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Male Gaze Theory

British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, devised the Male Gaze theory of which presents the way visual arts depict women from a masculine point of view. Mulvey states how women are typically the objects of the gaze; the eye of the camera is the eye of a male. 

Feminists think of the representation of women in three ways...

  • How men look at women

  • How women look at themselves

  • How women look at eachother

The assumption is that these representations are constucted from a heterosexual male's point of view.

There are two types of male gazes; fetishistic and voyerisitc.

Fetishistic - The male gaze that overvalues women, makes females look empowered and strong.

Voyerisitc - The male gaze that is degrading, brings women down.

Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video is an example of a voyeristic male gaze. The women are depicted as "objects of which to look upon" portraying sexual desires from the male.

Beyonce's video, Drunk In Love, is an example of a fetishistic male gaze. She deems herself as sexy, confident, and powerful, and is represented as a person opposed to an object.

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