Eroticizing Femininity: Women as Objects of the Male Gaze in Abdelkader Lagtaâ’s A Love Affair in Casablanca

Abstract

This article aims to interrogate the portrayal of the female body and the sexual politics of the male gaze in ‘Abdelkader Lagtaâ’s A Love Affair in Casablanca’. It argues that the cinematic discourse that contests patriarchal hegemony through liberating the female body objectifies and fragments women’s identity. Hence, the erotic representation of the women characters in Lagtaâ’s film empowers patriarchal hegemony by gratifying male heterosexual desires. Therefore, this article analyzes and examines the film’s text and iconography to examine how Lagtaâ contradicts his liberal attitudes vis-à-vis the emancipation of women from the suppressive sways of patriarchy. Additionally, his commercial film approach stimulates the pleasure in looking and reinforces the subjugation of women. Therefore, although the film director has tried to give the main female character a central role within the film narrative, he could not go beyond the representational politics of defamation against femininity and gender identity.