Male Gaze

Male Gaze

The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure. The phrase male gaze was coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975.

The Male Gaze consists of 3 perspectives: 

• That of the person behind the camera
• That of the characters within the representation or film itself
• That of the spectator

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema is an essay which was written by Laura Mulvey. The music video for the song, side to side by Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj is an example of male gaze because it involves a female cast throughout the music video sexually completing their cycling session but this also involves male dancers as well towards the end of the music video. Some scenes during this music video may focus on the curves on a women's body which puts you, the viewer in the eyes of a male. Male gaze is used purely for the enjoyment of the viewers. Although the music video is enjoyable for the viewers, the media attempts to to give these women in the music video a bad picture because they could appear to be inappropriate. On the other hand, they could have a positive image but are setting the expectations for other women at the same level wanting them to be involved in the things they do. This could possibly have a negative effect on other women who are watching the music video as they may not be happy with the way that they look as the music video presents these women in a certain manor.