Script:
Hello everybody. In today's film we will be discussing the male gaze. And no, i'm not talking about a local Specsavers trip. [laugh] You silly fool. Listen carefully, and I will teach you all you need to know.
Laura Mulvey is a British feminist theorist and professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Her most famous work would probably be her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" written in 1973, then published in 1975 which includes her theory of 'the male gaze'. In her paper , Mulvey proposes that sexual inequality is a leading factor and social force when it comes to filmmaking and the cinematic representations of women within film and media as a general. Within media and feminist theory, the male gaze is conceptually derivative from characteristics of voyeurism, scopophilia and narcissism. The men are seen as the active role and the woman are to be looked as a passive; they are under control of the male gaze and therefore only exist for visual pleasure. Basically, her theory was that film is shot from a heterosexual, male perspective and so it was made through the eyes of men, for men. Throughout this video i'm going to discuss why this theory is factual, but also not completely seamless or inarguable.
[Walt disney introduction to Disneyland]
Disney has always been a controversial company, especially when it comes to the projection of women and their roles as protagonists. Their classics like Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin all have the stereotyped characteristics of a 'damsel in destress'.
Snow White for example is petite, pale and speaks in a soft, innocent tone; her gestures are slightly oversized but delicate as she glides from scene to scene. This right here is a stereotyped character. Her innocent actions and motive are comparative to an angel, which men of that time would be seeking; unlike nowadays women were expected to be a certain way, rather than an individual. One of the most noticeable things about her being her dark curled hair and soft blushed cheeks and lips; this can be related back to the male gaze because she is so remarkably similar to the fashion ideals then. He poses even match that of the models, which were no doubt all told to be positioned that way to 'look attractive' in a traditional sense. Here we see Snow White walking around whilst singing about she waits for a prince.
That is not to say Disney does not have sexualised characters however. Jasmine from Aladdin is a mild example of this as she wears a crop top with low waisted trousers. She also moves by swaying her hips and even seduces Jafar later in the film as a distraction. Her actions to watch are somewhat uncomfortable, yet this is Jafar's desire as he can't stop himself from grinning and playing along. Again, this is the male's desire; though she is pretending to be bewitched, she is submissive. This isn't the only character in Aladdin to be like this either as we see numerous girls that look to be in a brothel earlier in the film, which even Aladdin himself looks happy to have seen.
All female Disney characters as a general however have unrealistic body standards that have been both implemented and inspired by society's standards of beauty. Ariel for example has an incredibly small waist that has often been commented upon by feminists and reviews alike. There is also a question of whether her outfit is appropriate considering she is 16 years old in the film. But this small waist, skinny arms, long necks and legs are seen throughout numerous characters, including ones from newer Disney films too. This again exemplifies the male gaze as it follows a stereotype of what women are expected to look like proportionally.
Then there are more explicitly sexualised characters like Jessica Rabbit and Esmeralda. Jessica Rabbit is the more famous out of the two, and is a featured character in the Roger Rabbit film's and series. She is literally classed as a sex icon, and has been jokingly and not-so jokingly been described as many boy's sexual awakening. I think she is meant to be designed this way as almost like a joke for when she is compared to Roger, her boyfriend. Her introduction scene is shot in the typical way of the male gaze.
She wears a red dress with connotations of sexual desire, that includes a high leg cut and a low neck line. She also has large features and red lips, which we physically see all the men crave after as she walks down the stage to numerous dog calls and yelling. The men here are meant to be animalistic in this way, but the camera also focus on features like her legs and chest as she pays attention to the men, further showing the heterosexual male gaze.
Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame is another example of pure sexual attraction and desire. She is the pinnacle character of the film, and what ultimately leads the antagonist into his lustful spiral of madness. The antagonist, Claude Frollo is an archdeacon of Notre Dame and is very particular in his structure of the city. When he meets Esmeralda he can't help but want to be with her and in the feature song 'HellFire' he confronts his subconscious as he sings of his disgust. For context, Esmeralda is a gypsy and he even believes her to be a witch, so he torments himself to destroy her as he blames her fro putting a spell on him to fall for her. I think this can be related to the male gaze because women are classed as distractions when it comes to narrative, rather than important aspects; and here we see Esmeralda changing the course of a character's being by just dancing. It could even fall into the category of scopophilia and how Frollo doesn't want it, or at least not with her.
In the scene at the festival, she dances for the audience and teases the antagonist who watches in disgust; however the guard and multiple men in the audience cheer loudly and whistle for her as she glides along the stage. Her tight red dress accentuates her curves, and again there are a couple shots that linger on these particular elements. There is also a shot-reverse-shot where she looks at Quasimodo who gets bashful at just the sight of her. This is related to the male gaze because the camera gives opportunity for the woman to directly look into the eyes of the male spectator.
I was surprised there was quite so many minuscule and not so minuscule links between the male gaze and Disney. From a company that makes quite a large portion of their money from 'showing girls how to a princess', it seems the view is almost biased from a male view.
So, the question is. Are there any female character's that break the male gaze?
Besides a few exceptions like Mulan, Kida, Pocahontas, and Rapunzel to an extent, it seems that it is only now recently that women have begun to break the male gaze in Disney films. With new licensed property like Pixar, George Lucas and Marvel, Disney is almost give like a structure on how the women in their films should be portrayed.
