The Male Gaze

The male gaze refers to the idea of representing and understanding women as objects for male pleasure. It was named by film critic Laura Mulvey, who wrote that "the determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed." Women thus serve as spectacles in a heteropatriarichal world. Women's emotions, thoughts, and desires are "framed" by male desire, and exist only in relation to the male.