Male Gaze and Voyeurism

Male Gaze Theory was a term created by Laura Mulvey in 1975. Mulvey is a feminist film theorist who also wrote an extremely influential essay called 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' which suggests the way women are viewed in comparison to men. Moreover, Mulvey has said that women are continuously sexualised in front of the camera and treated as objects who are valueless showing false ideals of females. 

The gaze for feminists can be thought of in three ways:
1) How men look at women
2) How women look at themselves
3) How women look at other women


The Male Gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man which may focus on the curves of a females body.

Mulvey's Theory can be narrowed down into three separate ideas:
1) The look of the camera as it record the event/scene
2) The look of the audience as they watch the film
3) The look of the characters as they look at one another

In 'Jennifer's Body,' (2009 Horror film) Jennifer is a teenage girl who always dresses provocatively by wearing clothes such as short skirts and cropped tops. She is shown through the male gaze is scenes such as her swimming in the lake and acting over sexualised.

Voyeurism  
This is a way of gaining sexual pleasure through spying on people and their private moments without the consent. This is often shown as the Peeping Tom to show that their is someone is being watch such as Norman Bates from Psycho spying on Marion, through a whole in the wall, as she gets changed and the Male Gaze again being shown.