An Exploration of the 'Male Gaze'

The term 'the male gaze' came from film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975. It refers to how women are presented in film and literature from a male perspective. Typically, in these media, men have agency and women are passive and belittled down to sexualized objects. I'm not going to dive deep into details and the effects that the male gaze has had on women, as well as other males' treatment of women. Here are some more articles that articulate their thoughts better than I could have: verywellmind and spotlight journaL What I want to explore in this piece are specific pieces of media that contrast the male gaze with the newly coined 'female gaze'.

The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides, on-screen and in text, is a spectacular exemplar of the male gaze. The story of The Virgin Suicides follows the Lisbon sisters and their eventual mass suicide from the eyes of the neighborhood boys who seemingly worship them in fascination and desire. It's a saddening yet very interesting study into the portrayal of the male gaze. The cinematography of the film matches the mystic view the boys' have of the Lisbon sisters, the aesthetic of it all truly aligning with the boys' ignorance of the whole situation. In the novel, the story jumps from a past timeline to present-day scenes where the men are still trying to solve the mystery behind their suicides. All of this is told through the male perspective; the Lisbon sisters were so beautiful and perfect, why would they ever want to kill themselves??

The whole "mystery" behind it all isn't that they're in love with the sisters, which is what they genuinely believe. Their love is actually infatuation, falling into an obsession with the idea of them rather than the girls themselves. In the book, the boys were so obsessed with the girls' and how they behaved around them that they didn't even process the signals for help. At some points, the Lisbon sisters communicated with them through Morse code in the lights of their room, as well as postcards that literally said "Remember us? Will you help?". In actuality, the neighborhood boys only thought that the girls were flirting with them. It's heartbreaking to see how badly the girls were suffering while the boys around them were only consumed with the thought of possessing them. The male gaze is executed so perfectly in this novel and the film that it sometimes tricks me into getting caught up in the fantasy of the story rather than the reality of it all.

Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation

This novel follows a narrator who, despite her beauty, intelligence, and wealth, feels herself drowning in a black hole of mental illness and dissatisfaction with the world around her. Her solution? To sleep for as long as she can, with the help of medicine and drugs. The protagonist Moshfegh creates is unreliable and is designed to be unlikeable. She treats her "best friend" like shit and doesn't give care for anything else in the world besides her sleep. Through her eyes, it's easy to also hate the world around her. But, how does this novel depict the female gaze?

Mental health has been a hot topic on the Internet lately. Typically, in media, women who suffer from mental illness aren't depicted too realistically. Despite their struggles, they're still beautiful and just need a knight in shining armor to save them. In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the effects of depression are illustrated as dirty and disgusting, but in a relatable manner. Her need to be removed from the rest of the world is almost tangible in a sense, and it shows how far the narrator is willing to go to achieve her goals. She isn't a damsel in distress. The story is darkly funny but inexplicably realistic.

Fleabag

This TV series is truly a romp. The protagonist of Fleabag is eponymous, complex, and deeply hilarious. She's loud and outrageous and gives little thought to what others think of her. The series follows her as she navigates her failed relationships, unprocessed grief, and deteriorating café business. Throughout the show, She constantly breaks the fourth wall to consult with the audience, giving them an insight into her true feelings. She's a nuanced character, desperately chaotic and profoundly relatable.

Fleabag perfectly depicts the female gaze because she is multi-faceted and imperfect. She isn't always likeable and she fucks up. Like, a lot. She makes a lot of questionable decisions, like masturbating to a video of Barack Obama, and often engages in self-sabotage. She doesn't fit the model of a "good" min character. She embodies the absurdity of women's real experiences in a world that's run by men. The literal turning of her head to speak to the camera and to us as the audience is a representation of her actually seeing us. She sees her female audience, and she understands the reality that we live in. Fleabag dwells on inner monologues we can relate to, like what it means to be a "good" feminist. This show is shockingly authentic, and I could not recommend it more.

There is so much more to what it means to depict the 'male gaze' versus the 'female gaze'. We could dive into the Bechdel test, how intersectionalism also plays into the female gaze or the tropes that play into romance movies and novels. These discussions are typically polarizing and it would definitely take more than just one blog post to communicate my thoughts and opinions accurately. But despite this, I always find it interesting to engage these conversations, with both males and females and get a gauge on how they perceive characters portrayed in media. So, the next time you're watching a movie, pay attention. There's a lot you may be missing.