One thing that struck me the most from this keyword reading was the concept of the male gaze particularly in the medium of film. The male gaze specifically in movies is something that I have done some research on. I will include links below to the videos I reference. The male gaze is defined as existing when a film forces the audience to see watch the film through the eyes of a heterosexual man. While the male gaze is more well known and better defined, such as through it’s objectification of women, it begs the question of if a female gaze can exist. And if so what are its defining features? One important factor in the “gaze” of a film seems to be the people involved in the film’s production. As the text said having a male director, cameraman and co stars helps to aid this creation of the male gaze. Therefore, I think some examples of the female gaze would be movies made for and by women. For example Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women (2019) or Emerald Fennell’s film Promising Young Women (2020). In an interview about the film Emerald Fennell discussed wanting to make a female revenge thriller that actually reflected how a real woman would go about getting revenge. This I think points to her film being of the female gaze, although that term is still ill-defined. Another interesting way to view the difference between the male and female gazes is by looking at the difference between Sucide Squad and Birds of Prey which both feature the character Harley Quinn, but are affected by the male gaze much differently.
Unpacking the Male Gaze: Birds of Prey vs. Suicide Squad
Harley Quinn’s Costume in Birds of Prey
I also enjoy looking into the way women are portrayed in film, and considering these “gazes” really illuminates how different the viewing experience is between them. For example, in a film where the male gaze is used and focused on female characters, the viewing experience feels uncomfortable and reductive, and gives female audience members very little to connect to in the film. Whereas if the female gaze is used, I find the viewing experience much more enjoyable and interesting, because the film’s creators have given the female characters in the film more depth and relatability. While the film industry has a long way to go to continue taking women and their work seriously, it is important to recognize the amazing films made by and about women that exist now.
The male gaze is a really interesting idea that is not talked about enough. Although it’s often unintentional, or at least was in years prior to the rise of the feminist movement in television, the male gaze is incredibly prominent in film and television. As you said, and I totally agree with, this is often due to the fact that production teams are typically predominantly male. This is something that’s slightly improved, though only very recently. I remember listening to an interview with Tina Fey who talked about her experience being the first female ever to be named head writer on Saturday Night Live. Although the show has been on air since 1975, it wasn’t until 1997 that the show had a head writer that was female. She noted that comedy was dominated by men for years, and it was an ongoing struggle for women to prove that being funny and being a woman are not mutually exclusive. Although the recent surge of women in comedy has helped to change this, the female gaze has yet to be prominent in film and television of any kind.
Great use of examples to illustrate your point. We’ll focus on Gaze as a keyword later in the semester, but this post and its examples is a helpful primer.