How many times have you seen the male gaze in the media? The slideshow above shows various advertisements that are conveyed under the male gaze and are very sexual in its representations. Some of these photos were found from Sociological Images and my own research. Now, I must warn you all there are some explicit ads of how women are depicted in the slideshow and what is even more bothersome is that all these advertisements were shown in magazines and billboards.
The male gazed is defined as, "Refers to the frequent framing of objects of visual art so that the viewer is situated in a 'masculine' position of appreciation." Mulvey (1975) states that the male gaze is composed of three characteristics:
A lot of the American Apparel advertisements in the slideshow above were the most shocking to me. Furthermore, the Duncan Quinn tie ad which depicted a women on the hood the car, barely clothed with a tie around her neck and a man behind her holding it as a leash. Unfortunately women depicted like this has been going on for many decades. The video below by Allison Arachea, discusses the historical context of the male gaze in the media.
There are critics who claim that there is a female gaze as well, how can we not forget the latest theatrical release, Magic Mike? Which is a film about male strippers and on its opening day there were massive amounts of women who went to go see the film. However, there are various critiques of this 'female' gaze in the film. The Antenna Blog of the University of Wisconsin critiques the female gaze in the film, "Though the movie claims to be (and was certainly marketed to be) a film all about flipping sexist tropes and celebrating the female gaze, it can't help falling back into problematic mainstream patterns: the male gaze; virgin/whore dichotomies, and the vilification of female pleasure."
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| Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
What are your thoughts on the concept of 'the male gaze'? What do you think about this new concept of 'female gaze', do you think there are still aspects of the male gaze such as the comment The Atenna Blog addressed?
Resources: Feminist Aesthetics, An Introduction To Sociology: Feminist Perspectives, Sociological Images, The Antenna Blog of the University of Wisconsin
Wow, great addition to your blog. I think your concept is extremely interesting. It's amazing how one can completely take for granted how things are and not realize how degrading advertisements and photos can be.
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