Examples of the Male Gaze in Advertising

• The Male Gaze Laura Mulvey “ Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
• What is the Gaze?
  • The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented.
  • For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:
  • How men look at women,
  • How women look at themselves
  • How women look at other women.
   
• Gaze and feminist theory
  • Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male
• Features of the Male Gaze
  • The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events.
  • Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. 
   

David & Victoria Beckham, Armani.




Although not entirely typical of the Male gaze, the female is on top of the male, signifying she is active and the male is active. She also has her hand over his torso, signifying dominance? However, she is looking away from the camera, she is not interacting with the audience, she is being starred at, passively and unaware. With this insight her hand may now be a signifier of dependance on the male. Contrastingly the male, is starring right at the camera, actively engaging with the audience which plays into the theory of the gaze. 

Jennifer Lopez and Male Model, Louis Vuitton



The role of genders id completely reversed here, The female is on top of the male, dominating him. He is beneath her, she is in control of him and using him. She is looking directly at the camera and engaging with the viewer, and the male model is looking away. His flesh is on show, whereas she is somewhat covered up. Her hair is tied back, and not flowing loose, signifying a loose woman, whereas here she is portrayed as a woman in control, controlled hair, fitting black dress as a signifier of dominance. The lighting is focused on her and the male is almost used as nothing more than a prop. However you could counter argue, that this is a reversal of the male gaze theory by bringing to light her sexual pose, her short skirt leaving her exposed somewhat. 

A scene from the cult classic "A Clockwork Orange" (




Although not advertising, i still thought it worth mentioning in this blog because it is a favorite movie of mine. And one that uses the Male Gaze theory to good effect. The theory is present in many scenes in this movie, and used in  order for the audience to further their identification with Alex (main protagonist) and align with him more accept his atrocities if his victims are "visually appealing". In various scenes women are used as object, in rape, servants, and in the literal sense. As i have shown here. Women mannequins are actually used as part of the furniture, passively there for men to sit on, interact with when they want. And to be visually pleasing. 

Tom Ford, Fashion Brand.





This advert uses many attributes of the Male gaze theory. Firstly the female is looking straight at the camera and laughing, which is unusual, she is interacting with the camera and laughing, not trying to look seductive at all. Furthermore the male in the background is not looking at the camera, his eyes are closes and it looks as though he is whispering something into the females ear. Two role reversal stances. However the female is in the arms of the male, he is carrying her, giving the impression that she is passive and he is almost "sweeping her off her feet", a cliched idea we are sold from fairy-tales. She is also wearing red, giving connotations of desire and lust. Her red outfit is highlighted more so, because of the black background, which the male blends into because he is also wearing black. This highlighting of the females body also highlights her pose, she is in the fetal position, portraying helplessness, she is helpless in the arms of the male and submissive to him. She is laughing, although that is because, we can assume the male is whispering something funny/crude/sexual in her ear. He is the instigator, calling the shots, she is submissive in his control.