The 'Male Gaze'

Another element of audience theories and responses, is the representation of women in horror films (and all other genres). This is called the 'Male Gaze'.


To begin with I wrote down what I recognised to be a stereotypical representation of women in horror films; 

• Their position in relation to man
• Married?
• Men are more dominant
• Women are more submissive/smaller
• Camera Angles
• High angle viewpoint, looking down on women
• Pans up to focus on figure
• Low angle viewpoint, looking up at men
• Over the shoulder (through male's eyes)
• Fragile; needs a man's strength
• Costume
• White
• Dresses/skirts
• Slightly revealing
• Low cut
• Tight
• Sacrifice for the greater good
• Blonde
• Victim-too stupid
• Brunette
• Survives-more practical
• Phallic symbols (representation of a penis), in relation to her actions 

Hammer's Dracula-Male Gaze

When watching the trailer for Hammer's Dracula, we had to analyse what elements we believed matched those of the male gaze. I recognised the following;
- A Picture of a female character in bed looking vulnerable and innocent.
-A close up of neck/face (quite sexual/sensual imagery).
-A White revealing dress (white representing purity and innocence) 
-A Pan of a female body.
-A High angle shot of a phallic symbol (crucifix), this also represents dominance. 


Furthermore, looking at the image above; you can see that this has been inspired by the male gaze. You can observe that the female character is wearing a white, loose dress, which is being almost removed by 'Dracula'. She is grabbing on to his arm, for what almost looks like support or safety even though he is to be perceived as 'evil'. 'Dracula's gaze is also cast upon the female in a lustrous manner and his grasp on her is very strong. 


I feel that many film industries and directors focus on the male gaze, mainly because they feel that they need to target the male audience as their target audience, especially the horror genre, as the majority of the audience interested in horror are males.