I recently googled, “what is the male gaze?”
Here is what I found;
In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer. In the visual and aesthetic presentations of narrative cinema, the male gaze has three perspectives; (i) that of the man behind the camera, (ii) that of the male characters within the film’s cinematic representations; and (iii) that of the spectator gazing at the image.
Reading this, I had an epiphany, which should have presented itself to my consciousness many years ago, but I think I ignored it simply because of the time I grew up in.
So I decided…we need to talk about Micheal Myers.
The first Halloween movie was released in theaters on October 24th, 1978, when I was only three years old. Clearly, I was not going to the theatre to see this slasher movie with mom and dad, as I was a teeny tiny curly-haired cutie pie. Still, a whole lot of people DID go, and it made a lot of money and paved the way for a young director by the name of John Carpenter …maybe you heard of him?
Mr. Carpenter also created the infamous score for the independent film, a score that haunts scaredy cats to this day.
Here is the thing that I have realized…
Micheal Myers is the male gaze.
His first kill in the first movie, Halloween, is the murder of his teenage sister in 1963. She was only fifteen, and little Mikey was dressed up in his clown costume (because it was Halloween) and was basically a baby at six years old!!
After watching his sister do what teenagers do, kissing her boyfriend, and then disappearing upstairs for some alone time…Mikey gets a knife from the kitchen, heads upstairs to his sister’s bedroom where she is now alone, sitting in front of her vanity, nude except for her underwear, and brushing her long hair. He approaches her, and the viewpoint is through the eyes of the clown mask, which foreshadows the infamous mask he will wear in the future, and he stabs her many times, therefore murdering his topless sibling.
In this case, the male gaze comes from John Carpenter's direction. A message is being sold to the audience that this girl has committed the sin of having sex and, therefore, must be objectified and punished at the hand of her demonic little brother while he wears the clown costume that she helped make for him. Geez!!! Excuse her for having breasts.
Slasher films are famous for the male gaze. I had never seen so many breasts as I did in cinematic releases from the 70s and 80s. Mine were barely there, and I didn’t have a bra for the longest time. So when I finally got that little piece of cloth you get when your mom feels pity on you and buys you a brassiere…my parents announced it to everyone at the dinner table. UGHH…the horror. Grandpa teased me…I died inside.
When you think about it, horror movies could arguably be the gateway drug for teenage boys to pornography. ie- we showed you this…would you like to see a little more billy? go find dads Playboy….it’s confusing and complicated.
Back to the story…
Micheal Myers grows up locked away in a mental health institution /asylum and eventually manages to break free. Re-entering his hometown, to the only house he has ever known, on the cusp of Halloween and with a new mask, a creepy demeanor, and the superpower of walking slow but getting there fast…he begins to stalk a young beautiful 17-year-old girl named Laurie Strode, played by the ultimate final girl and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. She was 19 years old at the time of filming the movie.
Laurie Strode is sweet. She is a good kid, listens to her parents, does well in school, covers all her body parts in 70’s attire, is shy about boys, and enjoys knitting. I also noticed she wears a skirt when we first see her, while her friends wear jeans. She is “feminine” and “proper”…it’s the only way to be if you want to survive in a slasher.
Throughout the movie, Michael creeps on Laurie all over the damn place. From behind a bush across the street at school…he is essentially a stalker—a man hunting a woman.
Laurie's friends, Annie & Lynda, are portrayed as more promiscuous. They have boyfriends, like sex, and want to corrupt sweet Laurie into their coven of girls who (gasp) don’t behave as the male gaze thinks they should but enjoys, so they are up for the slaughter. Both girls die half-dressed and either on the way to or after sexual encounters with the young men they are dating.
What is Laurie Strode doing while her friends are being horrifically murdered? She is a proper babysitter, carving pumpkins with the kids and knitting while dreaming about a boy she might like.
When Laurie eventually finds her friend’s corpses and is confronted by the monster, Michael Myers, she has no choice but to fight, scream, and fight some more. She does an excellent job stabbing him with her knitting needle, a clothes hanger, and his knife…but each time, he keeps getting up and coming after her. In the end, a man named Dr. Loomis shoots Michael six times, causing him to fall off a balcony, which stops the attack on poor Laurie. But then, when they peer over the balcony, Michael is gone…only to come back for her movie after movie (Restraining order, please!!!)
Most women will experience the “literal” male gaze at some point in their lives. That uncomfortable moment when you are walking down the grocery aisle with your cart, and some random guy looks at you…maybe you smile, after all, you are polite, and he keeps looking. Perhaps it is uncomfortable enough that your spidey senses go into overdrive, and you look back. Is he still looking? Then you notice him in the next aisle, somewhere in the distance, or standing next to you, picking out cereal at the exact moment you are.
These are clear Michael Myers moments, and sometimes ladies, you just have to stare back and ask, do you need anything? What are you looking at, sir? Take a picture; it lasts longer! Please stop following me!
We have come a long way, baby!!!
Thanks to the #metoo movement, the young girls in Iran fighting for their rights to exist at all, the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis has reprised her role and totally (SPOILER ALERT) kills Michael Myers once and for all and is a total badass with full grey hair, and no time for frickin makeup. Thanks to all the women and men who make horror through a more progressive lens and tell stories that go deeper than just the surface of things and more the neck up rather than the neck down. Thanks to ALL the men who are just good guys….I was lucky enough to be raised by one, have a brother that is one, and married one. I don’t allow shitheads into my life.
I still watch slasher movies. I haven’t “canceled” them out of my Halloween experience. I am just more AWARE. Everyone should be aware when they read a book, watch a movie, listen to a podcast, etc..you don’t have to eat the crap being shoveled in front of you. It’s okay to appreciate a thing and disagree with significant parts of it. There isn’t black and white..it is all very gray, and we must be thoughtful and always remember to be ourselves. Live our truth. Recognize the lines being crossed, and set our boundaries.
xo
Michelle Lee Stuart