The Male Gaze: How It Extends From Media
By Deanza J. Andriansyah
Edited by: Fiorina Siamir
From movies to music videos, the male gaze has been utilised in almost every form of media. The male gaze is a term coined by the film critic Laura Mulvey to describe the cinematic perspective of a heterosexual male on a female character. Whether it be the camera panning up and down a woman’s body or her character’s only purpose of adhering to her male counterparts’ desires, the male gaze empowers heterosexual men while degrading women. Presenting women as flawless creatures to simply be gazed upon does much more harm than good to viewers. When the camera zooms in on certain features of the female body and solely focuses on those, it can be very dehumanising.
A few examples of movies that have female characters appeal to the male gaze are the women in James Bond movies, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Transformers. These characters were written only to appeal to the straight male audience by being the most desirable fantasies while having little to no character development. While the male characters are dressed appropriately, the women would be dressed in tight-fitting and oversexualised clothing. The camera would keep the woman’s cleavage or other specific body parts in frame and linger on them. The male gaze is prominent in traditional cinema where the majority of the movies were directed by men, for men. This enforces a heterosexual, male perspective on women that has become normalised as we grew up consuming this media.
In music videos, there is often an abundance of hypersexualised women who are used to emphasise a man’s masculinity, wealth or power. It has been normalised that women be used as actual props and nothing more. Even when men are trying to attract women, they are usually adhering to the male gaze. For example, many men think that women only want overly muscular men with chiselled jaws, and hypermasculine traits. However, many women are attracted to more feminine looking men as well, such as K-Pop stars, who are often insulted by men for not living up to the hypermasculine standard.
A study conducted by the American Psychological Association said that the “mere anticipation of a male gaze increased self-objectification in young women and led to greater body shame and social physique anxiety when compared to participants who anticipated a female gaze or no gaze at all.” The women displayed in the male gaze in cinema do not only function as attractive objects to the men on screen, but also to the men in viewing the screen itself. The male gaze does not only exist in the media and on screen, but is definitely prominent in real life.
Megan Fox’s success from her role in the Transformers mostly came from her looks and the way the movies portrayed her. There is the infamous scene of her character plainly appealing to the male gaze by talking about cars while the camera pans down to her waist and other features. The male gaze shows women as objects who, even when speaking, are not truly listened to. When interviewed by Wonderland Magazine, Fox explained how movie director Michael Bay would give her misogynistic acting directions such as “Just be sexy” when asked serious questions by the actress. This shows how the male gaze extends from just the media, as women often get mistreated and objectified by it in the real world.
Women have grown up to condition themselves to the male gaze. With movies showing a woman changing herself for the approval of a man or mastering femininity to do so. Although women do alter their appearance for themselves at times, it cannot be denied that many of the things women do to appear more attractive is for men. For instance, there has been a rise in the Brazilian Butt Lift procedure. This cosmetic surgery can bring much harm if done incorrectly, but many women have tried to get it done as easily as possible, despite not having the best resources for it. The trend of having this feature is seen as attractive, mainly by men. The side effects of this procedure listed by healthline.com are excessive bleeding after the surgery, scarring, infection, skin loss and more. In most cases, women would not normally go through all of this pain to only make themselves feel better, but also to appear more attractive to more men. Although this feature does not necessarily have to look aesthetically pleasing, women enhance it anyway because of the male gaze. There are undoubtedly women who go through these types of procedures purely for their own self-confidence, but this is an example of how the male gaze puts unrealistic standards for women to appear perfectly desirable for men.
Women have also lived under the male gaze. Sitting on the bus, walking down the street or merely existing, women get catcalled and stared down by men time and time again. It is supposed to be the woman’s responsibility whether to feel down by it or just accept it as they are not able to do anything about it most of the time. Women have been so conditioned to the male gaze that they put themselves in the trope of the perfect male fantasy and sometimes even replace the feeling of being objectified with seeing it as a confidence boost instead. But the male gaze ultimately diminishes women as it does not view them as beautiful people, but solely objects.