The Male Gaze: The Illusion of ‘Freedom of Choice’

For many years, the topic of the male gaze has continuously surfaced in real life discussions, on social media platforms, and in films. Over the years many people have become more aware of how women have been depicted in media with the primary intent of satisfying the male viewing experience. With some of Hollywood’s biggest films, such as Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock and Transformers by Michael Bay, being publicly criticised for it’s depiction of the female characters in those films, people are well aware of what the male gaze is and how it effects audiences, and therefore effects society. The theory of the Male Gaze was first introduced by Laura Mulvey in her essay called Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Her ideas were groundbreaking for the feminist movement within Hollywood, to make people, particularly men, question how they present women in their narratives and whether that has a positive or negative impact on society.

With the indisputable impact that films and tv shows have on audiences, it’s clear as day to see the impacts that the male gaze has had on the wider society and our day to day interactions. Often, when we see examples of the male gaze, the women used in these roles fit perfectly into the beauty standards. These standards are often unrealistic, and only be achieved with exclusive access to the best trainers and dieticians, with excessive wealth, or with surgical alterations. All three of those things are not accessible to the average woman, meaning that they have to live their life constantly holding themselves to a standard they can never reach. This inevitably leads to insecurity, self-hate and misguided sense of self worth. If we live in a society of women with these feelings about themselves, those women can be easier to manipulate and control. This for me is the most prominent negative effect of the male gaze in our society. Another negative effect the male gaze has on society is the gender stereotypes that intentionally or unintentionally get reinforced by these characters and narratives. In a lot of movies where female characters are shown through the lens of the male gaze, particular in more classic films, they are presented doing more domestic duties, with more submissive and laid back characteristics. I don’t believe that there is anything inherently wrong with these characteristics, however when these are the only characteristics being shown in films and TV show, it can feel as if women are being placed in a box and being told how to act. These biased depictions can lead to women feeling uncomfortable showing or developing their own character, instead they could feel pressure to fit into a character of women that is appeasing to men.

The reason why I have titled this blog: The Illusion of “Freedom of Choice”, is because I believe that despite women having the literal freedom to choose and make their own decisions, I feel that their decisions can sometimes be extremely influenced by factors other than their own feelings, such as the depiction of women in media. I think that when women make choices that do not align with the “traditional” way of thinking, they are chastised and harshly judged by all members of society, and due to the fear of facing this reaction from people, their decisions are heavily swayed and sometimes their choices are not reflective of who they actually are. It leads me to question whether we can really regard this as the “freedom to choose” when every choice is heavily scrutinised and judged. Unfortunately, a lot of this judgement comes from the male gaze which seeps very deep into our society.