male gaze

[ meyl geyz ]

noun

1. Often the male gaze. the assumption in visual and creative arts that the default or desired audience consists of heterosexual males, and inclusion of women in narrative or art should seek to please this audience with the objectification or sexualization of these depicted women.

Word History and Origins

Origin of male gaze¹

Coined by Laura Mulvey (born 1941), British feminist film theorist in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975)

Example Sentences

An important entry regarding homoeroticism and the male gaze in hip hop is the work of Byron Hurt in the mid-2000s.

From The Daily Beast

The album also includes “Not My Responsibility,” a short monologue from 2020 that addresses toxic beauty standards, the male gaze, and the paparazzi.

From Time

Browse her Instagram feed of bikini photos and it becomes difficult to disentangle how much those photos promote women’s body confidence and how much they capitalize on the male gaze.

From Time

Mulvey refers to it as the “male gaze,” one that has traditionally objectified women in movies in ways that men are not.

From The Daily Beast

In a fashion industry geared toward turning straight men on, these models are bucking the male gaze.

From The Daily Beast

As Margaret Lyons writes, “This wasn't an awards ceremony so much as a black-tie celebration of the straight white male gaze.”

From The Daily Beast

They draw the male gaze into mysterious and sinister recesses.

From Project Gutenberg