representation

The Male Gaze

the male gaze is the perspective of a heterosexual man and how it is used to create the feeling of empowerment in men and the objectification and sexualisation of women in video games, films and other media.

Laura Mulvey

is a creator who works on explaining and exposing why the male gaze is so overused in games and how it is used. for example she talks about how the camera angles are used differently for male and female characters. for example male characters have a more over the shoulder camera angle in 3rd person games where as woman’s camera angles focus of getting the woman’s entire body in the shot. she also talks about how little clothing the female characters wear and how the heals they where bare inappropriate for fighting and are only used for the sexualisation of the character.

John Berger

“Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed is female. Thus she turns herself into an object of vision: a sight.”

this shows how he too agrees that women are over sexualised and how the male gaze effectively objectifies the woman and how they are treated by men as something to look at and sexualise. aso woman start to feel as though they are just an object as the male gaze is such a prominent thing in current media such as video games.

Pithy quotes.

“It sets a dangerous precedent when game developers don’t do their research.”

“a link between violent video games and real-world violence.” 

“”young, white, straight male”

” they can be accepted anywhere- in both the gaming world- and that gaming.”

“displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men”

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