The Male Gaze And Great Big Bangs

ARE YOU AWARE of this phrase, "the male gaze?"  Do you have a thorough understanding of what it is and what it means? It's one of those phrases that you hear bandied about, but a lot of people aren't sure exactly what it really means.  Unless maybe you're female writer.  Or a feminist film studies major.  If you're a guy maybe you're a women's studies major.  Or you're just a bit more advanced than me.

I mean, that's not entirely true.  I am aware -- I try to be consistently aware -- of the fact that the audience for TV is more female than male. If you're writing in this medium, you're writing for women.  So at some point you run across the idea of "the male gaze" and how it does or doesn't affect your show.

But it's a dicey thing trying to discuss, or make understood, the effect of "the male gaze" on TV and film -- especially to a younger male writer.  I've been in rooms where "the woman" (sad, I know) elicits groans time and time again when she tries to fight for one little antidote to the pervasiveness of that male gaze in the show.  Just something for the script. And I've been in other rooms where years and years of chafing under male-led writing rooms and programs leads to the classic overreaction:  the bullshit flip where every situation is a reversal ... where the woman always has to come out on top.  [Cue every current TV commercial, where the sensible wife is married to the fucking retarded manchild douchebag.]

Before we get further, lets get that 101 Feminism definition of the male gaze and what it means for film & tv.

Bringing up "the male gaze" will often get you in a lot of fights.  I've been on both sides of those fights at different times. But today I want to point you to a ... just extraordinary little article that every screenwriter should read.

It examines The Big Bang Theory, and how it freed itself from the tyranny of the male gaze; and how that made the show better.  If, like me, you're somebody who got caught off guard by how bad BBT was when it started and then saw it later and went, "uh, when did this show get so funny?" (To me it happened on an airplane watching a rerun in the seat back)  This article walks you through, start to finish, how rethinking your character and making somebody more than a prop can lead you to a stronger, fresher, BIG FUCKING HIT SHOW.

This article is incredibly well presented, and concise, so there's no point me even excerpting it.  Just go read the whole thing here.

I have no idea who Linda Holmes is. But she wrote the best article on TV writing I've read in months.

Check it out.