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3%% Image kept per admin request. Do not change or remove.
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6[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/AwesomeSeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metal_gear_awesome_meryls_butt.jpg]]]]
7[[caption-width-right:350:[[ComicallyMissingThePoint Oh? What's in her pocket?]]]]
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9->'''Meryl:''' I'll go on ahead, look at my ass.\
10'''Snake:''' Okay. Cool.
11-->-- ''VideoGame/MetalGear WebAnimation/{{Awesome|Series}}''
12
13The Male Gaze is a form of {{Gaze}} that arises from the assumption that the audience is mostly comprised of straight males, which in turn means [[MsFanservice female fanservice]] will appear in some form to appeal to or appease said male audience.
14
15The usual result of Male Gaze is the way a (usually male) director/cameraman's interest in women shapes his shots, leading to a focus on breasts, legs, buttocks, and other jiggly bits even when the film isn't necessarily supposed to be a feast for eyes of their admirers (though most of the time this can indeed [[{{Fanservice}} be intentional]]). For example, a sex scene between a man and a woman may show more of her body than it does of his, or focus more on her reactions than his (see RightThroughHisPants). Alternatively, it could appear in shows that aren't overtly sexual - for example, scenes of bikini-clad female characters talking that emphasize their bodies rather than showing just their heads. This trope ''can'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools be used as a legitimate cinematic effect]], especially when combined with PointOfView. (At that point it may become EatingTheEyeCandy, though not necessarily.)
16
17The term also applies in other media, such as video games and comic books. During MediaNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}}, comic books were (and often still are) perfect examples of the male gaze, with scenes being framed to show off a female character's curves over everything else. It can occur in non-visual media too - when a female character is introduced, the narration will often spend a disproportionate amount of words on describing her appearance.
18
19Male Gaze does sometimes focus on male attributes, focusing on big pumping biceps and perfect abs, but, crucially, in a way that is sexless and aspirational. The presumed male audience is intended to relate to the character being objectified in this way and wish they had that body themselves, rather than desire the character.
20
21The DistaffCounterpart of the Male Gaze is the FemaleGaze - where the same rules as above apply except the focus is on more traditionally masculine qualities in a character.
22
23If the woman in question is aware of the FourthWall, she'll likely snap [[MyEyesAreUpHere "Ahem, eyes are up here!"]] at the camera/artist/character.
24
25The concept was popularized in Laura Mulvey's 1973 essay [[https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Visual+Pleasure+and+Narrative+Cinema "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."]]
26
27See also {{Fanservice}}, JigglePhysics, EatingTheEyeCandy, BoobsAndButtPose, HeadAndHipPose. Contrast LongingLook, and compare with FemaleGaze.
28
29----
30!!Example subpages:
31
32[[index]]
33* MaleGaze/{{Advertising}}
34* MaleGaze/AnimeAndManga
35* MaleGaze/ComicBooks
36* MaleGaze/FanWorks
37* [[MaleGaze/LiveActionFilms Films — Live Action]]
38* MaleGaze/{{Literature}}
39* MaleGaze/LiveActionTV
40* MaleGaze/VideoGames
41* MaleGaze/WebOriginal
42** MaleGaze/TheNostalgiaCritic
43* MaleGaze/{{Webcomics}}
44* MaleGaze/WesternAnimation
45* MaleGaze/RealLife
46[[/index]]
47
48!!Other examples:
49[[foldercontrol]]
50
51[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
52* Intentionally used and justified in ''WesternAnimation/{{Animalympics}}''. Marathon runner Kit Mambo explains her strategy to win the gold medal over her rival René Fromage thusly -- she'll take a quick lead, and then "break his concentration". The interview footage spells it out by focusing on Kit's butt as she runs.
53* In ''Anime/OneStormyNight'', Gabu has a tendency to stare at [[HoYay Mei's arse]], which the POV camera delightedly shows off. It's a rather unusual example given that Gabu is a wolf, Mei is a goat, and that he's staring because [[CarnivoreConfusion he wants to eat him]]. (''[[GRatedSex apparently]]'', anyway...)
54* Elastigirl in ''Franchise/TheIncredibles''. There's even [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/f3c3d0185a1243215c7cdbd697ba156e/10ddc15a98cf414a-b3/s1280x810/12eebad84944e760352e15d6fc6d6cd78f92af85.gif one scene where she sighs after seeing the size of her behind in a mirror.]]
55* PlayedForLaughs with a good dose of {{Squick}} in ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'': of all female characters who could have a chance to show their curves, [[FatBastard Ursula]] [[SoHideousItsTerrifying the sea witch is the one]] who spends a good part of her screentime shaking her chest and [[ShakingTheRump buttocks]] in front of the camera.
56* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' had Gloria the hippo, whose [[HartmanHips big butt]] is shown on screen several times throughout each movie, video game, and animated short.
57* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'' has Scratte's big butt shown.
58* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooCampScare'', when Daphne and Velma were disrobing into their swimsuits while getting ready to go swimming, [[https://youtu.be/KshZRx8KL38?t=47 the camera moved slowly to show their whole bodies.]]
59* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'' when Weaver meets Azteca. The camera switches to his perspective as Weaver checks out her legs… which are four completely alien-looking limbs that don’t even look remotely attractive to humans. She then directs his attention back to her eyes.
60* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'': After Linguini and Colette get together, there's a slow pan-up of Colette as they work in the kitchen, presumably from Linguini's perspective.
61* ''WesternAnimation/BoysNightOut'': EVERYWHERE. There are many shots focusing on the strippers' legs, butts, and breasts.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Music]]
65* ''Dead Prez's'' music video to ''Hip Hop'' started with a shot of a woman's buttocks, which was then captioned with the words: "Now that we got your attention". Then raps about social warfare.
66* This is pretty much what Creator/RoyOrbison's big hit "''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KFvoDDs0XM&pp=ygUZcHJldHR5IHdvbWFuIHJveSBvcmJpc29uIA%3D%3D Oh, Pretty Woman]]''" is all about.
67* Male-to-male example: The [[http://vjarmy.com/wiki/index.php/File:Wow_Wow_VENUS.png album art]] for the [[Music/{{BEMANI}} VENUS]] song "Wow Wow VENUS" shows DJ Yoshitaka facing Sota Fujimori and looking down at his crotch.
68* Surprisingly averted in Juvenile's video for ''Rodeo''. It goes behind the scenes at a strip club, showing the difficult lives of the strippers. While there are scenes showing them dancing, the camera focuses on their faces, showing how many of them are sad, bored, worried or stressed.
69* Three words. '''[[Music/SirMixALot BABY GOT BACK.]]'''
70* Music/IngridMichaelson's [[http://youtu.be/5GBT37_yyzY music video for "Girls Chase Boys"]] is a frame-by-frame homage to [[http://youtu.be/UrGw_cOgwa8 Robert Palmer's music video for "Simply Irresistible"]] with [[DeconstructedTrope herself playing Robert Palmer and the genders of the backup dancers randomized.]]
71* Played every which way with ''[[{{Music/Psychostick}} Because Boobs]]."
72--> '''Girl''': Um, excuse me, my eyes are up here!\
73'''Guy''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Yeah, but... your boobs are down there.]]
74* TheStranglers' ''"Peaches"'' may or may not combine this with DirtyOldMan.
75* ''The Zolas'''s EP ''Wino Oracle'' has a track that is literally called this.
76* Deliberately over-invoked in Chilly Gonzolas's video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAONaktxLNc "You Can Dance."]] The camera stays locked on the female dancers' butts, bosoms and crotches (all clothed), occasionally intercut with shots of Chilly getting slapped across the face in time with the hand-claps, implying that the whole thing is [[MyEyesAreUpHere from his perspective]].
77* Johnny Tillotson's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy_ArpznZUs&ab_channel=OldiesUploadz "Poetry in Motion"]] talks about how his girlfriend's graceful SupermodelStrut keeps him mesmerized and is the visual equivalent of poetry with CurvesInAllTheRightPlaces.
78--> Poetry in motion
79-->Dancing close to me
80-->A flower of devotion
81-->A swaying gracefully
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Music Videos]]
85* Music/{{Miserable}} invokes male gaze and uses it as a tool to trick the audience. Aside from the GiantWoman wearing nothing but a bikini and high-heeled shoes, the band also specifically plays on places like her butt, her thighs, and her breasts while the camera pans over her body seductively. Combined with her occasional flirtatious smiles and giggles directed towards the band, this makes it seem like she's just there to be eye candy. So it comes as a suprise when [[spoiler:the last 17% of the video is dedicated to her gleefully devouring the terrified male band members.]]
86[[/folder]]
87
88[[folder:Pinball]]
89* In ''Pinball/EightBall Deluxe,'' one of the playfield images is a woman in tight jeans with her back to the viewer, leaning over the pool table...
90* The playfield for Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''Pinball/{{Xenon}}'' shows a woman with her back to the player, arms upraised.
91* ''Pinball/EvelKnievel'' features several female fans with [[BigBreastPride large breasts]] and wearing [[FormFittingWardrobe tight T-shirts.]]
92* The sides of the ''Pinball/{{Baywatch}}'' cabinet prominently feature the backsides of three female lifeguards, complete with skimpy swimsuits.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
96* Turn on any Wrestling/{{WWE}} show later than 1995. Find a woman wrestling and chances are the cameras are focusing on her breasts falling out of her top, jiggling as she moves, or competing for who can get the most buttocks shots. Even more so if she is in any competition that is not wrestling, WWE tending to have "bikini contests" and such seemingly just to facilitate this, though they seem to be on their way out since the return to the PG rating.
