Media Theory 'The Gaze'

Jonathan Schroeder says that: 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view'. The media constructs the actor's/actress's body and position for the pleasure of people who are watching the films. This is often in a sexual way because people feel less ashamed of doing so in a cinema as the people are around them are not aware it is happening.'The Gaze' can be seen not only on posters but on magazines, tv and photography.

• the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person in the text.
• the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one person at another within the world of the text - this is often portrayed as a point of view shot in film and television.
• the direct address (or extra-diegetic) to the viewer: the gaze of a person shown in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the person watching the film or reading the magazine.
• the look of the camera - the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people pictured.

Male facial expressions in women’s ads

There are fairly direct parallels with the above - the carefree, practical, seductive, comic and catalogue. The other two male expressions selected as types - the thoughtful and the self-reliant - have similarities to the female introverted and cool, though the thoughtful is far less introverted and the self-reliant more smug than aloof or reserved, but there are no counterparts to the narcissistic or kittenlike.


The Gaze on British women’s magazines:

Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.

Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.

Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.

Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification created to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.

We will most likely use some sort of 'The Gaze' on our magazine cover. The gaze we will use will be a female gaze trying to attract men. However we will not want to make the gaze of the women on our magazine look romantic or sexual if we are using the women in character from our movie. On the other hand if we do a photo of the actress as herself on the magazine we may choose to have a romantic or sexual gaze so that we will be attracting men. In order to attract the whole of our target audience we will have to think carefully about 'The Gaze'.