Laura Mulvey (Theorist) on Representation

Laura Mulvey was the first to introduce the concept of 'The Male Gaze' as a feature of power asymmetry.As seen in films, the male gaze takes place when the audience is placed into the perspective of a heterosexual man. This could be perceived in scenes where the camera may loiter on the curves of a woman's body. Feminists would testify that these types of shots are deliberately shown and associated to males. That being so you can see its referral to being the 'Male Gaze'.

This hypothesis indicates that the male gaze contradicts women, downgrading them to the stature of objects as they are admired for physical appearance and male sexual desires/fantasies. This is seen in a state of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which expands on the theory, saying that sexism exists not only in the content of a text, but may also exist in how the text is presented (through its implications about its expected audience.)"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," and as a result contends that in film a woman is the "bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning."Mulvey's essay also concludes that the female gaze is the same as identical to the male gaze. This means that women look at themselves through the eyes of men. The male gaze may be perceived by a feminist either as a illustration of unequal power between gazer and gazed, or as a conscious or subconscious attempt to progress that inequality.