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‪The concept of the ‘male gaze’ proposed by Laura Mulvey in 1975 is a key notion in film and media studies. Contemporary uses of the concept, however, tend to leave out both its psychoanalytical foundations and its central thesis, that of the subjectivation of the spectator through cinematographic experience. Through analysis of two controversies that arose between 1974 and 1980 surrounding Mulvey’s thesis, this article shows how these dimensions nonetheless became the focal points of intense theoretical and political conflict. We argue that the concept of the male gaze is an inadequate one for the study of the reception process, and we show the radical incompatibility between cultural studies and the tradition within which Mulvey operates.‪