Laura Mulvey Theory

The male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. For example the woman in a music video can be filmed walking across but captured in a sexual way that pleases the male. Having the woman symbolized as objects and creating more excitement to the video for the targeted audience. Some may argue that having the woman dressed seductively sends a wrong message for example feminists would argue against portraying woman is such a way.

Mulvey identifies three "looks" or perspectives that occur in film which serve to sexually objectify women.

1) The first is perspective of the male character on screen and how he perceives the female character.

2) The second is the perspective of the spectator as they see the female character on screen.

3) The third "look" joins the first two looks together: it is the male audience members perspective of the male character in the film. This third perspective allows the male audience to take the female character as his own personal sex object because he can relate himself, through looking, to the male character in the film.