History Main / MaleGaze

* Music/{{Miserable}} invokes male gaze and uses it as a tool to trick the audience. Aside from the GiantWoman wearing nothing but a bikini and high-heeled shoes, the band also specifically plays on places like her butt, her thighs, and her breasts. Combined with her occasional flirtatious smiles and giggles this makes it seem like she's just there to be eye candy. So it comes as a suprise when [[spoiler:the last 17% of the video is dedicated to her gleefully devouring the terrified male band members.]]

* Music/{{Miserable}} invokes male gaze and uses it as a tool to trick the audience. Aside from the GiantWoman wearing nothing but a bikini and high-heeled shoes, the band also specifically play on places like her butt, her thighs, and her breasts. That combined with her occasional flirtatious smiles and giggles makes it seem like she's just there to be eye candy. So it comes as a suprise when [[spoiler:the last 17% of the video is dedicated to her gleefully devouring the terrified male band members.]]

One of the most obvious results of Male Gaze is the way a (usually male) director/cameraman's interest in women informs his shots, leading to a focus on breasts, legs, buttocks, and other jiggly bits even when the film isn't necessarily supposed to be a feast for eyes of their admirers. For example, a sex scene between a man and a woman may show more of her body than it does of his, or focus more on her reactions than his (see RightThroughHisPants). Alternatively, it could appear in shows that aren't overtly sexual - for example, scenes of bikini-clad female characters talking that emphasize their bodies rather than showing just their heads. This trope ''can'' [[TropesAreNotBad be used as a legitimate cinematic effect]], especially when combined with PointOfView. (At that point it may become EatingTheEyeCandy, though not necessarily.)

One of the most obvious results of Male Gaze is the way a (usually male) director/cameraman's interest in women informs his shots, leading to a focus on breasts, legs, buttocks, and other jiggly bits even when the film isn't necessarily supposed to be a feast for eyes of their admirers. For example, a sex scene between a man and a woman may show more of her body than it does of his, or focus more on her reactions than his (see RightThroughHisPants). Alternatively, it could appear in shows that aren't overtly sexual - for example, scenes of bikini-clad female characters talking that emphasize their bodies rather than showing just their heads. This trope ''can'' [[TropesAreNotBad be used as a legitimate cinematic effect]], especially when combined with PointOfView. (At which point it may become EatingTheEyeCandy, though not necessarily.)

The term also applies in other mediums, such as video games and comic books. During UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}}, comic books were (and often still are) perfect examples of the male gaze, with scenes being framed to show off a female character's curves over everything else.

Male Gaze does sometimes focus on male attributes, focusing on big pumping biceps and perfect abs, but, crucially, in a way that is sexless and aspirational. The presumed male audience is intended to relate to the character being objectified in this way and wish they had that body themselves, rather than desire them.

The gender reversed version of the Male Gaze is the FemaleGaze - where the same rules as above apply except the focus is on more traditionally masculine qualities in a character.

If the female in question is aware of the FourthWall, she'll likely snap [[MyEyesAreUpHere "Ahem, eyes are up here!"]] at the camera/artist/character.

The concept was popularized in Laura Mulvey's 1973 essay [[https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Visual+Pleasure+and+Narrative+Cinema "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."]]

* Played straight during [[Wrestling/{{FMW}} Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling]]'s "sports entertainment" era, where what was once among the most fearsome women's division on the planet was phased for valets with little wrestling ''or'' [[GarbageWrestler garbage wrestling]] skills whom the cameras would zoom in on while they attempted to fight one another, often to the point of missing the actual wrestling moves and violence the promotion was built on. [[NoFourthWall However]], what was left of the women's division was still fearsome enough [[DefiedTrope to convince the cameramen not to apply this trope when they were wrestling]].
* During a Full Impact Pro [[GimmickMatches falls count anywhere match]] between Homicide and Wrestling/CMPunk, the camera man, to commentator Prazak's annoyance, became more interested in two nearby strippers performing. Homicide himself soon became more interested in them than Punk too.

* Wrestling/{{Holidead}} made her Wrestling/RingOfHonor [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk--WmngGnk debut]] in a loss to Sumie Sakai in a dark match from ''ROH[=/=][[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]] Global Wars 2017 Night III'' ,October 14, 2017. One of the commenters said she was "thicc as hell," and another said, "That zombie's got a nice ass."

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[[folder: Web Original]]
* Website/{{IMDB}} has their own keyword for this: "camera-focus-on-female-butt".
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* Turn on any Wrestling/{{WWE}} show later than 1995. Find a woman wrestling and chances are the cameras are focusing on her breasts falling out of her top, jiggling as she moves, or competing for who can get the most buttocks shots. Even more so if she is any competition that is not wrestling, WWE tending to have "bikini contests" and such seemingly just to facilitate this, though they seem to be on their way out since the return to the PG rating.

