Representation

Representation refers to the construction in any media (especially the mass media) of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.
In short, it is the way that aspects of reality have been constructed.

'The Male Gaze'

The concept of the gaze deals with how the audience view the people being presented. This can be:

• how men look at women
• how women look at themselves
• how women look at other women

It was Laura Mulvey who coined the phrase 'Male Gaze' in 1975. She believed that audiences had to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. It is said that if focus is placed on a woman's body or what happens to the woman, she is being presented largely in the context of a male's reaction. In turn, males refer to women as objects and the female viewer must 'experience the narrative secondarily, by identification of the male'. Theorists have found that irrelevant sexualisation is so predominant, that her appearance doesn't even have anything to do with the advertised product.

However, some people have criticised Mulvey's theory; they argue that some women enjoy being looked at. Additionally, they state that sometimes members of the same gender can direct 'the gaze' towards each other to compare body image or clothing - not for any sexual reasons at all. 

Jonathan Schroeder - a key theorist in 1998 - said "to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze". He was also quoted saying: "Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view". 

Webliography:
- http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html

- http://www.slideshare.net/fleckneymike/the-male-gaze-laura-mulvey