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Writer's pictureDale Evans ARPS Ba(Hons)

Week 5 - The subverted male gaze

Updated: Apr 17, 2019

'There are two contradictory aspects of the pleasurable structures of looking. The first, scopophilic, arises from pleasure in using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight. The second, developed through narcissism and the constitution of the ego, comes from identification with the image seen' - Laura Mulvey, 1975


I often find my gaze is directed towards space and light, especially instances that seem rare, out of the ordinary. My gaze is directed towards enigma, the uncanny, the unusual, and towards men. The male gaze is naturally subverted when the man in question is homosexual, however the core concepts of scopopholic looking, objectification and sexual gratification, remain, however, somewhat balanced by the knowledge that other men like me will also be looking back at me.


I was once sat in a bar, and my gaze was drawn to two screens above. One, was playing an animated Disney movie (Subjects of the Male Gaze them-self's according to Sampson, 2015). The other, was displaying hard core pornography. It was difficult to pay attention to either as the other would continually call for your attention again. On talking to others I found I wasn’t the only one to experience this, but also, that this wasn’t the only experience to have. Some people were able to simply focus on one or the other as they wished. There is a culture of looking, and being looked at in gay bars. In the back rooms, under red light and shadow, figures move in the dark watching one another and no one talks, everything is about the look, about subtle movement, body language, faces are barely visible, these are rooms filled by silhouettes and sexual tension, and they serve as one of the inspirations for my work.



I look at the physical world before me with a clear understanding that what I see is not the only reality, the camera is a tool to realize other realities. My photographic practice sees me scouting for locations, paying attention to lighting and scene. Inspired by the renderings of scenes from video games, and I use the camera to discover alternate version of that scene.Adjusting exposure and white balance until something darker and tense, like the dark rooms of the the bars, appears before me.


I am crossing the line between voyeur and participant in my work more and more. I have often viewed my work in the same way I experience my video games, separated, able to walk away. But video games enthrall me more than books or tv through my participation. I am not a bystander, I make choices that effect the outcome of the narrative and in that way become apart of the game world. So perhaps I am using photography to become a participant in the world, that is certainly apparent as i begin to place my self in my photographs, as a dark figure looking back at the audience, looking back at my self as the photographer. I am both gazing and the subject of my gaze.


MULVEY, Laura. 1975. 'VISUAL PLEASURE IN NARRATIVE CINEMA'. Screen, 16, 6-18.

SAMPSON, Rachael. 2015. 'Film Theory 101 – Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze Theory'. Available at: https://www.filminquiry.com/film-theory-basics-laura-mulvey-male-gaze-theory/. [Accessed February,].

Team Silent. 2001. SIlent Hill 2, Video Game, Playstation 2. Konami: .

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