Analysis of Male/Female/Queer Gaze in Films

Jaisri Nandhini S
1731381
VI JPEng
Film appreciation

Laura Mulway’s essay titled "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"(1975) is broadly studied
and referred with the context of film appreciation around the world. The essay sheds light on the
patriarchal subconscious thoughts that affects the way films are written and seen, by implying
psychoanalytic theory as her basis. She primarily talks about how Hollywood films are made
with the ‘male gaze’, where females exist to be mere objects of attraction and desire. Many
companion pieces for this essay are found and are subjected to analysis.
One important contemporary work under this topic would be by N. Tamilselvi in 2018. Her
article on "The Panorama of Female Gaze in Indian Cinema" primarily tries to focus its attention
on female gaze by analysing how the Indian women spectators identify themselves with the
characters that are portrayed in the films. The paper focuses on the possibility of "Female Gaze"
and the paper is observed to be an amalgamation of works based on the theory of identification
and gaze. The article also gives three classification of gaze i.e. profilmic, audience point of view
and gaze between filmic characters within the screen. While Mulwey spoke about the
prominence of male gaze in cinema, Tamilselvi talks on how the female gaze can exist in the
same space.
Written on the film "Parched" as a case study, the article tries to identify female gaze by
analyzing the camera angles, which makes the spectators take the position of the female
filmic character. For instance in the 2012 Tamil film, "3", the scene where a mother sees her
daughter first time after marriage, the camera moves from her "thaali" (Mangal Sutra) to her
jewels and the sindoor. This conveys a lot about how a female (mother here) views things
differently from a man (father). Opening sequence of 2016 Hindi film, "Dear Zindagi" where the
cinematographer Kaira changes a scene about a couple in fight written by a man for an ad shoot
can also be said as the example for camera angles giving a female gaze to the audience.
Coincidentally, these two films were written and directed by women (Aishwarya R Dhanush and
Gauri Shinde). In Aashiq Abu's "22 Female Kottayam", male protagonist's butt is shown when
the female protagonist's friends objectify him. However, Tamilselvi's article does not talk about
the writing part on which the shots of the scenes are composed.
Another article along the same lines of these two, "The erotization of the male body in the
television fiction" by Irene Raya Bravo (2017) talks about the objectification of male bodies. It
highlights the fact that the female figure has been over-exposed in the media sphere, thus its
objectification has become a widespread practice in cinematographic fiction because of the male
gaze. This tries to find out an alter narrative where female gaze leads to the narrative where a
man’s body is depicted as an object of consumption and admiration and is approached erotically.
Taking "Outlander" as a case study, the article attempts to say that the relevant matter is the way
in which the male body is depicted as a sexual object, designed to be admired, to be consumed.
This leads us to wonder how these bodies are represented in fictional narratives. Thus it seems
crucial to analyze these visual codes when presenting sculptural male bodies as passive objects
of desire in advertisements, TV shows and films.
For instance, in 2018 Kannada film "Gantumoote" directed by Roopa Rao, Meera, the female
protagonist objectifies her male love, Madhu's necks and hair flings, as she is shown fetish to
them. Perambu(2018) directed by Ram, shows a differently abled teenage girl masterbating to a
film star's song (actor Suriya) shown in the Television. 2013 Tamil film "Irandam Ulagam" went
a step ahead and bold when a gang of female medicos objectifies a man, from his skin tone,
height, weight to face profile and body features including lips and thighs. This erotization of the
male protagonist here remains as a significant representation of female gaze in Indian Cinema.
Been used to seeing female protagonists been objectified by the male lead and his counterparts,
this indeed is seen as a revelation for the inclusion of a female narrative. In "Made in
heaven"(2019) by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, when love between Kabir and Nawab is been
established, it gives the queer gaze narrative where each other is been objectified by themselves.
While Mulwey's work took the first step in talking about the male gaze and the Patriarchal lens
through which Cinema and it's narratives are been said to the audience and attempting to analyse
the causes and reasons behind them, it also fails to consider the female and queer spectrum into
it. She had an opinion that all mainstream cinema are catered only to the straight, heterosexual
male population. But, the papers by Irene and Tamilselvi attempt to discuss the erotization of
male body and having a female gaze and a female lens, taking over from where Mulwey had left
off in her essay.
Critical Questions
1. What could be the reason apart from repressed sexual desires and phallocetricism behind
the predominant male gaze in Cinema?
2. Does the theory remain valid and constant accross different cultures and regions?
3. Is there a possibility for a Cinema narrative to hold a gender neutral narrative?
4. Does the gender of the makers leave any difference in the perception of audience viewing
Cinema?
5. Thinking of the audience from LGBTQ+ (Queers) community, how does the
psychoanalytic perspective used in analyzing films work?
6. Is sexuality the only lens through which a film can be viewed or audience have a choice
in it?