She drew from Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film, Rear Window, applying terms from Sigmund Freud's theories of psychoanalysis to discuss camera angle, narrative choice, and props in the movie while focusing on the concept of the male gaze.
[3][failed verification] Zoe Dirse looked at the female gaze through the documentary film genre, analyzing aspects of pleasure and viewer identification.
[4] Paula Marantz Cohen discusses the female gaze in the chick flick genre, with specific attention to the attire women wear.
[8][9][10][11] Jul Maroh, the author of the book upon which the film was based, was among the harshest[failed verification] critics, saying, "It appears to me this was what was missing on the set: lesbians.
"[12] Filmmaker April Mullen has said, "Women have this vulnerability and connection to a depth of emotions that I can see and feel in certain moments of truth in the films we create.
[16][17][18] At the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, Joey Soloway, in their keynote address, explored the definition of the female gaze in film-making.
[19] Specifically, Soloway outlined three concepts, mimicking Laura Mulvey's original triangulation of the male gaze (the spectator, the filmmaker, and the actors).
[19] Similar to the concept of the female gaze, 'written by a woman' can be understood as an emotionally vulnerable and aware man devoid of the conventions of toxic masculinity.
American writer and director Joey Soloway has addressed additional components of the female gaze in film and media.
In Fleabag, written and directed by Phoebe-Waller Bridge, the unnamed protagonist breaks the Fourth wall during moments when she is not revealing the full extent of her beliefs or emotions to other characters within the show, instead relaying her inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions to the audience through eye contact directly in the camera lens – as Markus Kügle already explained in more detail.
The 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, displays this concept during a scene in which the protagonist, Mr. Darcy, admits timidly with hesitance to Elizabeth Bennet his captivation and affection for her in a manner that is contrary to the grandeur professions of love seen in the romance genre.
In the film, Margot Robbie's Barbie realizes the full extent of what it means to be seen as an object and the implications of living in a patriarchal society, something absent in the utopia of Barbieland.
During a scene when Barbie is crying after realizing the full extent of what it means to live in a patriarchal world, the narrator breaks the fourth wall by addressing how, during this scene of vulnerability and defeat experienced by Barbie, the audience instead readily acknowledges how beautiful Margot Robbie looks while crying before they will recognize her character's feelings.
Rejecting, or similarly recognizing, the audience will acknowledge her beauty before empathizing with her struggles as a woman through the verbal assertion made by the film's narrator.
[22] She argues that although the female gaze presumes a universal experience based on shared gender, it tends to ignore minorities, choosing instead to focus on the lives of white middle-class women.
She argues that although I Love Dick and GLOW introduce characters of color, they do so by casting them in supporting roles which never destabilize the white protagonist.
The story line also focuses on Issa's job working with at-risk youth, which helps in exploring the racial dynamics of Los Angeles.
Using anti-racist comedy, Benson-Allot argued, Insecure challenged the focus on white feminism and neglect of black women.
[22] Canadian cinematographer Zoe Dirse also criticized the reproduction of the female gaze and the under-representation of women in technical areas of film making.
Oates explains how more and more action movies and chick flick films create the heterosexual female gaze through showcasing male's bodies.
Taylor argues that the use of a limited and specific female gaze can re-code incidents of gendered violence and violent male body as both reassuring and desirable.