The Male Gaze: A Feminist Analysis

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By focusing on the production of Absent through the lens of a feminist spectator it is possible to clarify the effect of immersive spectatorship on the male gaze. Feminist spectatorship entails readership of a performance against the dominant ideology to exhibit how a performance address the ideal white, straight male spectator. Typically, performances will “employ culturally determined gender codes that reinforce cultural conditioning.” These representations encourage the male spectator to identify with a male hero, while both women in the production and as spectators are passive. For example, the Duchess has no agency in her story. Every news articles refers to her not as her own person, but as an ex-wife. Every aspect of her narrative is

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