The Male Gaze / Sexual Objectification
Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist who is known for her theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media, more commonly known as “The Male Gaze” theory.
“The gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses” — Laura Mulvey
This means that the male viewer is the target audience, therefore their needs are met first and that this problem stems from an old-fashioned, male-driven society.
Mulvey believes that women are in fact “the bearer of meaning and not the maker of meaning,” which suggests that women are placed in a role where they can’t take control of a scene, instead they are simply put there to be observed from an objectified point of view.
This inequality enforces the ancient and outdated idea of
“men do the looking, and women are to be looked at.”
Women in the media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man, and that these women are represented as a passive object of male desire.
Audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male, even if they are heterosexual women or homosexual men.
Some theorists have noted that in advertising, objectification and sexualized portrayals of the female body can be found even in situations where sex or representations of sex have nothing to do with the product being advertised. I personally object women are used for glamorous purpose. Let us stop looking after women as a subject to sex object.
