Male gaze and the heroines of our era

Laura Mulvey defines the objectification of women in cinema through the cinematic apparatus as 'the male gaze.' Since publication, Mulvey's theories have been highly debated and revised, including by Mulvey herself. This long theoretical discussion is continuously relevant in our discussions of the representation of women on screen in Hollywood. With the addition of Michel Foucault's theories on power and resistance, I challenge Mulvey's original assertion that independent feminist cinema is the location of a cinema free of the male gaze. Through an in-depth analysis of Muvley's original work and various revision to her theory, I will approach Patty Jenkins' 2017 film Wonder Woman as a change to the dominant cinematic apparatus that creates the male gaze. Through the subversion of the trope of the spectacle, Jenkins presents to us a world on screen without the male gaze, inviting further changes in the dominant Hollywood film world for more accurate and authentic, non-objectifying representations of women.