'The Male Gaze'

In class we discussed the male gaze theory for the benefit of students creating representations of females. In 1975 Laura Mulvey published her theory 'the male gaze', this is a theory exploring the visual pleasure of narrative cinema and the concept deals with how the audience views how people are presented.

There are three ways in which feminists are thought of:
-how men look at women
-how women look at themselves
-how women look at other women

A feature of this theory is when a camera lingers on the curves of a female body for example a slow pann up from the feet to a woman's face; these shots are often presented in the context of a mans reaction to the event. However this feature relegates women as objects and are forced to view the narrative secondarily because of the identification of the male.

Although this theory does carry criticisms:
-some women like to be looked at in a sexual manor as they enjoy the attention
-some women rely on the interest of men as they may sell their image as a living such as modeling

Along with this theory other theorist read into it concentrating on selling media through facial expressions.

In 1980 Marjorie Ferguson researched female expressions and came up with four different categories:
-the chocolate box
-invitational
-super-smiler
-romantic/sexual

And in 1975 Trevor Millum researched male expressions and produced five categories:
-carefree
-practical
-seductive
-comic
-categorical

Additional insight into this theory come from theorist Johnathan Schoeder in 1998, he believed that 'to gaze' implied more than to look at something/someone. He said that it signifies a psychological relationship of power, where the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze. An example of this may be when a parent tells off a child and they stare bluntly at the for a period of time, because they hold the stare and dominate the situation they have to power.

I feel this won't apply hugely to my project as the storyboard present the male lead with the power, however this theory may affect my choice of casting as i will want the lead female to stand out from any other and stereotypically the female lead is more than likely the most attractive.