** Even though [[Wrestling/BrookeAdams Brooke Adams]] considered her buttocks her best assets [[IncrediblyLamePun (no pun intended)]], one of the cameras that followed her seemed more obsessed with them than her.

See also {{Fanservice}}, JigglePhysics, {{Gainaxing}}, EatingTheEyeCandy, BoobsAndButtPose. Contrast LongingLook, and compare with FemaleGaze.

* Music/{{Miserable}} invokes male gaze and uses it as a tool to trick the audience. Aside from the GiantWoman wearing nothing but a bikini and high-heeled shoes, the band also specifically play on places like her butt, her thighs, and her breasts. That combined with her occasional flirtatious smiles and giggles makes it seem like she's just going to be eye candy. So it comes as a suprise when [[spoiler:the last 17% of the video is dedicated to her gleefully catching and devouring the terrified male band members.]]

-->-- ''Franchise/MetalGear WebAnimation/{{Awesome|Series}}''

The Male Gaze is a pseudo-derogatory (though generally neutral) term from {{Gaze}} theory that describes the tendency of works to assume a male viewpoint even when they do not have a specific narrative PointOfView, and in particular the tendency of works to present female characters as subjects of a man's visual appreciation.

As mentioned above, the term refers more to a technique than an image. Thus usually focusing on more feminine qualities of a character. For example in the anime Blend S where the focus is placed on the more feminine attributes of Hideri Kanzaki (a male).

The gender reversed version of the Male Gaze is the Female Gaze - where the same rules as above apply except the focus is on more traditionally masculine qualities in a character.

* In ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', when a human Ariel is drowning and trying to swim to the surface, there is a brief moment where her butt takes up most of the screen as she's swimming out of Ursula's lair, and when she performs her iconic hair flip, she's also striking a BoobsandButtPose. For bonus {{Fanservice}} points, due to wearing nothing but a SeashellBra and the ShapeShiftingExcludesClothing trope being in effect, Ariel is bottomless for these two moments.

* Thanks to [[Main/ErinAndrews Erin Andrews]], it has become for common for sideline and courtside reporters to be female.
* Very common in the [[Main/SuperBowl Super Bowl]], where most of the national anthem singers are women.

The Male Gaze is a psudo-derogatory (though generally neutral) term from {{Gaze}} theory that describes the tendency of works to assume a male viewpoint even when they do not have a specific narrative PointOfView, and in particular the tendency of works to present female characters as subjects of a man's visual appreciation.

As mentioned above, the term refers more to a technique than an image, and many argue that even works that are classified as FemaleGaze, including works made by and for females, still count as male gaze if it's still created from a decidedly male point of view. For example, ''Film/MagicMike'', despite being toted as a movie full of FemaleGaze, is still an example of male gaze because it's a man's perception of what an ideal man is.

See also {{Fanservice}}, JigglePhysics, {{Gainaxing}}, EatingTheEyeCandy. Contrast LongingLook, and compare with FemaleGaze.

As mentioned above, the term refers more to a technique than an image, and many argue that even works that are classified as FemaleGaze, including works made by and for females, still count as male gaze if it's still created from a decidedly male point of view. For example, ''Film/MagicMike'', despite being toted as a movie full of FemaleGaze, is still an example of male gaze.

As mentioned above, the term refers more to a technique than an image, and many argue that even works that are classified as FemaleGaze, including works made by and for females, still count as male gaze because everything being done to objectify men (what they're doing, which body parts we're close-up on) is pretty much the same except ''which'' gender is being objectified (for example, ''Film/MagicMike'', despite being toted as a movie full of FemaleGaze, is still an example of male gaze).

The Male Gaze is a term from {{Gaze}} theory that describes the tendency of works to assume a male viewpoint even when they do not have a specific narrative PointOfView, and in particular the tendency of works to present female characters as subjects of a man's visual appreciation.

As mentioned above, the term doesn't only refer to {{fanservice}} for men who are attracted to women as much as it's a view of the world that is from a decidedly male perspective. The broader meaning of the term also includes depictions of men, physically or otherwise, from a presumed male perspective (for example, ''Film/MagicMike'', despite being toted as a movie full of FemaleGaze, is still an example of male gaze, as it's still a visual interpretation of men from the POV of other men).

The concept was popularized in Laura Mulvey's 1973 essay "[[https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Visual+Pleasure+and+Narrative+Cinema Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema]]".