The Male Gaze - Textual study

The Male Gaze Applied to Transformers (2007)

There are hundreds of examples of Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory in film over the years; this can be put down to sex (as well as violence) being a huge investment. Generally speaking audiences are more likely to be interested in a film, product or story if it contains sexual nature, which gives the phrase ‘sex sells’ it’s truth. Unfortunately for women this sexual nature can often be found in the exploitation of the female body. I shall now analyse a scene from Micheal Bay’s Transformers to prove that the objectification of women is the most popular and common use of ‘selling sex’ and technically how this is shown on film.

Transformers (2007) is the perfect example when applying the male gaze theory to the big screen.  One huge reason for this is the stark difference between the male and female actor ratio which instantly makes it an under represented movie. Mulvey talks about how in films female characters are purely present to keep the heterosexual male audience satisfied and give no real substance to the plot. This is arguably true to transformers as almost all female actors in the film are over sexualized in some way and have no significant relevance in moving the narrative forward. An example of a female character being used just for their body in this film is scene where we are introduced to Mikaela played by Megan Fox. We first see this character scantily dressed in a cropped top and denim mini shorts while bent over a car, at first glance the clothing is a sure aspect of the mise en scene that suggests this character is probably only going to be important for keeping a male audience happy. The camera pans right around the hood of the car but keeping only Mikaela’s mid section in frame, this fragmentation of her body is a technique used by the media to showcase women as only sexual objects instead of worthy humans. With Mikaela’s toned abs and low cut shorts now in the forefront of the frame we can also see Shia LaBeouf’s character, Sam, in the background of the mid-shot glaring at her waist as he utters the words “I like to go faster”. The innuendo is followed by a cut to the camera panning up and down Mikaela’s body while non-diegetic voices of heavenly angles singing can subtly be heard in the background. This is very suggestive to the idea that Mikaela is this angelic beauty that is way out of Sam’s reach but this idealistic brush that she has been painted with is inspired only by her appearance, not her intelligence or personality. At this point the only thing we really know about this character is that she’s fit yet she has still been glorified more than any other character thus far. While watching this scene I could not help but notice how Sam would rarely look Mikaela in the eye while she was talking, instead his sight constantly wondered over her figure, which I now see as a reflection of what the male audience in Mulvey’s theory would have done. The camera acts as one of these ‘heterosexual men’ just looking for sexual satisfaction, which is why there are so many lingering shots and suggestive angles. The camera sees Mikaela as simple gratification instead of a valuably character to the plot. The total gross for Transformers was $319,071,806 making it a huge box office success and proving that these sexualized characters and the used of female exploitation really does help to sell a film.