MALE GAZE: VISUAL PLEASURE and NARRATIVE CINEMA

"The gaze is male whenever it directs itself at, and takes pleasure in, women, where women function as erotic objects” – Laura Mulvey

                    Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She's the first feminist theorist to analyze the objectification of women in film using a pscho-analytic approach. And she's the theorist who made the essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. 

  

                    According to dictionary gaze means to fix the eyes in a steady intent look often with eagerness or studious attention. It's a concept which deals how the viewers look the people presented And Male Gaze means is to describe when the audience is put into the perspective of a man to the women. Male see the women as a sex object they not look it in the eyes but they look it literally to the curves of the body.

                    Male gaze shows that how the men look at women. Men aren't look direct in the eyes instead they look at the curves of the body, butt and to the boobs. They used to look at the sexual desire not into character. Some of the film has a male gaze theory. In the movie Transformers there was a scene that the guy was having a sexual temptation to the body of Megan Fox because she had a sexy body and perfect curves. Another is, the camera focuses to the hips of Megan while she fixed the machine of the car because it has a problem.    

                     And this theory was not only used in the film but also in the advertisement. Most of the advertisement the male gaze theory was prevalent. They used women as sex object. Women in the advertisement is revealed there hot and sexy body because it can attract the eyes of the consumer especially the men.

                    These is the another example of male gaze because it shown that the women is like a remote control whenever the guy touch there something happen to the women and its related to what the man touched.

                     Up to this moment the Male Gaze was prevailing in the industry in film and advertising. And you can see it everywhere.

Transformers - Megan Fox

 WOMAN'S BODY POWER IN PHILIPPINE 

 SEX MELODRAMAS 

          "Woman's Body Power in Philippine Sex Melodramas", written by Jamal Ashley Abbas is an article that talks about women used as a sex object.  In the article said that the women are the main subject in the sex melodrama and Abbas said that the Sex Melodrama was used to be called as a sub-genre. Obviously the article only shown how women used as a sex object and there has no choice but to show their flesh in to the public. The only weapon of a women is the power of their sexy body. 

               

           In Filipino films there has so many Sex Melodrama  since 70's and 80's and there was so many rising sexy star in 70's. Some of these are Vivian Velez in Apat ang mister ko, Rosanna Ortiz in Madonna, Rio Locsin in Salawahan, Lorna Tolentino in Katawang Alabok, Carmen Ronda in Bata pa si Sabel, Chandra Romero in Kapag Tumabang ang Asin and many more. 

        

          And up to this moment there still sub-genre like Ligo na Ü Lapit na me Starring Edgar Allan Guzman and Mercedes Cabral. In this film there showing their whole body while doing sex and the scenes was almost sex scenes than to conversation. Another is. the movie of John Lloyd Cruz and Angel Locsin which is the Unofficially Yours. The story is like Friends with Benefits. 

       

        

           I sudden every time I watched movies, women always used as a sex object. The society must realize that the women has much power than to men they can do something than to be a sex object for a film.  

Different Perspective of
Apparatus Film Theory

                    Most of us doesn't know what is the general meaning of Apparatus Theory. We can't explain the different perspective of Apparatus Theory if we doesn't know the meaning of it. Apparatus Film Theory is ideological and argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology culture within the viewers. Ideology is part of it's nature. Apparatus Theory follows an Institutional Model of Spectatorship or in the simplest way that it has a effects to the viewers. 

KARL MARX

                    According to Karl Marx that the society is capitalist. Marxist Film Theory was a capitalist, which argues that society is characterized by disagreement between social groups. Marxist Theory means that the rich/wealthy people demoted the poor people. For Marx, the poor people should have no power than to the rich one. Poor people works for those people who have a lot of money. For me, It's really unfair. Rich people should not degrade the poor people. They must help the poor people to lighten up their lives. Each people must have rights to be free. For Marx, most of the films shows how the rich people demote the poor one. 

JACQUES LACAN 

                    Jacques Lacan was a French Psychoanalyst. His perspective was distinctive from Karl Marx. Lacan called the most controversial psychoanalyst because his psychoanalytic theory is the adaptation of Sigmund Freud's principles - Unconscious Mind which are the Ego, Super Ego and Id. It means that the psychoanalytic theory of Lacan is the language that we need to understand. 

CHRISTIAN MERTZ

                    Christian Mertz was a French film theorist also a best pioneering the application of Sausurre theories of semiotics to film. It means that the signs and symbols has a different meaning and we can see it everywhere even in the cinema. He also said that the cinema is like the reality and specific language. Semiotics was the eye opener of each individual. Like what I said signs and symbols has a different meaning we should think first, we should contemplated our minds using those thing. 

Cinematic Desires: A Pervert's Guide to Cinema

Cinema is the art of appearances, it tells us something about reality itself. It tells us something about how reality constitutes itself. - Slavoj Zizek

"Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire - it tells you how to desire"

- Slavoj Zizek

                  Slavoj Zizek was a philosopher and a psychoanalyst. Zizek is a professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Another is, Zizek is a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Ljublijana, Slovenia. Slavoj Zizek is the one who presented The Pervert's Guide to Cinema. 

                   The content of The Pervert's Guide was the film critic of Zizek. He explained some scenes which is Possessed (1931), The Matrix (1999), The Birds (1963), Psycho (1960), Duck Soup (1933), Monkey Business (1931), The Exorcist (1973), Alien (1979), The Great Dictator (1940), Alice in Wonderland (1951), The Red Shoes (1948), , Fight Club (1999), Dead of Night (1945), The Conversation (1974), Blue Velvet (1986),Vertigo (1958).Solaris (1972) and many more. He explain those films in a broad way. He expanded the knowledge of the viewers to understand the the hidden language of the cinema and the uncovering what movies can tell us about ourselves.

                   Most of us when we watch a movie we agreed in the whole thing. We didn't criticize the movie we've watch. Zizek tells us the cinematic desires of every movie we've watch. The movie should give what we need in the whole story and must the cinema give what you desire. The cinema must satisfy their viewers to desire.  But sometimes the cinema fails to give what we need or what we desire and to show the connection in reality. And for that cinematic desire is tackles about the how the cinema touches the viewers mind and it tells about how the cinema satisfy their viewer and they responsible with that. Zizek wants us to see the reality when it comes in cinema.