Male gaze

In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts^[2] and in literature^[3] from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer.^[4] In the visual and aesthetic presentations of narrative cinema, the male gaze has three perspectives: that of the man behind the camera, that of the male characters within the film's cinematic representations; and that of the spectator gazing at the image.^[5]^[6]

The concept of the gaze (le regard) was first used by the English art critic John Berger in Ways of Seeing (1972), which presents analyses of the representation of women — as passive objects to be seen — in advertising and as nude subjects in European art.^[7] The feminist intellectual Laura Mulvey applied the concepts of the gaze to critique traditional representations of women in cinema,^[8] from which work emerged the concept and the term of the male gaze.^[9]

The beauty standards perpetuated by the gaze have historically sexualized and fetishized the black female nude due to an attraction to their characteristics but at the same time punished black women and pushed their bodies outside of what is considered desirable.^[10]

The psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan are the foundations from which Mulvey developed the theory of the male gaze and interpreted and explained scopophilia, the "primordial wish for pleasurable looking" that is satisfied by the cinematic experience.^[11]^: 807 The terms scopophilia and scoptophilia identify both the aesthetic joy and the sexual pleasures derived from looking at someone or something.^[11]^: 815 Concerning the psychologic applications and functions of the gaze, the male gaze is conceptually contrasted with the female gaze.^[12]^[13]

^ Hoy, Pat C.; DiYanni, Robert (1999-11-23). Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. McGraw-Hill Companies, Incorporated. pp. IV. ISBN 978-0-07-229045-5.
^ "Feminist Aesthetics". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Winter 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2015. Assumes a standard point of view that is masculine and heterosexual. . . . The phrase 'male gaze' refers to the frequent framing of objects of visual art so that the viewer is situated in a masculine position of appreciation.
^ That the male gaze applies to literature and to the visual arts: Łuczyńska-Hołdys, Małgorzata (2013). Soft-Shed Kisses: Re-visioning the Femme Fatale in English Poetry of the 19th Century, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 15.
^ Eaton, E.W. (September 2008). "Feminist Philosophy of Art". Philosophy Compass. 3 (5). Wiley-Blackwell: 873–893. doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00154.x.
^ Devereaux, Mary (1995). "Oppressive Texts, Resisting Readers, and the Gendered Spectator: The "New" Aesthetics". In Brand, Peggy Z.; Korsmeyer, Carolyn (eds.). Feminism and tradition in aesthetics. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press. p. 126. ISBN 9780271043968.
^ Walters, Suzanna Danuta (1995). "Visual Pressures: On Gender and Looking". In Walters, Suzanna Danuta (ed.). Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520089778.
^ Bell, Vicki (2017-01-14). "How John Berger Changed Our Ways of Seeing Art". The Independent. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
^ A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, edited by Sharon L. James, Sheila Dillon, p. 75, 2012, Wiley, ISBN 1444355007, 9781444355000
^ "6 Female Artists on What the Male Gaze Means to Them". Repeller. 2016-09-22. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
^ Farrington, Lisa E. (1983). "Reinventing Herself: The Black Female Nude". Woman's Art Journal. 24 (2): 15–23. doi:10.2307/1358782. JSTOR 1358782.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference mulvey1975 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference interview-mulvey-2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Jacobsson, Eva-Maria (1999). A Female Gaze? (PDF) (Report). Stockholm, Sweden: Royal Institute of Technology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-10-04.

[1] Hoy, Pat C.; DiYanni, Robert (1999-11-23). Encounters: Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. McGraw-Hill Companies, Incorporated. pp. IV. ISBN 978-0-07-229045-5.

[2] "Feminist Aesthetics". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Winter 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2015. Assumes a standard point of view that is masculine and heterosexual. . . . The phrase 'male gaze' refers to the frequent framing of objects of visual art so that the viewer is situated in a masculine position of appreciation.

[3] That the male gaze applies to literature and to the visual arts: Łuczyńska-Hołdys, Małgorzata (2013). Soft-Shed Kisses: Re-visioning the Femme Fatale in English Poetry of the 19th Century, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 15.

[4] Eaton, E.W. (September 2008). "Feminist Philosophy of Art". Philosophy Compass. 3 (5). Wiley-Blackwell: 873–893. doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00154.x.

[5] Devereaux, Mary (1995). "Oppressive Texts, Resisting Readers, and the Gendered Spectator: The "New" Aesthetics". In Brand, Peggy Z.; Korsmeyer, Carolyn (eds.). Feminism and tradition in aesthetics. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press. p. 126. ISBN 9780271043968.

[6] Walters, Suzanna Danuta (1995). "Visual Pressures: On Gender and Looking". In Walters, Suzanna Danuta (ed.). Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520089778.

[7] Bell, Vicki (2017-01-14). "How John Berger Changed Our Ways of Seeing Art". The Independent. Retrieved 2021-05-24.

[8] A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, edited by Sharon L. James, Sheila Dillon, p. 75, 2012, Wiley, ISBN 1444355007, 9781444355000

[9] "6 Female Artists on What the Male Gaze Means to Them". Repeller. 2016-09-22. Retrieved 2021-03-03.

[Farrington_1983-10] Farrington, Lisa E. (1983). "Reinventing Herself: The Black Female Nude". Woman's Art Journal. 24 (2): 15–23. doi:10.2307/1358782. JSTOR 1358782.

[mulvey1975-11] Cite error: The named reference mulvey1975 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[interview-mulvey-2011-12] Cite error: The named reference interview-mulvey-2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[jacobsson-13] Jacobsson, Eva-Maria (1999). A Female Gaze? (PDF) (Report). Stockholm, Sweden: Royal Institute of Technology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-10-04.

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