Under the Prism of the Female Gaze: What Is the Female Gaze in Cinema

Portraying women in cinema as a manifestation of “female” and “male” perspectives.

Cinema today remains a space where men hold dominant positions. According to statistics from Martha Lauzen, a researcher on women in film, only 16% of the highest-grossing films of 2024 were directed by women. In contrast, the number of female characters in films grew compared to 2023 and evened out with the number of male ones. In 42% of films, the leading characters were women, and the same share were men. Duos accounted for 8%.

How exactly films portray female characters, and how the “female” gaze differs from the “male” one — read in DeTalks' article.

Male gaze vs. female gaze

The term “the female gaze” emerged in opposition to the “male” one. The male gaze was pioneered by film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1973 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. The concept came down to the objectification of female characters on screen and reflected men's fantasies directed at women. The latter, in this case, were labeled as nothing more than “objects to be looked at”.

"Being an 'object to be looked at' refers to sexual spectacle, when a character, usually a woman, is presented to us as visual pleasure. In everyday life, we call this objectification. But I actually like the phrase 'to-be-looked-at-ness' even better than 'objectification'", — commented Caitlin Benson-Allott, professor of film and media studies, on Mulvey's words.

However, the idea that the “female” gaze is the opposite of the “male” one is open to debate. Professor Caitlin Benson-Allott noted that this concept of opposition is grounded in the idea of a binary gender system. It implies that, like Yin and Yang, women are the opposite of men — an approach that leaves no mention of genders beyond the binary.

The Specifics of the Female Gaze

Benson, along with Joey Soloway — another researcher of the subject and a filmmaker — put forward the idea that the “male” and “female” gaze does not depend on the gender of the person standing on the other side of the camera shouting “action!”. “It is about a political and ideological system, namely the dominant patriarchal order”, — said Caitlin.

Writer and director Ayanna Smith, for her part, pointed out that films made through the “female” gaze may feature longer takes. The camera can “hold” a character on screen, allowing viewers to feel them emotionally. Joey Soloway also outlined several distinctive features of the “female” gaze.

"I take the camera and use it to tell my audience: 'I am not just showing you this, I really want you to feel it together with me'", — shared Joey.

In their words, the “female” gaze can share experiences and evoke them in viewers better than the “male” one does.

The female gaze, proceeding from this point, shows us what it feels like to be the “object” of someone else's gaze and to be a woman in a world of men.

The third point concerns the response to “being under the gaze”.

"It is a very brave thing to gaze back and dare to say: 'I see you seeing me.' Not just 'I feel that I am being looked at,' and not just 'this is what it is like to be seen,' but now 'I see you seeing me'", — explained Joey.

Thus, “gazing back” means women's desire to act and to be the subject, rather than merely a pleasant object to observe.

Examples in Cinema

“Suicide Squad” (2016) / “Birds of Prey” (2020)

Eleanor Mead, the author of an essay on the “female gaze”, noticed the transformation of the Harley Quinn character as the directors changed across the two films “Suicide Squad” and “Birds of Prey”. The first film, about a group of criminals working for the US government to save the world from a mystical force, was made by director David Ayer. The second part, “The Suicide Squad”, — by James Gunn. The standalone film “Birds of Prey”, which tells Quinn's own story, was directed by a woman — Cathy Yan.

Harley, in turn, stopped wearing ultra-short, revealing costumes and dresses, replacing them with pants or shorts. Apparently, saving the world is easier in comfortable clothes.

The Quinn character also grew from infantile and mentally unstable into a heroine who left her abusive relationship with the Joker and showed solidarity with other women in trouble.

“American Psycho” (2000)

Based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, “American Psycho” was directed by Mary Harron. The main character, Patrick Bateman, is a manic perfectionist who wants to be first everywhere and better than his colleagues. Over time, however, his mania takes its toll, and the man begins to kill.

Yet, despite the large amount of blood and violence, the film was recognized as an example of the power of the “female” gaze. As wrote critic Angelica Jade Bastién, in “American Psycho” the director avoided detailed depictions of Bateman's crimes, unlike the original novel. Harron pushed the descriptions of violence and cruelty out of the frame.

In an interview with Dazed, the director also noted that “American Psycho” is a very feminist film.

"It is a satire about how men compete with one another in this hyperreal universe. Women there are even less important than a tan or a costume. And for me, despite the fact that all the women are tragic and killed, the point is how men perceive and treat them", — commented Harron.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019)

The film, which depicts the romantic relationship between two women, Marianne and Héloïse, belongs to director Céline Sciamma.

As noted Caitlin Benson-Allott, the film destabilized the “male” gaze — yet not through the depiction of love between women. For example, during the bed scene, both women are evenly positioned in the frame, their gazes equal. Neither of them looks down on the other, as is usually the case in “male”-gaze films.

“The model (Héloïse) becomes the commissioner of the art, while the painter Marianne becomes the subject of the painting. And both of them become viewers of one another”, — commented Caitlin.

In contemporary cinema, the concept of the “female gaze” is taking on greater significance. It is not just an alternative to the male gaze, but an attempt to show a different perspective — one that gives a voice and agency to those who used to remain nothing more than a beautiful object.