ABSTRACT
The term ‘sex object’ implies a certain passivity, a person just ‘there’ for the viewer to gaze upon. Sex objects are pinned up, fixed, to be looked at. This submissiveness accords easily with the female sex role, which is so heavily defined in terms of passivity; but what happens when it is a man who is the sex object? The Son of the Sheik is an interesting example of some of the ways a film can deal with having a man as the object of the camera’s and the viewer’s adoration.
