The Gaze

The Gaze is the technical term that was used in film theory in the 1970’s to refer to the ways viewers look at images of people in every visual medium. The way that females think men look at women is called ‘The male gaze’ this is seen as women are just there to admire and not do anything or contribute to society.

Forms of the gaze-

-The spectators gaze

-The intra diegetic gaze

-The direct address (extra- diegetic) to the viewers

-The look of the camera

-The gaze of the bystander

-The gaze of an audience within a text

Trevor Millum distinguishes between these forms of attention in his studies.

Laura Mulvey- The male gaze

-Visual pleasure

-Active male

-Passive female

-Women seen as an image

-Men seen as a bearer of the look

-Voyeuristic- looker

-Fetishistic- being looked at

-Some different criticism comes with the theory

-Failure to account for the female spectator

-Looks only at the spectator as being a heterosexual male.

But research shows that since the 1980’s there has been an increasing display of the male body as well as the female body. In the lesson we were give two images of celebrities doing an underwear advert for Calvin Klein, we were asked to analyse the two images. 

The first one we did was of the footballer Freddie Ljungberg. The first thing we thought about was his hair is it a short hair cut, can come across rather masculine and clean cut, also it is not a very eye catching hair cut. The look on Freddie’s face looks very stern and intradiegetic. His face looks ‘chizzled’ he has rather high cheek bones which gives him quite a feminine look  to his face. He is also frowning, this could show what kind of emotion he is feeling. Freddie’s lips are also showing quite a feminine side he seems to be doing a slight pout as his lips look quite plump. It looks like Freddie has on some sort of lip balm adding a colour and glow to his lips. He has slight stubble on this face, this is seen as rugged looking and really quite masculine. His body looks sweaty like he has maybe just been working out been in the shower or maybe post coital. This pubic area from what we can see is shaven, this could show that he is a very clean cut person. It also shows a tan line when he is pulling down one side of his boxers, this is very sexually suggestive. The way his hand is held on the top of the boxers looks very aggressive because it is in a fist grip making it look very firm and masculine. The underwear Freddie has on is very tight, also when he is pulling down the boxers you notice his tattoo. The tattoo could come across as rebellious to some people it is also in a sexual place which could be suggesting a message to particular people as it is a animal, the fact that his tattoo is of some kind of animal could make people think about Freddie himself. Having his tattoo on display could maybe show that he can take pain which shows his masculinity. In the image Freddie has a necklace on, this could be for one of many reasons it could be showing that he is religious, or it could maybe just be a fashion statement, the necklace adds a certain feminine side to the image. The background colour that Freddie is against could be seen as a rather romantic or sexual image as it is a deep red. Someone also suggested that it could be that colour because of the football team he plays for.

The second image that we had to analyse was Eva Mendes in the Calvin Klein underwear advert the same way we did with the Freddie Ljungberg image. Her hair in the image looks wet like she has just got out of the shower, maybe been swimming or on the beach. As well as her hair being wet it also look rather messy; this could suggest that it is post coital. Her body is very slim, some would see it as perfect as she has fantastic legs a flat stomach and it just looks extremely toned all over. Some views on Eva’s body is that they thought it was a sporty figure as she does not have very large breasts. Her stance says a lot about her, it is a very strong stance showing huge confidence in herself, she looks like she is standing her ground this is say to people that she doesn’t like to be messed around. They way her arms are held look very strong and show authority. I think her stance also shows to women across the world to be confident in themselves and to be dominant. Her facial expression could be seen in a sexual manner, some would see it as an ‘orgasm’ face supporting the post coital look that she is giving off. There is a certain look to the whole image where you can tell that Eva knows she looks good and doesn’t care who is watching her or what anyone is saying about her. Her face looks distracted and disinterested in what is going on around her, like people are not worthy of her attention. Eva’s legs are one of the best features on her body, they are not extremely skinny they look very toned and strong. The way she is on her tip toes adds to the toned look of her legs and make them look longer. The way that Eva has shoes on when she is in her underwear shows a pornographic side to the image, because it is said that in pornographic films and images the women have shoes on.