The male gaze refers to the sexualized interpretation of the gaze in a way that sexualizes/objectifies women and empowers men. In terms of the male gaze, women are often positioned as the object of a generally straight male desire- which is exactly what John Berger mentions in his book Ways of Seeing. Film theorist Laura Mulvey also theorises that most films and movies are filmed in ways that satisfy male voyeurism, which is the sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity which is also known as scopophilia.

‘The Male Gaze’ is a feminist ideology that encapsulates the theory that female characters in visual arts and literature are often over-sexualised and presented solely as sexual objects for heterosexual male gratification from a masculine viewpoint (or gaze).

Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film critic, created the term ‘The Male Gaze’ is her 1973 essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. Mulvey studied at St Hilda’s College, Oxford and is now a professor at the University of London, specialising in Film and Media Studies. She uses the phycological idea of ‘Scopophilia’, meaning to have ‘aesthetic pleasure drawn from looking at an object or person’, as a basis for many of her theories.

John Berger was an English art critic who won the Booker Prize in 1972 for his novel ‘G.’. He is most well known for his essay ‘Ways of Seeing’. This essay explores The Male Gaze in different ways and puts emphasis on the different ways in which male and female characters are depicted in the media.

The male gaze– How men objectify (view) women and sexualizing’s them as being less capable creating empowerment in men.

Laura Mulvey– She was the person who came up with the idea about the male gaze as they were many issues with gender in film and other media. She is a feminist and says that films are made in the view of a heterosexual men trying to reveal sexually attractive parts of a woman by camera angles, zoom-ins or other strategies.

John Berger– He devised the theory of “Ways of seeing” suggesting that the way woman are seen by men and the way they are taught to see themselves is wrong and creates a bad relationship.

Quotes

“52% of Hispanic people studied believed there was a link between violent video games and real-world violence.”

“This poor representation of Asian women perpetuates the stereotype that they are meek, submissive, sexual objects who exist purely for men’s entertainment.”

“new range of diverse player avatars, complete with wheelchairs, complete with a greater range of skin tones, complete with more expressive gender-agnostic clothing”

“It is isolating not to be thought of or considered in the culture you desperately want to consume and be part of.”

“women then stands in patriarchal couture as signifier for the male other”

“women displayed as a sexual object”

“Euthanised damsel- only solution is to kill damsel in order to protect her”

“Woman in refrigerator- women killed off to continue male story development and seek revenge”

The Male Gaze – the perspective of a notionally typical heterosexual man considered as embodied in the audience or intended audience for films and other visual media, characterized by a tendency to objectify or sexualize women.
“it’s because of the male gaze that female characters are regularly eroticized.”

(Source – Oxford Languages)

Laura Mulvey – a filmmaker and theorist who created the term “the male gaze” in her 1973 paper Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

John Berger – an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. In his book Ways of Seeing, Berger observed that ‘according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have no means been overcome – men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’.

The Male Gaze

The male gaze is an objectification of and towards women. The ‘gaze’ is looked at as sexualising women and objectifying them and empowering men, to indicate that females feelings and thoughts are less important than women being ‘framed’ by male desire.

Laura Mulvey, is a feminist who explains that most films are designed to visually pleasure masculine ‘scopophilia’. Scopophilia is the sexual pleasure in looking. Her concept is described as a heterosexual, masculine gaze. She argues the disliking of women being sexualised by their body language and fashion in most movies, and how women are there to be a visual pleasure for men.

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”