In visual culture, the male gaze is described as a point of view in which the viewer registers their surroundings in the perspective of a heterosexual male. More often than not, in this point of view, women are seen as objects of sexual pleasure aimed specifically for the male viewer. Media uses the male gaze to entice the viewer into believing that they are in control of whatever situation is being presented. In this response, I will be discussing an advertisement from The Competition Issue: Men’s Health October 2017 magazine.
Men’s Health is obviously marketed towards men who may be concerned about their health or enjoy pretending they care about their health. In this edition, which is full of advertisements pandering to the male gaze, there is an advertisement for “The Girl Next Door”. In this image, we see a blonde, caucasian woman in revealing red lingerie who is lying on a couch and holding a piece of cake. Her finger is raised to her lips as she stares directly at the viewer. On the right margin is a text message chat that follows a man being unable to get a date and a friend …show more content…
The woman is lying on the couch, staring at the viewer as if to welcome them to come enjoy her company. She is strategically covering her breasts with the cake and her arm. This implies that she is a kind of dessert or reward that the man has won. If the man can come sit by her, then she can show him a real treat. The presence of this advertisement in Men’s Health strongly suggests that if men get physically ripped, they will be entitled to beautiful women. This use of the male gaze which prescribes a type of submissive seductiveness to women allows men who may not feel in control of anything in their lives to feel in control of women because they have been served the notion that they deserve these women- that the dominance of women is predetermined in the man’s nature just as being physically fit and imposing
Men’s Health is obviously marketed towards men who may be concerned about their health or enjoy pretending they care about their health. In this edition, which is full of advertisements pandering to the male gaze, there is an advertisement for “The Girl Next Door”. In this image, we see a blonde, caucasian woman in revealing red lingerie who is lying on a couch and holding a piece of cake. Her finger is raised to her lips as she stares directly at the viewer. On the right margin is a text message chat that follows a man being unable to get a date and a friend …show more content…
The woman is lying on the couch, staring at the viewer as if to welcome them to come enjoy her company. She is strategically covering her breasts with the cake and her arm. This implies that she is a kind of dessert or reward that the man has won. If the man can come sit by her, then she can show him a real treat. The presence of this advertisement in Men’s Health strongly suggests that if men get physically ripped, they will be entitled to beautiful women. This use of the male gaze which prescribes a type of submissive seductiveness to women allows men who may not feel in control of anything in their lives to feel in control of women because they have been served the notion that they deserve these women- that the dominance of women is predetermined in the man’s nature just as being physically fit and imposing