Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze

Mulvey insists on the idea that film and cinematography are inadvertently structured upon the ideas and values of a patriarchy. Mulvey discusses several different types of spectatorship that occur while viewing a film. Viewing a film involves subconsciously engaging in the understanding of male and female roles.

The main idea that seems to bring these actions together is that "looking" is generally seen as an active male role while the passive role of being looked at is immediately adopted as a female characteristic. It is under the construction of patriarchy that Mulvey argues that women in film are tied to desire and that female characters hold an "appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact".

The female actor is never meant to represent a character that directly effects the outcome of a plot or keep the story line going, but is inserted into the film as a way of supporting the male role and "bearing the burden of sexual objectification" that he cannot. Women are seen as sex symbols and are objectified for male pleasure. She has sed that Hollywood films are a narrative cinema and the narrative is usually told via a male perspective, hence the protagonist tends to be male.