IS THE MALE GAZE STILL RELEVANT?
The gaze is a concept or idea in the way in which the camera views females. The male gaze theory was first essayed in ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’ in 1973 and published in 1975. Male gaze refers to depicting women as sexual objects and the pleasure of the male viewers.
Yes, it is still relevant and will continue because the cinema has made it very common to make a view of this and is accepted by both male and female, some female accept that they are sexual objects because they think it is needed or it should be like this so women will be viewed and given exposure. According to Mulvey, women are viewed in two ways as passive voyeurism – sadism and fetishization, and men as active.
But due to this woman are depicted as some kind of objects and not as equal to male because the one who is viewing may think that women are just sexual objects or kind of less than men. By showing these, it can be said that still patriarchalism is seen because women are looked upon by men and so they are considered inferior to men. And cinema has made this view about men’s and women’s because what they show and how they show is what people see and consider and so if there are changes in gazing, this will divert the view then the concept will be less relevant.