A sexualização da mulher no cinema: uma análise discursiva da construção do male gaze no filme Anora

Abstract

The present study aims to discursively analyze the sexualization of women in cinema in the film Anora, taking the male gaze as an ideological device that organizes regimes of visibility and processes of signification of the female body in contemporary contexts. The research is grounded in Laura Mulvey’s theories on visual pleasure and cinematic narrative, articulated with the principles of Materialist Discourse Analysis, as developed by Eni Orlandi. Additionally, a Foucauldian perspective is mobilized to examine the relations of power that traverse discursive practices and shape processes of subjectivation, particularly regarding the symbolic domination exerted over female bodies. The corpus consists of scenes in which the character Anora is framed in objectified, eroticized, or subordinated ways, revealing how audiovisual language — camera framing, camera movements, soundtrack, silences, and lexical choices — produces meanings that reinforce patriarchal discursive formations. The analysis demonstrates that Anora is predominantly constructed as a visual spectacle for the male gaze, with her body fragmented, fetishized, and associated with youth, fragility, and eroticization. Even in contemporary productions that appear to portray complex female characters, cinema continues to operate under symbolic structures that naturalize the sexualization of women. The study concludes that the male gaze functions as a mechanism of power and meaning that captures female autonomy, producing dominated subjectivities and contributing to the maintenance of misogynistic discourses within the social imaginary. The research emphasizes the need for critical practices that challenge these ways of looking and build possibilities of signification that escape the dominant patriarchal logic.