Masculinity In David Zaleha's 'Tapa'

Renowned feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, explores how classic Hollywood cinema is shown through a masculine perspective that fetishisizes women as objects of desire. This perspective is also known as the “male gaze”, which creates a voyeuristic and scopophilic layer to the viewing of film. According to Mulvey, “in their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.” One of the staples of classic Hollywood cinema is women consistently being put or made into a visually erotic role for both the male characters on screen, and the audience. This staple is of course found in the

Film provides audiences with specific constructions of male, and female, which draw on the prior assumptions and associations the viewer holds about gender. Various female tropes reoccur in films, such as the ‘spinster’, the promiscuous woman, the housewife, and the virgin. These stereotypes reinforce pre-existing societal norms and ideas that can often be harmful and undermine the complexity of women. Traditionally, these tropes occur as a result of a lack of development of female characters and the frequent depiction of women through the lens of the ‘male gaze’. This results in more passive female characters who, it appears are simply there to be “looked at and displayed”

Women evidently create films, too. Still, the institution of film-making is undeniably dominated by men. Even if men are not always creating the film, they are nevertheless controlling who does; the male gaze “is not always male, but it is always male-dominated (654). This control is not meant to refer to “anatomy” per se, but the idea that film contributes to the supremacy of men over women regardless of its author (654). This type of control is significant because it implements a preference for films which depict women who are aligned with patriarchal assumptions; men as subjects and women as objects (654).

Starting in the 1970s, women have been portrayed in film through various misogynistic lenses: the male gaze, voyeurism, and sexual objectification; these lenses are still rampant today in modern American film. Apparently,

Laura Mulvey, the British scholar, she puts forward the film argument combines with psychoanalytic theory and the concept of "male gaze" in her article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative”. Mulvey mentions that, “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active / male and passive / female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are whisper At and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looking-at-ness.”(p.715) In other words, Hollywood narrative films use women in order to provide a pleasurable visual experience for men. The narrative film structures its gaze as masculine. The woman is always the object of the reifying gaze, not the bearer of it.

Further, Mulvey claims--and the majority of feminist film critics agree with her--that in mainstream films the woman is the image to be looked at and fetishized, while the man is the "bearer of the look" and the fetishizer (33). This is what allows the male spectator to have an active pleasure in the movie, since he can (and is

One example of women being seen under the gaze of men in the tutorial is in the form of one of

For definition of the male gaze, this area of the exhibit will focus on Laura Mulvey’s “Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look.” In this piece, Mulvey discusses two theories: voyeurism and fetishistic scopophilia. To briefly explain, voyeurism involves deriving pleasure from the assertion of control, usually done by a male. On the other hand, fetishistic scopophilia transforms the female entity into an object whose sole purpose is to pleasure. An area of this exhibit include an arcade machine of the game “Mortal Kombat” to depict the difference in the way males and females are drawn and portrayed in video games. Male characters within this game are provided armor, or clothing at the least, that covers their vital organs and suits their fighting style. It is obvious the intention of the male characters’ clothing is functionality. However, the same can not be said about their female counterparts. Not only is their clothing minimal, their fighting style is also hypersexualized. This video game is almost the epitome of Mulvey’s fetishistic scopophilia. Next to this will be side-by-side showcasing of famous superhero costumes such as Wonder Woman vs. Superman and Catwoman vs. the Joker. Again, these costumes reinforce fetishistic scopophilia as female characters are purposely clothed with minimal armor that accentuates a female’s breasts and butt. Music videos are another reliable source for elaborating on fetishistic scopophilia. For instance, the popular rock band Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” reduces the band’s teacher to nothing but a sexual object to whom they sexually fantasize about instead of respect and learn from. Moreover, the famous “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne reduces the band’s friend’s mom to a sexual object for visual pleasure. The novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov will be used to further detail how males view women, even young teens, as subjects for their pleasure,

Mulvey’s main argument in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” is that Hollywood narrative films use women in order to provide a pleasurable visual experience for men. The narrative

Even though male gaze is still the fundamental construct in modern films, I do not think lesbians and majority of women these days enjoy objectification. Women are trying to break through gender differences and evolve as equal being to men. In trying to explain how women are positioned in films, Kaplan says “Psychoanalysis a crucial tool for explaining the needs, desires and male-female positioning that are reflected in film” p. (). Kaplan uses psychoanalysis to argue how women take

There are numerous intimate emotions that factor into the equation of media-fascination, Mulvey argues. Among them are eroticism, voyeurism, and imagery. These feelings would not exist, however, without a "world ordered by sexual imbalance…" (Mulvey 523) or without "pleasure in looking [that] has been split between active/male and passive/female," (Mulvey 523). She says that in media, women are presented as objects, while men "control the film fantasy and also emerge as the representative of power," (Mulvey 524).

Women are sexually exploited in the media. In today’s society if people watch television programs such as Chingy featuring Snoop & Ludacris – Holidae; Charlie's Angels; the Z100 commercial with Britney Spears; or Baywatch they will see that the feminine image is presented differently than the masculine. In these programs men are typically placed in sexual situations fully clothed, while women are presented in provocative clothing or less. The camera will frequently zoom in on body parts to focus on the woman’s buttocks, midriff, and legs. Society is still dominated by men who control what people see. As a result women are increasingly portrayed as sex symbols as a way for a media company to turn

Female passivity and sexual objectivity is a defining feature of gender relations in popular visual media. This script was frequently repeated in teledildonic marketing materials in several ways. Most explicitly, Kiiroo describes one of their product offerings as “girls,” with a call-to-action on their homepage stating, “Come and see our new Kiiroo girls. Shop Now” (Kiiroo Homepage, 2016). With female users an, emphasis is placed again on male action and female objectivity: “The intensity of the vibrations will adjust to what scene you see. If the guy goes faster, your Pearl will go faster too” (Kiiroo Pearl, 2016).

The key research question of ‘Gender Roles in Media’ is to analyze gender roles to determine how women are represented in an array of media and how they are portrayed in a sexualized manner. The study was published in 2010 and 2011 by Rudy et al in two issues of Sex Roles. The research suggests that an increase in representing women in media can be worthy provided they bear in mind that the way women are depicted is positive in order to alleviate negative connotations. The research queries if media can affect the mindset of viewers in a negative or positive manner.

Media keepers are very strategic in the ways in which they aid in the projection of certain cultural ideologies through the media. It can be agreed that women have yet to experience full equality in comparison to their male counterparts. Cultural values and beliefs have projected the idea that men, in supposed fact, are superior to women. It is no wonder that cultures around the world place emphasis on the life of man. This infatuation with the male capability is responsible for the amount of power placed into the hands of men. In the hands of men, are every aspect of society and lifestyle, including media. On camera, women, as well as objects are sexualized to appeal to the eye of the heterosexual male. This method of filming is referred