As it is explained in the text, gaze is the term used to describe the way in which gendered, raced, eroticised, and other identities become visible through media. Gaze is the way that individuals view, identify with, construct, and categorise the identities of others through visual representation. One of the most prominent “gazes” embodied through the media is the male gaze. The male gaze, sees women (specifically the female body) as something for the heterosexual male. The male gaze is the way that women are depicted in the media from a heterosexual male perspective, representing women as sexual objects formal viewers. I think a great example of the male gaze is exemplified by female superheroes in marvel movies. Although they are just as strong and powerful as the men, their outfits are typically very sexualised. They usually wear skin tight suits, minimal ‘armour’, and always have a full face of makeup. Although we’ve normalised this, we can’t forget that these female characters are designed to appeal to the male gaze.
2 thoughts on “Gaze- Chloe Whelan”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I love how you used the word ‘for’ when describing the male gaze because through that lens, males view females as an object not a human being. I agree with your example how women are depicted as more feminine than males and showed by wearing tight clothing with hair and makeup done. Another example of this stereotype being seen is when in movies there are slow camera moments of a women body; however, they rarely do slow videos of the males. They make the women seen as a trophy possession and not as an equal.
I love your example of female superheroes in Marvel movies. The characters in movies are under the audience’s gaze. Gaze is like a lens for us to see these media and express our opinions and feelings. In today’s society, we usually take females as an object that are under the male’s gaze as you mentioned. Women in movies are usually sexy and beautiful in order to attract the male’s gaze, which shows the mainstream social standards of female aesthetics. Gaze can reflect many social problems related to gender and culture.