Laura Mulvey coined the term 'male gaze' in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. For example, the camera lingers on the curves of a female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in a context of the mans reaction to these events. This regulates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.
The theory suggests that the male gaze denies some human identity and are only to be admired for physical appearance. However, the presence of a female in a mainstream film text is somewhat vital. Often a female character is not there to have any real importance herself it is how she makes the male protagonist within the text feel or act that is the importance.
Mulvey states that the role of a female character in the narrative has two functions:
- As an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view
- As an erotic object for the spectators within the cinema to view
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