Understanding the Male Gaze in a Patriarchal Society

What exactly is the male gaze? It means exactly what the name implies. However, this gaze of how men see women in particular is shown through the lens of a camera. Not only that, we also see symbols of the male dominance in these images. This theory was presented by Laura Mulvey in her article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” where she talks about how images in ads and movies, especially Hollywood products, are being manipulated to provide visual pleasure by coding the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal society. With the active male and the passive female, the female and the spectators in general are forced to look through the male gaze.

Taking for instance Katy Perry’s music video, “California Gurls”, several elements show how much of the male gaze was taken into consideration while shooting it. It starts of by showing Snoop Dogg the king who manipulates girls who live inside the boundaries of a board-game. These women are looked at as sex objects. The first look at the kingdom gives you the impression that it is for innocent children; it is candy land after all. Then, they Katy appears in a costume made out of sweets and has that innocent expression on her face as if she is an overgrown child who is open for new discoveries and adventures. These adventures seem to be revolved around the male organ mainly symbolized through candy shapes and snakes. The gaze was evident when Katy lay naked on the clouds, or when they started shooting their legs and shorts. The girls were deconstructed into body parts of sexual interest to men. There are parts where women are dancing erotically, half naked with cream and cherries over their breasts, which shows that this video has been clearly shot through the male gaze. Not only the visual image plays a role in emphasizing this role play between men and women, but also the lyrics which focus on how a woman must act to attract a man and how a man should use that body to gain pleasure.

There are also the jelly bears which normally symbolize pedophiles. When Snoop Dogg and the teddies confront Katy and the girls, it is  stressing on the idea that these girls are really young and innocent. Then, Katy comes and defeats them using her breasts as a tool. It is like women can’t win or prove a point unless it is with their bodies.

Obviously, the male perspective prevails in this music video even though this artist has a lot of female viewers. Still, it gets the men what they want and somehow tries to convince the ladies that it is what they should be doing to get the male’s attention. But to what degree will women be affected? Can the male gaze be removed from the techniques used to shoot films, videos, and ads? It all depends on the audience.