Mulvey's theory was that the woman is presented in a film for viewing pleasure for the male audience. This is apparent in
500 Days Of Summer as Summer is presented as an object, which Tom progresses to conquer. An example of this is when Tom has sex with her for the first time, he exits the street dancing with strangers. During this scene he passes spraying fountains, creating phallic imagery that centrals the celebration around the idea of the male, Tom, conquering the female, Summer. The spectators would have an allegiance with Tom in this scene, as throughout the film we are aligned with him through the male gaze, as it is most dominant in Hollywood cinema. In this scene we do not view how Summer feels, by following Kaplan's theory we are able to.
E.Anne Kaplan argues that the spectator aligns with the male in the film, and must have to make a concious effort to align with the female. In
500 Days Of Summer we conform to the male gaze, however by making this concious effort we are able to align with Summer. Throughout the film she is not given a voice, but the dominant view point of the male gaze does not allow us to see from her perspective and therefore we end up aligning with Tom only.
If the spectator is to take a negotiated reading of the film, they are likely to not belong to the dominant group which is white, heterosexual and male, and therefore take an oppositional view.
Linda Williams explained that when the female gaze becomes the dominant view in the film, the female character holding the power will result in being punished because of this break of convention. There is often a struggle for spectators viewing the film through the male gaze to align with the female, this is apparent in
500 Days Of Summer. Summer is presented as a free spirited independent female who does not believe in love. As we see the film from Tom's perspective, we feel bad for him when Summer does not want to be his girlfriend and as a result dislike her. She does not get diagetically punished but she gets punished in terms of the spectators response. Tom in a way is punished in the film, because he ends up depressed because Summer gets married to someone else. However we do not know to what extent either of them have a 'happy ending' as we do not see Summer with her husband and are left with Tom meeting a woman "Autumn". In the final scene where the meeting takes place, the day counter used throughout the film resets to zero, implying the same events are going to happen.
