What Is a Male Gaze?

In feminist theory, the male gaze means depicting women through the lenses of a heterosexual and patriarchal male view that objectifies women. Especially in the visual media, the male gaze is an act of empowering men and portraying women as the object of desire for heterosexual men. It is diminishing for women because women in these media are there to appease men's desires, depicted usually as submissive and controllable, completely disregarding actual female experience.

We can come across these female characters that are obviously written by men, dressed overly revealing and sexy even on inappropriate occasions, lack intelligence, are one-dimensional, the object of sexual jokes and innuendos, and their only purpose in the story is for the male characters to have sexual relations with them or to be obtained as a trophy after being saved by the male lead.

In the visual media, because people behind the camera are usually men, and the viewers they are trying to appease are initially men, the female gaze and experience are disregarded. The stories that are written through the male gaze generally feed traditional patriarchal ideas, such as women enjoying any type of male attention, even abusive ones, never saying no, lacking intelligence and logic, etc.

Male and female viewers, from a young age, take these harmful messages to form an idea of social norms. Young boys who are constantly exposed to these overly-sexualized and one-dimensional female characters might develop distorted ideas and expectations for women and relationships. These male gaze-focused stories might feed into their damaging habits, such as taking no as an answer, that women should dress up according to their desires. Female viewers that are exposed to the constant male gaze in the media might feel entitled to satisfy the male gaze in real life. Feeling like they are constantly watched by a male gaze and the urge to conform to their desires, which many women experience, are fed by these media.