Laura Mulvey wrote about something I never really thought about until now in terms of the male gaze and the power he holds with his look. Granted her essay was written over forty years ago, I am curious as to what she would say about the male gaze in today's cinema. It's as though the male gaze isn't as powerful as it was in the 40's and 50's for the films she analyzed. It's like women know that men look, therefore they play to that knowledgeable advantage to get what they want. This is just something I have seen lately in film and I wonder what Mulvey would say about that. Would she agree with my analysis or try to argue it?
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I think that the gaze is probably similarly approached, but that's just my opinion. It's still a woman being objectified, and still a man watching. So my return question is what do you think she would argue?
I think she could possibly argue that male gaze is still evident and women are still stylized and sexualized to influence the male character and move the story forward. I think to movies like Lara Croft and Aeon Flux, wherein women are the central character faced with world crushing dilemmas and it's up to them to rescue the world. It's hard to find a male gaze in these films, however the women are still objectified to be sexy undertakers. In reality the clothes Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron wear in their movies are highly irrelevant and useless for the amount of work they put into saving co-characters. So here Mulvey would say they stylized these women to appeal to the male gaze of the audience through the camera instead of having a male lead on screen.