The Male Gaze in Chicago

The Male Gaze, is the idea that the female character(s) are purely in the scene as an erotic object for the male characters and male audience. They're are there to be looked at, that is their meaning in the scene/film.




The Cell Block Tango scene from Chicago is a prime example of the male gaze in film. In the scene the girls are dancing around in lingerie in Tango style, a style seen as being sensual, passionate and intimate. The male gaze is prominent throughout this scene, and this is shown by the intense focus on the female body and the way it moves during the tango style dance routine and the close ups on the dancers' legs; also the costumes used in the scene also scream male gaze as they're all dressed in lingerie and heel showing off their physique of the girls, making them an erotic object to the male viewer.

The types of shots used in this scene show the camera as a male with desires towards the women; the long shots show the whole body of the females with them dancing around in the lingerie style costumes which strongly implies the desires towards the females that, in Mulvey's theory, are only a part of the scene to be erotic objects for characters in the scene and the audience.
The close ups do a similar thing, but instead they set the focus in a particular area, for example theres a close up shot on one of the dancers crotch with while rising one foot through the instep drawing all attention to her crotch defining her as a erotic object for males either in the film or in the audience. 
The lighting also helps apply Mulvey's theory, the shot when the spotlight hits on the couple doing the spread eagle lift on the drum beat causes your eyes to be drawn to that movement, for Mulvey that would be what a heterosexual male would do in that given situation.