The Function of the Male Gaze in Vertigo and Double Indemnity Anonymous 12th Grade

The role and subsequent objectification of women in film have prompted extensive debate in modern media and film theory. In particular, many film critics focus on how the female body is often presented as a hyper-sexualized object for viewer pleasure. This phenomenon is dubbed the “Male Gaze”, which is the way women are objectified and viewed upon through the eyes of the camera itself. The Male Gaze is so prominent throughout traditional Hollywood that a test was devised to determine just how ingrained films were in this male fantasy: the “Bechdel Test.” To pass the Bechdel test, a film has to have at least two (named) women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man. Despite how staggeringly simple this test seems, a disproportionate amount of films fail to pass. In Vertigo, John Ferguson (James Stewart) is hired to follow Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) and ends up falling obsessively in love with her. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), manipulating him to kill her husband after she secretly takes out an accident insurance policy on him. Not only do Vertigo (1958) and Double Indemnity (1944) fail the Bechdel test, but their female leads seem to...