The female/male gaze and its cultural consumption

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Free University of Berlin (John F. Kennedy Institut für Nordamerikastudien), course: Framing Reality, language: English, abstract: The study of film has been going on for several decades. During this time, the focus has been, especially in the 1970s, on looking (the gaze) and the spectator in general. Here in this paper I would like to look at the female also a bit on male gaze in connection with the movies Network and Blow Up. This means I will also consider film theory of the 1970s and 1980s but I want to focus my insight on contemporary spectatorship.

To do this, I will also give a short overview of historical findings and important authors and their theses and how their theses would work in this day and age. However, my intention is to argue that Laura Mulvey¿s thesis that the male gaze focuses on female objects only is partly outdated and that she left the female as a passive spectator, which is not true, because nowadays females are more active than males in terms of identification with their favourite stars on the screen. That identification can take on different levels starting with admiration because of looks, talent or taking them as role models which will furthermore end in consumption; may it be fashion, cosmetics or hairstyles.