Even though we’re in 2023 and the world has been more open to equal rights and feminism there’s still a lot to improve, one of the main things being the male gaze. The male gaze is how a woman is portrayed, to entertain and satisfy the males. This is being applied to all visual media such as magazines, online advertising and film. In the following I will analyse the male gaze in today’s film industry and how important it is to acknowledge it.
A popular film series I’m sure we’ve all at least heard of is James Bond. Action films always include a female side character whose purpose is to help the hero. This already puts the woman in a rough spot but furthermore, the blonde women are often showing a lot of skin and using sexual techniques, which are shown in slow motion, to help Mr Bond. This creates some sort of a fantasy for male viewers watching the movie. Let’s be honest, no real-life scenario would include such women. The role of the woman not only gets made clear through her actions but also gets underlined with the camera positioning, focus and movement.
A good example to show the importance of the camera for the male gaze is the movie “Bombshell”. Based on a real-life story, the movie shows how the CEO of Fox News took advantage and sexualized its female reporters. This sounds as if the movie will be showcasing the female girls in a non-male gaze way but after reading more into it, I concluded the total opposite.
While this scene feels like a hard watch and underlines the uncomfortable situation, it still portrays Margot Robbie in a way, that attracts the male gaze. The camera focuses on her body and plays with the focus, making the scene attractive to any male viewers. Hence, the movie wants to showcase an important and really big issue in the industry but does this in a way where the movie is targeted and made to please the male audience.
So I’m asking myself, have we improved on feminism and female equality if almost every new movie still targets a male audience and sells a fantasy of women that is simply unrealistic and sexualized?
Hello Jana,
I love how simple yet elegant your writing is; as a reader, I find it engaging that the blog is easy to understand. I really liked that you mentioned movies like James Bond and Bombshell. I think it’s high time that people realise that women are not just sexy side characters with the only intention of seducing male characters. I have heard and seen many young boys wanting to be like these men and saying stuff like, “Oh, I wish I could take his place.” this is not just derogatory but also preaches that it is okay to sexualise women all the time. This was a fun and informative read thanks!