My first example of this is Rey from the 'Disney Era' Star Wars movies. Much like Princess Leia, Rey does not rely on the men surrounding her unless it follow her plan. She is covered in wrapped cloth and has her hair tied back in a futuristic manner. We even see her hunched over and live in a messy home, and she argues with a trader too. She doesn't care about how people view her, unless they see her as weak which is the premise of the male gaze. But unlike the female gaze which i will discuss later, she isn't infatuated by a man explicitly either and even tells Kylo to put a shirt on when they meet. Leia however int he earlier films was forced to become a slave and we see multiple shots of her wearing next to nothing. Her storyline to save Han is also romantic based which related to the male gaze because she is submissive to him. For the most part. [short montage of Leia hitting Han Solo]. Furthermore none of the men in the later franchises are sexualised either despite that brief moment of Kylo, which again breaks the female gaze. Personally, I find this refreshing as the films become more story based and allow you to enjoy the characters for their involvement with the story rather than their looks or romantic relationships.
This is arguable within the Marvel franchise however. The Marvel films have been stereotyped as films for men, and besides the new Captain Marvel coming out later this year there has only been featured men films with women appearances. However it is hard to blame Disney directly for this as they have to follow source material created by Stan Lee, Martin Goodman, Joe Simon and other Marvel originators. However you could say that films are shot through the male gaze nevertheless. Black Widow for example wears a tight leather outfit that leaves little to the imagination; it could be argued that she needs the outfit to be slim fitting due to her martial arts, but that doesn't explain the need to have the front zipper slightly down. Wanda or Scarlet Witch as she is also know is similar, but in the comic she is arguably wearing less clothing so it could be considered a mild improvement. In the comics her powers are also considered over powered, and in the movies her powers are barely shown to her full potential. It could be argued that this is simply done for run time, or the ability to see other heroes powers too; yet it also falls into the male gaze because she is still made inferior to the other male characters. However both the characters, whilst still strong and independent are both submissive to their male counterparts; Vision and Wanda's romance is more prominent in the comics, but the romance between Bruce Banner and Black Widow was entirely created fo the films. Which thinking now seems unnecessary, but it falls into the male gaze because she still wants him more than anything else and even cries when he says they shouldn't be together. Their weaknesses are the men they fall for.
Marvel is still good at representing women however, and has based the bechdel test on numerous occasions. It is possible the only reason it fails is because the male characters have to be discussed for a plan, but it is rare that personal discussions about the men occur.
I think one of the best films to discuss when talking about breaking the male gaze is 2018's Black Panther. Some of the strongest and overall best characters in the film are all female including Shuri and Okoye. It has been confirmed that Shuri is the smartest character in the MCU, and personally I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Okoye either.
Both throughout the film outsmart, play around and intimidate the men; this makes them more active than submissive, and therefore falls into the female gaze. Their outfits are also not sexualised and follow traditional African designs. The only time they 'dress up' is when they go to Korea undercover, but quickly they use their disguise to their advantage. The only way they could be considered part of the male gaze it that their main priority is T'Challa, making them somewhat submissive to him; but again they save him and help him out constantly, especially Shuri with all her high tech gear.
Both throughout the film outsmart, play around and intimidate the men; this makes them more active than submissive, and therefore falls into the female gaze. Their outfits are also not sexualised and follow traditional African designs. The only time they 'dress up' is when they go to Korea undercover, but quickly they use their disguise to their advantage. The only way they could be considered part of the male gaze it that their main priority is T'Challa, making them somewhat submissive to him; but again they save him and help him out constantly, especially Shuri with all her high tech gear.
Back to animation, Merida was the first Disney Princess not to have a romantic relationship and the film is shot and drawn through the female gaze. As we follow her story, she makes it explicit she does not want to get married and enjoys sports like Archery. This is a big step for Disney as we instead have a story about family relationships where Merida will save her mother to get the 'Happily Ever After', instead of a man. She also rips her dress and messes her hair to suit her style, instead of trying to look attractive to her male suitors. This means its shot through the female gaze, because otherwise she would have ripped it shorter or even in more 'sexual locations'; it is also shot through the female gaze as her ultimate desire is to help her mother and her family, rather than become a mother herself by natural instinct.
So as we can see, it is not terribly clear whether or not Disney is completely innocent of using the male gaze or not. Personally, i think Disney has improved their use of women in narrative in both animated and live action films; however, i do agree there is almost an underlying tone of misogyny and use of stereotyping that can flaw and limit their female characters massively. I will though continue to watch and enjoy their films, as i did before writing the script for this video. I still enjoy classics like The Little Mermaid just as much as newer ones like Moana, and in fact i enjoy that Disney is taking more care in character design and representation. I hope you enjoyed this video and perhaps learned something. Take care and don't forget [insert outro]
Sources:
https://www.one.org/us/blog/black-panther-movie-women/
https://ginacalnan.pbworks.com/f/themalegaze.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_gaze
https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/how-do-we-define-the-female-gaze-in-2018.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_gaze
https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/how-do-we-define-the-female-gaze-in-2018.html
http://www.luxonline.org.uk/articles/visual_pleasure_and_narrative_cinema%28printversion%29.html
https://www.slideshare.net/christimothy12/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze-26381318
https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486
http://www.studentnewspaper.org/laura-mulvey-and-the-male-gaze-in-the-21st-century/
https://www.filminquiry.com/film-theory-basics-laura-mulvey-male-gaze-theory/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdyRGUtfT8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcdEUdABIBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcdEUdABIBY
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