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I will eventually write a much longer post about this (I would have to find screencaps and things), but I am tired of seeing young feminists use the phrase "male gaze" to mean "men looking at me." Male gaze is an academic term native to film criticism, and is specifically about the difference in the way default camera technique frames and lights shots of women, all of which suggest a straight man behind the camera, turning us as viewers into people who look at things through the eyes of straight men.
The male gaze, aside from invisibly asserting maleness as the norm, tends to undercut strong female performances and make them seem more passive or childish, and it changes the way women view themselves. Have you noticed how when you take a selfie to post on facebook, you like to tilt your chin down so that you're looking up through your eyelashes at the camera? Because women are most beautiful when looked at from a position about six inches above their eyelines? Have you noticed that in their respective movies with Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman look like they have about the same relative height to him in medium close up? Have you noticed that on the red carpet, Watts and Kidman are at least a foot different in height? Have you noticed how when there's a shot of a man's hand turning the key in a car, we're focused on the turning key, like we would be if it was us turning it, but when there's a shot of a woman starting a car, we see the graceful curve of her arm and breast? Male gaze, y'all.
However, this is never how I see "male gaze" used anymore. Since it sounds very good and weighty and unarguable, it has been recently adopted by feminists under 30 who clearly have no idea what they're actually referring to; from their context, they seem to be using it to mean ogling, leering, objectification, staring, patriarchal control of public spaces . . . any of which terms they could use instead. Using "the male gaze" for that is stupid and it makes you sound stupid, in much the same way I would sound stupid if I started throwing "Platonic ideal" into conversation to mean globalization (because the world is increasingly flat like a plate! And I think global equality is ideal!)
Even if we accept that the audience hasn't heard the term "male gaze" before, and doesn't know it's a film crit concept introduced by Laura Mulvey in 1975. . . . Even if we believe this concept is not important and it's ok to erase it in favor of having yet another synonym for leering. . . There is not one monolothic man gazing at you through the eyes of all men, nor is it de facto bad that someone would look at you. I'd rather be looked at than put under a burka, for instance, or than have people walk into me. "The male gaze" as a synonym for ogling just doesn't work. Stop. Stop now.
On a related note, any time somebody calls America "the evil empire," I have to wonder whether they realize that was a term coined by Ronald Reagan in reference to the USSR. And also is how the Red Sox refer to the Yankees. And the name of a book about England, and a nickname for Rage Against the Machine fans (RAtM having named a tour after the Reagan quote.) Clearly, you can't just throw "evil empire" out there and figure we're all on the same page; I'm going to need some context.
The male gaze, aside from invisibly asserting maleness as the norm, tends to undercut strong female performances and make them seem more passive or childish, and it changes the way women view themselves. Have you noticed how when you take a selfie to post on facebook, you like to tilt your chin down so that you're looking up through your eyelashes at the camera? Because women are most beautiful when looked at from a position about six inches above their eyelines? Have you noticed that in their respective movies with Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman look like they have about the same relative height to him in medium close up? Have you noticed that on the red carpet, Watts and Kidman are at least a foot different in height? Have you noticed how when there's a shot of a man's hand turning the key in a car, we're focused on the turning key, like we would be if it was us turning it, but when there's a shot of a woman starting a car, we see the graceful curve of her arm and breast? Male gaze, y'all.
However, this is never how I see "male gaze" used anymore. Since it sounds very good and weighty and unarguable, it has been recently adopted by feminists under 30 who clearly have no idea what they're actually referring to; from their context, they seem to be using it to mean ogling, leering, objectification, staring, patriarchal control of public spaces . . . any of which terms they could use instead. Using "the male gaze" for that is stupid and it makes you sound stupid, in much the same way I would sound stupid if I started throwing "Platonic ideal" into conversation to mean globalization (because the world is increasingly flat like a plate! And I think global equality is ideal!)
Even if we accept that the audience hasn't heard the term "male gaze" before, and doesn't know it's a film crit concept introduced by Laura Mulvey in 1975. . . . Even if we believe this concept is not important and it's ok to erase it in favor of having yet another synonym for leering. . . There is not one monolothic man gazing at you through the eyes of all men, nor is it de facto bad that someone would look at you. I'd rather be looked at than put under a burka, for instance, or than have people walk into me. "The male gaze" as a synonym for ogling just doesn't work. Stop. Stop now.
On a related note, any time somebody calls America "the evil empire," I have to wonder whether they realize that was a term coined by Ronald Reagan in reference to the USSR. And also is how the Red Sox refer to the Yankees. And the name of a book about England, and a nickname for Rage Against the Machine fans (RAtM having named a tour after the Reagan quote.) Clearly, you can't just throw "evil empire" out there and figure we're all on the same page; I'm going to need some context.
