In an earlier blog post I had posted a deep analysis of the audience feedback I had received from my questionnaire in my focus group. Overall the audience feedback was quite insightful as it had helped me develop my understanding of my chosen demographic. One of the questions I had featured in my questionnaire was "Would you prefer a female or male protagonist?" like I had stated before thee feedback I had received from this question was more female centric as five out of six of my participants stating that they would prefer a a female protagonist over a male protagonist whilst the remaining one participant had stated that they would prefer to have both a male and female protagonist in a horror film.I had also stated that the majority of my male participant wanted a female protagonist because of the Male gaze theory.
What is the Male gaze theory
The male gaze theory was a theory mentioned in the controversial essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative cinema" by Laura Mulvey who strongly argued that when viewing a piece of media the audience is placed in the perspective of a heterosexual male, this is highlighted in the strong sexualisastion of females that are very common in modern music videos and films. The conventions of the male gaze theory goes as follows; scenes that focus souly of the curves and features of the female body, slow motion., deliberate sexual camera movements and cut aways.
According to the male gaze theory female is usually seen through two different perspectives, the first being an erotic reward for the dominate male characters in the narrative whist the latter being seen as an erotic object for the spectator/viewer watching the film.
Mulvey's theory also states that the female gaze theory is more passive than the male gave theory further underlying unequal power symmetry between genders. Mulvey's essay also states that the male gaze theory applies to female themselves as they view themselves through the eyes of men.
The inclusion of a female in mainstream film/media is quite vital as the female characters tend not to have any real importance herself, but is rather the way she makes her male counterpart feel and act that is important, this mean that the female only exist in relation to the male protagonist.
The male gaze theory states that the gender roles of males in the media text are active whilst the female counterparts are seen as passive who in turn often slow the narrative down and act as sexual influence for the active roles, they are under control of the males gaze and are only there for viewing pleasure whilst the males in other hand push the narrative forward.
The male gaze theory holds a majority of similarities to the ideology of voyeurism. Then term voyeurism comes from the French word voyeur which translates to "one who looks"; voyeurism is the sexual interest in or spying of someone in intimate scenarios. One key characteristic of voyeurism is that the voyeur does not practically have any direct interaction with the subject of his/her interest.
