Mulvey's male gaze - Audience theory

The Male Gaze is a term used by Laura Mulvey to describe what she saw as the male point of view adopted by the camera for benefit of an assumed male audience.


Mulvey views the practice of the camera lighting on women's bodies as evidence that women were being viewed as sexual objects for the gratification of men. She argued that the central active characters in films are male and that the male audience identifies with them in their viewing of females as passive.


http://youtu.be/LzuwVIRXAr4 > Here is a link to 'Jennifers body' which is horror film that challenges Mulveys theory. 


Mise-en-scene: The opening of the trailer see Jennifer swimming naked in a river, this automatically attracts to the audience she is being used as a sexual figure for the film. Commenting on gender representation, using a scene where she isnt wearing any clothing reinforces her sexual purpose. Further on in the trailer she is wearing feminine clothing that is quite revealing and in bright colouring. For example, a cheerleader outfit, where her legs are on show from wearing a short skirt. From this we can probably guess she is 'the popular girl' that every girl is envious of or wants to be friends with. In addition, she is also pictured wearing a pink jumper that is quite low cut. Putting this together with her already 'sexual image' portrayed it gives the audience an already expected role of her character. Her makeup is also girly. 

Lighting: When we see 'evil' scenes the lighting is much darker and less focused on any characters, but rather focused on the background and where the location is. However, when we see her as the innocent girl, there is natural lighting that focus' on her in support of closeups. This suggests that the audience are to recognise the girl as 'pure' rather than 'disturbed' because otherwise that would challenge Mulveys theory.




Sound: Dialogue from the trailer 'You want it?' in a very seductive voice. This sexually suggestive act works with the closeups shot of her body where she zipping down her clothes with nothing underneath. Furthermore, the majority of dialogue has sexual connotations or is openly sexual. 

Camera angles/shots: One particular extreme close up shot that sexualises the women. The close up is of their lips about to kiss each other. This is a classic shot that would fantasize the 'male gaze'. Another shot is one of her outfits - because they are already quite revealing, camera angle work in connection with this, for example, when she is wearing a short skirt, the angle is high so we can see more of her legs. 

Editing: In the beginning, fading shots are used into each other. There are 3 shots that are shown in slow pace, this adds to the audience looking at her as an sexual object. Continuing on, the editing begins to get quicker when we aren't seeing her as evil. But when she is being evil, the editing is much slower.