Final answer:
The 'male gaze' is a concept by Laura Mulvey that describes how visual media like film often portray women as objects for male pleasure, affecting women’s self-perception and reinforcing gender bias.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term 'male gaze', coined by Laura Mulvey, refers to a perspective that represents women as passive objects of men's desire and deeply impacts how women view themselves and others. This concept, which has become a pivotal framework in feminist film theory, articulates how visual media perpetuates patriarchal structures by depicting women primarily through the viewpoint of a heterosexual male. The male gaze alienates women from the spectatorship of film, as they are often portrayed in a limited and stereotypical manner, reinforcing gender inequalities. In contrast to the male gaze, other forms of gaze such as the 'female gaze' and 'imperial gaze' have also emerged in discourse, relating to the way women look at other women and the perspective of colonizers towards colonized territories, respectively.