It was Laura Mulvey who coined the ever so famous term 'The Male Gaze' when she published her 1975 feminist essay; 'Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema'. In this she identified how female characters were portrayed as objects to simply look at, and admire through the male roaming eye. Women were simply seen as simbols of sex and lust, alluring the male protagonist - or his 'reward' after a hard time saving the world from imminant doom (or something of a similar nature). The film industry would often do this by only selecting beautiful, sexy women with a dash of cheek and wit, the camera would often roam over the 'key' features of the woman's body - making her merely an object to be looked at. This was extremely prevelent in the 50s era, but that's not to say that the male gaze isn't still hugely popular today, in just about all forms of media.
Good, Becky. Make sure you reference where this information has come from.
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