97* Played straight during [[Wrestling/{{FMW}} Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling]]'s "sports entertainment" era, where what was once among the most fearsome women's divisions on the planet was phased out for valets with little wrestling ''or'' [[GarbageWrestler garbage wrestling]] skills whom the cameras would zoom in on while they attempted to fight one another, often to the point of missing the actual wrestling moves and violence the promotion was built on. [[NoFourthWall However]], what was left of the women's division was still fearsome enough [[DefiedTrope to convince the cameramen not to apply this trope when they were wrestling]].
98* During a Full Impact Pro [[GimmickMatches falls count anywhere match]] between [[Wrestling/NelsonErazo Homicide]] and Wrestling/CMPunk, the camera man, to commentator Prazak's annoyance, became more interested in two nearby strippers performing. Homicide himself soon became more interested in them than Punk too.
99* "Extreme Expose": The segment being the part in the show where three scantily clad women - [[Wrestling/KellyKelly one just]] ''[[Wrestling/KellyKelly barely]]'' [[Wrestling/KellyKelly over the age of 18]] - dance to club music in the ring. It started as the 18-year-old's way to show off how much of an "exhibitionist" she was.
100** Even though [[Wrestling/BrookeAdams Brooke Adams]] considered her buttocks her best assets [[{{Pun}} (no pun intended)]], one of the cameras that followed her seemed more obsessed with them than her.
101* {{Subverted| Trope}} and {{Justified| Trope}} in OVW during a Wrestling/LeidTapa vs Blossom Twin match, as the camera was being held by Eddy Valiant, whose girlfriend Epiphany was later seen demanding him to stop filming.
102* Wrestling/AllysinKay [[EveryProperLadyShouldCurtsy curtsying]] before her matches creates a lot of opportunities for this.
103* Wrestling/{{Ivory}}. Oh yeah. Her fans loved looking at and talking about her butt. Google "Ivory's ass" for proof. On April 5, 2002, Steve D. Perkins posted [[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.sport.pro-wrestling/FNMd5qeLNXM/uMr1XT6lkZMJ "TOP 100 DUMBEST RSPW GAGS"]] to the UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}} newsgroup rec.sport.pro-wrestling. "Tributes to Wrestling/{{Molly|Holly}}'s or Ivory's ass" came in at #61.
104* Wrestling/{{Holidead}} made her Wrestling/RingOfHonor [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk--WmngGnk debut]] in a loss to Wrestling/SumieSakai in a dark match from ''ROH[=/=][[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]] Global Wars 2017 Night III'', October 14, 2017. One of the commenters said she was "thicc as hell," and another said, "That zombie's got a nice ass."
105** She acknowledges this in [[https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj-z5HaAYrQ/ this post]], which shows her lying face down on the mat and features the words "Fans Be Like Dat Ass Tho." Raised to funny because of how she quotes the Advertising/{{GEICO}} "Hump Day" ad, asking "Guess what day it is?"
106[[/folder]]
107
108[[folder:Radio]]
109* In one episode of ''Jack and Millie'', Millie's friend Shirley says Millie doesn't dress for the male gaze. Millie isn't sure the [[FunWithHomophones male gays]] would be interested if she did.
110[[/folder]]
111
112[[folder:Sports]]
113* NFL cheerleaders and NBA dancers.
114* Thanks to UsefulNotes/ErinAndrews, it has become for common for sideline and courtside reporters to be female.
115* Very common in the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl, where most of the national anthem singers are women.
116* Spotting pretty women in the crowds of sporting events has become such an obvious trope that it has it's own name among cameramen, the "Honey Shot." [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot/2014/07/07/andy_sidaris_the_man_who_invented_sports_television_s_honey_shot.html This article]] details how it was essentially the brainchild of Andy Sidaris, the director for ABC football broadcasts. Note that some women (Jenn Sterger, Pamela Anderson) have even gained careers from being spotted in sports crowds.
117* During the 2012 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, NBC had to pull an online video called "Bodies in Motion" because its depiction of female athletes was considered objectifying and demeaning. It didn't help that during the women's volleyball matches, the cameramen would occasionally get...distracted.
118[[/folder]]
119
120[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
121* In the early days of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', it was common to see published modules describe any female characters (if they existed at all) in detail, usually with terms like "voluptuous" or "svelte", while neglecting to give important male [=NPCs=] so much as a ''hair color''.
122** The illustrations in the D&D books of the 80s and 90s often depicted sexily designed and dressed female characters. Clyde Caldwell, one of the most prolific (and, in other respects, one of the best) D&D artists of this time, is particularly infamous for this.
123[[/folder]]
124

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