Trailer - Male Gaze Theory

Male Gaze theory

 We applied Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male gaze’ theory to our film trailer, to ‘stereotypes of characters’ which means that more men are engaged in our media product as the female protagonists is more ‘pleasurable’ and ‘satisfying’ too look at. Our protagonist within our trailer is a young white female, blonde hair, which challenges the stereotype of the main character of being a young white male. The protagonist of a trailer is conventionally portrayed as a ‘dumb’ blonde and usually dies first. However, within our trailer we use various shots, and angles to suggest that the protagonist can escape the situations and portrayed as strong although in a compromising situations. There is a scene that shows vulnerability of the protagonists as she has been kidnapped. We chose this character as our protagonist, as we wanted to challenge the norms and conventions of trailers. Our antagonist within our trailer is a black male; they are also another one of the characters most likely to die first. This doesn’t happen in our trailer, he is dominating within our trailer and he is the one that controls the protagonists.