Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London.
The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:
- How men look at women
- How women look at themselves
- How women look at other women
Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events. Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised. Some women enjoy being ‘looked’ at e.g. beauty pageants. The gaze can also be directed toward members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.
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