Basic Trope: The writer assumes the audience to be male, and as a consequence, provides more fanservice targeted towards males than females.
- Straight: Alice's hips, breasts, and ass are given far more attention by the camera than Bob's Shirtless Scene. Alice also gets more fanservice shots of her than Bob gets of him.
- Exaggerated: The camera never even focuses on Alice's face, and she wears lingerie the whole time, whereas Bob wears something so loose that only his face can be seen.
- Downplayed: Alice wears a bit less clothing than Bob. Overall the writer seems to have assumed the audience is only mostly male.
- Justified:
- As in a Viagra commercial or similar, the intended audience logically would be male.
- The camera acts as the POV shot of a male character.
- Inverted:
- Female Gaze
- The writer assumes the audience to be gay guys, and adjusts accordingly.
- Subverted:
- The camera slowly pans up Alice's body, focusing on her breasts. It then does the exact same to Bob, focusing on his crotch.
- The camera focuses on Alice's body as she undresses... to reveal that "Alice" is actually Alan.
- Double Subverted: ...But the camera guy doesn't give a shit, and presses on as if nothing has happened.
- Parodied:
- "Gee, that camera guy has been focusing on my boobs quite a bit...!"
- Alice has large breasts. The cameraman tries to do this, and she beats him down. "I regret nothing!" can be heard over the sound of him being pulverized.
- Alice is an alien, and the camera focuses on her dorsal fins and antennae, implying that these are what males of her species find attractive.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice gets focus on her bust, but the camera angle changes to make dramatic emphasis on plot elements. then when Alice leans, the camera focuses on her rear, then pans to a dramatic angle over the map to coordinate the heroes' efforts when Alice starts outlining the situation. The director flips the point of view between how sexy Alice is, and how important the situation is.
- The camera lavishes attion on both Alice and Bob, giving Male Gaze and Female Gaze alike.
- The camera focuses on a group of scantily clad women in a lascivious way that male viewers would enjoy...then pulls back to reveal that the viewpoint character is a lesbian. The rest of the plot focuses more on her Coming-Out Story than the titillating aspects.
- Averted:
- The camera focuses on and fanservices Alice and Bob equally.
- No fanservice is given at all.
- Enforced: Most Writers Are Male + Fanservice.
- Lampshaded: Alice has Medium Awareness, and comments "Wow, the cameraman's a perv today!" See also Parodied above.
- Invoked: Alice decides to Show Some Leg.
- Exploited: Bob uses the camera's focus on Alice to do something offscreen.
- Defied: Alice says My Eyes Are Up Here.
- Discussed: "Whoa! Check Alice out!"
- Conversed: A group of Straw Feminists (or just regular ones) are discussing the Male Gaze in the Show Within a Show.
- Implied: Not applicable. (This trope can only be shown.)
- Deconstructed: Alice has been sexually humiliated and abused for a lot of her life, and makes it clear she's uncomfortable with her body and doesn't want to be seen this way. The camera continues to focus on her breasts, hips and ass, though, creating an effect that is...jarring.
- Reconstructed: The work makes it clear that Alice is a Good Bad Girl who likes this sort of attention.
- Played For Laughs: Whenever there's a Scene Transition to Alice, the camera allway focuses on Alice's ass or breasts, before she takes a second to physically adjust the "camera" to eye level.
- Played For Drama: A scene is shot through the eyes of a sexual predator, and the constant Male Gaze indicates exactly what he wants of Alice.
Hey, stop focusing the camera on the actor's curves and go back to Male Gaze!
