How has Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory been constructed in Sin City?

Sin City (2004, Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez) is a neo-noir genre of the film, which adopts of the conventions of the classic noir conventions to reinforce some of the patriarchal ideologies from the 1940’s, therefore reinforcing Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory. This essay explores how this theory is reinforced or challenged in a clip from the film where a female character is dancing in a bar.

One of the conventions adopted is low key lighting. The lighting in this shot focuses on the character Nancy’s body highlighting her sexy dancing. It could be suggested she is sexual objectifying herself as the focus is all on her and she is standing higher up than everyone else suggesting though she is an object of male gaze, she chooses to be.

On the other hand it could be suggested she is objectified through the use of film elements: throughout this clip, many shots of Nancy show her dancing on the bar. For example a medium shot focuses on her hips and bum, which fetishises parts of her body, which again reinforces the male gaze theory. Another is the use of slow motion while the camera pans up her body, which is voyeuristic and objectifies her which reflects the intended male audience.

Another convention of noir is the femme fatale which translates deadly woman. Though Nancy isn’t a traditional female villain (she’s not a villain at all), she represents sexual temptation and reinforces the noir era’s ideologies of females being in control of males- in particularly sexually. This could be argued as most of the clip focuses on her body- she is deadly to the male characters in the film the male audience as she has them hooked through the camera.


One of the props that Nancy has is the rope which is iconographic for the western genre with connotations of weapons, attack, male dominance and possibly phallus. As she plays with the prop, it signifies she is playing around with male dominance representing Nancy is androgynous character, in particular her sexual dominance. The prop could also suggest role play fulfilling male desires and fantasies, which again Nancy physically holds the power over the males.

A particular shot of Nancy is a low angle shot when she is dancing; again the lighting is focused on her body. The combination of the shot with the lighting could signify her god-like or divine quality in a sexually tempting way. This voyeuristic element adds to the Male Gaze theory too. Also the low angle shot could signify her sexual dominance over the male gazers that the audience are intended to identify with.

In binary opposition to this, a high angle shot of three men in a row drinking beer at the same time. This could signify the intended male gazing audience for Nancy’s character and the film itself. This again is reflected with the zoom on another male character which could signify he is the intended male audience of the film. However, if the film is suggesting females hold sexual power over males it could suggest the zoom signifies women target males as sexual predators, again reinforcing the femme fatale convention of film noir.

In conclusion, the film mainly reinforces the male gaze theory, through reinforcing some of the ideologies and conventions of the noir era. This makes the text a post modern film and possibly uses retro sexism to exploit female representation and sexuality from the past. The film uses the mise en scene to present females as sexual objects such as lighting and props and editing effects such a slow motion. However it is arguable wheather they are sexually objectified or self objectified, either way it is all for the male gaze.