the male gaze

the male gaze theory was created by Marjorie Ferguson in the 1980's and was a study of how the male audience perceives female image and interaction in media. The theory on pictures was based mainly around 4 sections, chocolate box, invitational, super-smiler and romantic/sexual. these categories are about what kind of image the photos of the women in British women magazines were suggesting, for example, what clothes they were wearing, their facial expression, the type of camera shot etc. IN the 1990's Trevor Millum contributed to the theory with his 5 own categories of photo which applied to men and women these were . I am going to apply the theory to my photo on my preliminary task, the magazine.
my photo of shanghai when applied to the male gaze theory matches the category of comical by Trevor Millum. she is holding a scarf to her face, looking scared of jumpy in a silly way.the photo would be called silly and ridiculous and she is "acting the fool". this photo is useful because it stands out, is different and may intrigue people who see it and make them want to read it. The other photo i used of shanghai falls mostly into the chocolate box catagory, utilizing the following attributes; half/full smile, lips together/ slightly parted, teeth barley visible and full/ three quaters of the face to the camera. shanghai has most of her face facing the camera, she has a half smile, concealing her teeth.