The Male Gaze and feminist theory

The Male Gaze and feminist theory

In the essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of The Male Gaze as a feature of power asymmetry. The concept has been strongly influential on feminist film theory and media studies.

In film, the male gaze^[3] occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman's body, for instance.^[4] Mulvey argues that in mainstream cimena, the male gaze typically takes precedence over the female gaze.