When British film theorist Laura Mulvey used the phrase "the male gaze" in her essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, published in 1975, she coined a term for what it was like for women to be depicted in the visual arts and literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that often showed them as objects of sexual desire. Initially limited to academic circles, the term eventually came to be used in common parlance, hinting at the universality of the experience.

And not much seems to have changed 45 years later, for writers and artistes don't just continue to grapple with the male gaze in their creations, but also need to factor in new media propagating the same perspective. What's the Matter? a theatrical piece by Bengaluru-based artiste Anitha Santhanam, focuses on this universal nature of the gaze by delving into how we have come to accept and internalise the patriarchal measures for perfection. The performance will premiere in Mumbai this Saturday.