The "Male Gaze"

when we look at a specific object, what we are seeing is more than the thing itself : we are seeing the relationship between the thing and ourselves. Some objects are made to be looked. an image is formed, and everyone can own it, so the person can own the image of the object. the gaze is a term used for anaylsing visual culture that deals how an audience views the people presented; however, the gaze are primarily categorized by whho is doing the looking.

the image of the female nude has been alwayn inactive, traditionally reclining,or sometimes even showing admiring her image in a mirror, and all this to nurture the spectator owner's sense of ego and possession. the painting of femal beauty offered up the pleasure of her appearance for the male spectator owner's gaze. but the spectator owner's gaze sees not merely the object of the gaze, but sees the link between the object and the self. He sees her as a creature of his domain, under his gaze of possession -- simultaneously admiring and pejorative, but always as an object of his desire in his domain.
the male gaze is so dominant in ads that it is assumed or taken for granted. Females are showing their feminity for the pleasure of an absent male spectator. "Men act and women appear" states berger.
lately, we have noticed the extension of the male gaze into ads for men's product adressed at male audiences. as you can notice in the pictur above, they have extended to young men the pose of a women aware of herself on display as an object of vision, the picture is a typical of a new genre : men who don't act but merely appear. just as the women who cant never take the position of the absent spectator-owner.