How many times have you watched a film and, for seemingly no reason at all, the female characters are shirtless or dressed in the most impractical yet sexy outfits? Or how often are female characters introduced only to immediately become a love interest? The answer is probably so often that it becomes almost a non-event. This is because we live in a society dominated by the male gaze. Most movies throughout history are filmed with the intention of being consumed by a largely heterosexual male audience who either wants to see himself represented in the most favorable light or to stare unashamedly at a half-clothed beautiful woman on screen. Various genres emphasize different aspects of the gaze. For instance, superhero films are almost always created with the male gaze in mind, while romantic comedies sometimes relent a bit in favor of a different demographic. However, every piece of media, by its nature, is subjected to some kind of gaze. Particularly intriguing is the direction of the gaze within queer media. Throughout the history of the genre, the gaze has shifted and evolved to fit different audience demographics and social conditions. In the last few weeks of Pride Month, we will examine how gazing impacts queer cinema, particularly as seen through two French sapphic films; Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

The concept of gazing was initially introduced in 1905 by Sigmund Freud in his work, “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.” However, most discussions about the gaze in visual media reference British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey. In her famous 1975 essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Mulvey delves into the psychoanalytic aspects of the male gaze and how it is used as a tool to enforce patriarchal ideology. Mulvey identifies various ways the male gaze is portrayed: displaying women as objects of desire for the voyeuristic consumption of heterosexual men, exploring the male fear of castration through the unknown female body, or as a form of self-insert fantasy for the target audience.

While Mulvey’s essay mostly discusses how the male gaze induces pleasure in viewing and places female bodies as objects of mystery and fear, her ideas have encouraged the concept of an oppositional gaze, such as a female gaze, a minority gaze, or a queer gaze, which can be used in filmmaking. However, all these various gazes rely on the existence of a patriarchal society to hold opposition, as it is the major culture in which all these films exist. Particularly significant within the evolution of queer films is the female gaze. Contrary to what it may seem, the female gaze isn’t simply the opposite of the male gaze, objectifying men for a largely heterosexual female audience. Rather, it exists as a response to the male gaze, aiming to turn the gaze back on the audience, making the object of the gaze into the subject. Films created with the female gaze can make audiences feel ashamed of their pleasure in objectification, though that is not necessarily the goal. In these films, female characters are more developed, and the storylines portray what it means to be a woman and the constant object of the gaze within a patriarchal society.

Queer film as a genre has historically been fetishized and created through the same heterosexual male gaze as most mainstream films. These earlier queer films don’t capture the entirety of a person and their complexity within the story, opting instead to segment individuals and put them in boxes that appeal to a largely heterosexual male audience. While possibly a tired example, Blue is the Warmest Colour is often cited as a queer film created through the male gaze. Although it was released relatively recently, in 2013, it shows how much priorities in queer films have changed over the past ten years. This film, which tells the story of a romance between two young women, has been heavily criticized for its graphic sex scenes and the objectification of the protagonists as objects of the male gaze rather than telling a story of their own. It seems more focused on fulfilling male viewers’ fantasies about how two women have sex without a male presence.

In contrast, Portrait of a Lady on Fire provides one of the best examples of a film created for the female gaze. The subject of the film is the act of looking and perceiving with Héloïse challenging the painter, Marianne, who has been commissioned to create her wedding portrait, to think about the intention behind her observations and to see Héloïse as who she is rather than through the eyes of her future husband. While the subject of the film revolves around painting this portrait and capturing an image of Héloïse for her male suitor, the movie almost exclusively features women. Unlike Blue is the Warmest Colour, which exists to entertain the male gaze and demystify queer relationships for male viewers, Portrait of a Lady on Fire highlights the societal role of women and its impact on an individual’s life. It deliberately shows the creative process of making a portrait from the female gaze, seeing Héloïse as she is rather than how Marianne thinks her future husband would want to see her, thus stripping the element of male pleasure from Héloïse’s image. 

The concept of the gaze in cinema, particularly the male gaze, has historically shaped the portrayal of female and queer characters in ways that cater to heterosexual male fantasies. However, the emergence of the female gaze and other oppositional gazes has begun to challenge and redefine these portrayals. Queer cinema, evolving from its fetishized beginnings, is increasingly embracing narratives that authentically represent the complexities of its characters. Films like Portrait of a Lady on Fire exemplify this shift, offering a more nuanced and respectful perspective that empowers the subject rather than objectifying them. With the continued rise of positive queer representation in film, it’s important to recognize who certain films are being created for and how the shift can continue to diversify audiences across genres.