Versace and the Male Gaze


This ad for Versace features Bella Hadid and Donatella Versace. Hadid, an international supermodel, is shown getting a tattoo from Versace. She is dressed in a short blue dress, a pair of high heels and some quite large earrings. In the ad, Hadid is seen as quite confident and controlled, but is her appearance shaped by the male gaze?

Laura Mulvey, an accredited film critic, explains the male gaze as the viewing of a woman as a sexual object for males (Miller, 2019). When a film or an ad is made in the perspective of the male gaze, the female characters are not themselves dynamic or interesting other than as an object of sexual desire. Mulvey also argues that the male gaze is similar to Freud's socophilia. Freud talks about how a sexual desire makes one take others as objects, and watch them with a curious, sexual gaze (Miller, 2019).

In the advertisement, Hadid is very much the focus. At the beginning of the ad, the camera pans over her body, highlighting her perfection, but never meeting her eyes. The way the camera pans over her body, and the way Hadid is posed, is in stark contrast to how Versace is portrayed in the video. Versace is covered up, wearing all black and sat hunched over. Her appearance seems natural and laid-back in contrast to Hadid. Here, one could argue that whilst Hadid's performance is shaped by the male gaze, Versace's is not. Hadid is in the ad to be desired, whilst Versace is simply there as the designer of the brand.

There is also a difference in how the camera follows the women once they meet the camera's gaze. Versace is the first to look straight into it. Her acknowledgment of the camera does not change how the women are presented or the movement of the camera. However, when Hadid looks up, the camera immediately starts following her eyes and moves with her. This can again be connected to the male gaze. Hadid is again desired and wanted, and therefore focused on, while Versace is seen as undesirable in the situation.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Miller, G. (2019). The Consequences of the “Male Gaze” and Sexual Objectification. [online] Ginacalnan.pbworks.com. Available at: https://ginacalnan.pbworks.com/f/themalegaze.pdf [Accessed 17 Apr. 2019].

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