Complicating the theory of the male gaze: Hitchcock’s leading men.

This essay seeks to complicate Mulvey’s argument regarding the active/male gaze—passive/female subject in mainstream cinema by looking at how individual movie stars may complicate this power structure. ExaminingVertigoandNorth by Northwest,this article demonstrates the complex and various ways that the star images of Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant work to undermine their own power in Hitchcock’s films, often through the very act of gazing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]