers to the characters that interact with each other throughout the film. She also notes

that in films the male plays the active role while the female plays a passive role. Women

are portrayed more as objects rather than characters.

Laura Mulvey coined the term “Male Gaze” in 1975. In Mulvey’s opinion the audiences

have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. For example

emphasis is given on the curves of the female body. Events that occur to women are

presented largely in the context of a man’s reaction to these events. She also notes that

media relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer experiences the

narrative secondary by the identification with the male.

It has been noted by some theorists that the female body is sexualized in advertisements

even in situation where the female sexiness has nothing to do with the product. The gaze

can also be directed toward members of the same gender for several reasons. This form
of gaze is not necessarily sexual. It can directed toward body image, clothing, or even

hair style.

Marjorie Ferguson theory on the male gaze is that there are four main looks which for

women. These looks include the Chocolate Box, Invitational, Super Smiler, and

Romantic/Sexual. The Chocolate Box is a look where a female shows a slight smile only

showing a minimal amount of teeth as possible. The lips tend to be closed and the face

isn’t shown full on. Invitational focuses mainly upon the eyes. The mouth is closed but

smiling with her head to one side. It looks as though she is looking down upon the

invitee. The super smiler shows her full face with a full smile showing teeth with either

her head tilted forward or backwards. Lastly, the romantic or sexual look includes both a

female and a male present in the picture. It looks as though it is a dream and the

environment should be sexual.

On the other hand, Trevor Millum’s theory has five main looks, which include Seductive,

Carefree, Practical, Comic, and Catalogue. In the seductive look the model should have

her eyes slightly closed. Her expression will be small but it will show through. This look

will also appear to be confident. The carefree look is typically linked to sports because it

seems as though the model is active and healthy. In the Practical look the model seems to

be concentrating on something, so her eyes will be focused and her mouth will be slightly

closed. The comic look will seem as though the model is being stupid, comical, funny

and exaggerated. It will seem as though the model is laughing. With the catalogue look

the model’s eyes are wide open with a big smile showing that they are dumb.
The case study I will be using to discuss the male gaze is the Skyy Infusions

Advertisement. Even though this advertisement is targeted at both genders it particularly

leans towards the male audience. Even though Laura Mulvey book “Visual Pleasure and

Narrative Cinema” discusses the male gaze in film the same theories can be used in still

pictures also. The reason for this is because photography has a camera, and actor, and a

story/action taking place.

Mulvey’s first look that she refers to is the

camera as it captures the events taking place in

the picture. Without any emotional connection

the audience can see that a red headed woman is

having a cocktail while lying half naked on silk

sheet. All right, so this isn’t your typical

description of woman enjoying a drink. This is

where the next look comes into place.

The second look describes the act of the audience as they engage in looking at the

picture. The audience can have many emotional experiences when looking at this as.

From a male’s perspective he may say she is an attractive woman. See looks intoxicated.

She looks like a mannequin. She looks aroused. The heterosexual man looks at the

woman from a sexual point of view.

From a heterosexual female’s perspective she may say the woman looks beautiful. She

looks like she is seducing the male audience. Her inhibitions are lowered. A female

looks at the woman as comparing the woman to her. However, neither a male nor female

looking at this picture will say she looks intelligent. She looks like she is a college

graduate. She looks like she will become president. All of the judgments that the

audience makes about the woman have to do with her physical appearance. Any

judgments made on her personality are discredited by that fact that she is drinking and

half naked.

The third look refers to the characters that interact with each other. Mulvey states that

the woman is portrayed more as the object than a character. With this statement it is

possible to make the argument that the woman, the bottle, the drink, and the ginger root

are the objects in this advertisement. The woman interacts with each element of the

advertisement however she is not the main object. The main object in this advertisement

is the bottle of Skyy Fusions. Each element used in this picture are non sexual, however,

by using her body, the woman incorporates all aspects of the picture into a provocative

advertisement.

It can even be argued that the woman is playing a passive role even though she is the only

person in this picture. The woman is playing a passive role to the gaze of the male

looking at the photograph. The advertisement is intended to encourage the male to think

that he can buy this woman, not directly at least. This ad states to a male looking at this

picture that he can get a good-looking woman into bed by drinking Skyy Infusions.
Many of Mulvey’s peers have criticized her theories. Daniel Chandler (2000) makes the

statement that, ‘Mulvey didn’t undertake empirical studies of actual filmmakers.’ Kaplan

and Kaja Silverman (1980) argued ‘the male is not always the controlling subject nor is

the female always the passive object. We can read against the grain.’ Teresa de Lauretis

(1984) argued that ‘the female spectator does not simply adopt a masculine reading

position but is always involved in a double-identification with both the passive and active

subject positions.’ Jackie Stacey (1992) poses the question, ‘Do women necessarily take

up a feminine and men a masculine spectator position?’

I find there is a lot of truth in Mulvey’s theories. Women are depicted as objects in the

media. In older films the women always did as a male told her. Typically the woman

was portrayed as helpless and less intelligent. Films have come a long way from

depicting women as second-class citizens. However, it is still apparent in recent films.

Even in movies where the female is the hero she still needs to gain respect from the man.

I have to disagree with Muvey’s statement that the female viewer experiences the

narrative secondary by the identification with the male. When I first reaction the Skyy

Infusions advertisement was that I liked the woman’s hair color. I related to her because

in the summer my hair turns red but not as vivid as her color. I didn’t feel like I needed

to look at her in a sexual way. Even though I need to put myself in a male’s perspective

to analyze this advertisement in no way do I need to put myself in the males perspective

to experience this ad. I would be lying if I said this advertisement didn’t objectify
women. Mulvey’s theory is correct that this picture does portray the woman as an object

and it is directed toward a male audience.

Bibliography

Chandler, Daniel (2002): 'Levi Strauss Launderette (1985)

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC30820/launderette.html

De Lauretis, Teresa (1984): Alice Doesn’t. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

Kaplan, E A (1983): Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. New York: Methuen

gaze. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition. (2003). Retrieved December 8 2010 from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gaze

Schroeder, Jonathan E (1998): 'Consuming Representation: A Visual Approach to

Consumer Research'. In Barbara B Stern (Ed.): Representing Consumers: Voices,
Views and Visions. London: Routledge, pp. 193-230

Silverman, Kaja (1980): ‘Masochism and Subjectivity’, Framework 12: 2-9

Stacey, Jackie ([1987] 1992): ‘Desperately Seeking Audience’. In Caughie et al. (Eds.)
op. cit., pp. 244-57