The 'Gaze' is a psycholanalytical term brought into popular usage by Jacques Lacan to describe a condition where the mature autonomous subject observes "the observation of himself" in a mirror. The psychological effect, Lacan argues, is that the subject has her autonymity brought into question by the projection of her 'identity' on to an exterior object. "tat tvam asi" (that which you are) This concept is bound with his theory of the mirror stage, where in childhood, conceives the formation of external identities, (Lacan posits a mirror but any object will do) Lacan suggests that the effect 'Gaze' of the mirror can similarly be produced by any conceivable object, i e. A chair or a television screen. The idea that a chair or a television screen can stare back at one is not read literally by Lacan or his adherents and this misconception is popularly stated by his detractors to attempt discredit him.
Michael Foucault also had a distinct conception of the gaze medical gaze in his social theories, although the common usage of the term is of the Lacanian one.
In cinema theory, Laura Mulvey identifies the Male Gaze, in sympathy with the Lacanian statement that "Woman is a symptom of man." what this means is that femininity is a social construct, and that the feminine object the object petit a, or the object of desire, is what constitutes the male lack, and thus his positive identity.
Bracha Ettinger extends this notion of the male gaze in theMatrixial Gaze where two figures looking at each other effectively constitute a double gaze. One where the "Male Gaze" is placed opposite to the "Female Gaze" and thus both positive entities constitute each other from a lack. This umbrella concept of the gaze is precisely what scholars such as Slavoj Zizek claim is the Lacanian definition of "The Gaze."
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Numerous existentialists and phenomenologists have addressed the concept of "Gaze" beginning with Sartre. Foucault elaborated on the concept of the Gaze to illustrate a particular dynamic in power relations and disciplinary mechanisms in his Discipline and Punish
The gaze is characterised by who is the gazer (viewer):
Theorists Günther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen posit that the gaze is a relationship, between offering and demanding a gaze: the indirect gaze is the spectator's offer, wherein the spectator initiates viewing the subject, who is unaware of being viewed; the direct gaze is the subject's demand to be viewed.
In the essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of The Male Gaze as a feature of power asymmetry. Theoretically, the male gaze has much influenced feminist film theory and communications media studies.
In film, the male gaze[1] occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman's body, for instance. Laura Mulvey argues that the male gaze takes precedence over the female gaze. This can be reinterpreted as that the subjective male construction of feminine identity has too much prevalence over the subjective female construction of male identities.[2]
The theory suggests that male gaze denies women human agency[citation needed], relegating them to the status of objects, hence, the woman reader and the woman viewer must experience the text's narrative secondarily, by identifying with a man's perspective.
In feminist theory, the Male Gaze expresses an asymmetric (unequal) power relationship, between viewer and viewed, gazer and gazed, i.e. man imposes his unwanted (objectifying) gaze upon woman. Second Wave feminists argue that whether or not women welcome the gaze, they might merely be conforming to the hegemonic norms established to benefit the interests of men — thus underscoring the power of the male gaze to reduce a person (man or woman) to an object (see also exhibitionism).
The existence of an analogous Female Gaze[3][4][5][6] arises when the Male Gaze is considered. Mulvey, coiner of the phrase male gaze, argues that "the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze…" Describing Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), by Jean Rhys, Nalini Paul indicates that the Antoinette character gazes at Rochester, placing a garland upon him, making him appear heroic: "Rochester does not feel comfortable with having this role enforced upon him; thus, he rejects it by removing the garland, and crushing the flowers".
From the male perspective, man possesses a gaze because he is a man, whereas, a woman has a gaze only when she assumes the male gazer role, when she objectifies others by gazing at them like a man. Eva-Maria Jacobsson supports Paul's description of the "female gaze" as "a mere cross-identification with masculinity", yet evidence of women's objectification of men — the discrete existence of a Female Gaze — is in the "boy toy" adverts published in teen magazines, despite Mulvey's contention that The Gaze is property of one gender. Moreover, in power relationships, the gazer can direct his or her gaze to members of his or her gender, for asexual reasons, such as comparing the gazer's body image and clothing to those of the gazed at man or woman.
Jacques Lacan argued that the concept of the gaze is important in his "mirror stage" of infantile psychological development; children gaze at a mirror image of themselves (a twin sibling might function as the mirror-image), and use that image to co-ordinate their physical movements. He linked the concept of the gaze to the development of individual human agency. To that end, he transformed the gaze to a dialectic, between the Ideal–Ego and the Ego-Ideal. The ideal-ego is the imagined self-identification image — whom the person imagines him- or herself to be or aspires to be; whilst the ego-ideal is the imaginary gaze of another person gazing upon the ideal-ego, e.g. a rock star (an Ideal-ego) secretly hoping his/her school-era bully-tormentor (Ego-ideal) is now aware of his/her (the rock star) subsequent success and fame, since school times.
Lacan further developed his concept of the gaze, saying that it does not belong to the subject but, rather, to the object of the gaze. In Seminar One, Lacan told the audience: "I can feel myself under the gaze of someone whose eyes I do not see, not even discern. All that is necessary is for something to signify to me that there may be others there. This window, if it gets a bit dark, and if I have reasons for thinking that there is someone behind it, is straight-away a gaze". (Lacan, 1988, p. 215)
Gaze f. (genitive Gaze, plural Gazen)
   | Notes on The Gaze - Notes on The Gaze |
| | Modules on Lacan: On the Gaze - Introduction to Jacques Lacan, Module on the Gaze |
| | Salon Life - The Female Gaze - The female gaze - Salon.com |
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