Male Gaze

For years, male characters had the upper hand in the film world. They were always portrayed as  suave sharp characters who get all the ladies. In some cases, how the female character were portrayed, the female audience were not completely satisfied with. In popular film, females were heavily shown as sultry, attractive characters. James Bond films were particularly known for their stereotypical view on women. But in 1975, the female perception was completely turned round.

Laura Mulvey, a professor of Film and Media at University of Birkbeck wrote her infamous essay 'Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema' where she introduces her theory on 'the male gaze' and her feeling of the gender power asymmetry.

The male gaze, occurs when the audience sees the scene from the heterosexual mans point of view. For example, if a male is in conversation with a female in a film scene then the camera may concentrate on the females body parts such as her legs or hips etc.

I personally feel that the male gaze can come across very objective towards female characters being equal to the male characters. As well as the camera (from the males perspective) concentrating on the females assets, the women are also shown as vulnerable characters because of the angles used.

I would like to take the idea of the male gaze and subvert it. It would be interesting, especially in a horror film, for the male character to be shown as the vulnerable character; even to show the male character as the woman's attraction rather than the suave, sharp man. I believe that this would be effective in a horror film because it could easily make the viewer uncomfortable  Furthermore, if I could somehow use the subversion as art of the main idea behind the horrific events, it would make the male gaze subversion more effective and noticeable.