​Laura Mulvey​
- Male Gaze Theory (1975)
o She believes that audiences ‘view’ the characters from a heterosexual man’s perspective in which they objectify women
o Female viewers are forced to experience the narrative secondarily by identifying with the male
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o Scouting For Girls ‘She’s So Lovely’ (2007)
- Without realising, the viewer will find themself being forced to observe the female character, with the main artist being a male and him singing about her, the audience identify with the male singer and the attention is put upon the female and this is emphasised through the editing and camera work, with close ups of her face and body in accordance to the song lyrics.
THEORIES
o What should be considered is the definition of the term ‘gaze’. A key theorist, Jonathan Schroeder said: ‘to gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.’ (1998) The theory was developed in 1975 when most filmmakers in Hollywood were male and Mulvey argued that due to this being the case, the voyeuristic gaze of the camera is male. The female characters were and often still are portrayed as the object of male pleasure and this is seen through many different pieces of work over the years. With Mulvey being a feminist, it can be seen how this theory came about.
