Research: Mulvey’s Male Gaze

MULVEY'S 'MALE GAZE'

The 'male gaze' is a theory which seeks to explain womens' role in music videos, via the way they are represented. 

Film theorist Laura Mulvey (1975) 

says that the camera is always in the perspective of a heterosexual male. Thus, the camera works around women's bodies to objectify them for the pleasure of an equally gendered audience as the camera. 

She outlines three ways in which women in music videos are responded to:

• how men look at women
• how women look at themselves
• how women look at other women

Stereo-typically, men look at women sexually, women look at themselves shamefully and women look at other women as morally wrong. 

In music videos, women are passive because they rely on the attention of men to earn their place in the video. Men are active, because they have control over the women and envied by male audiences. 

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EXAMPLES

Robin Thicke - 'Blurred Lines'

In the uncut version of this video, the women are completely naked. Mulvey would argue that this makes them look vulnerable and submissive to the power of men. Thicke himself is in a suit, which demonstrates that power and suggests women have to be naked to be viewed as attractive. 

Jennifer Lopez ft. Iggy Azalea - 'Booty'

Although the women in this video are clothed, what they are wearing is regarded as "skimpy", and throughout the video the focus of cinematography is directed onto their assets. A video like this supports the idea that development of music videos killed the musical star, as rather than promoting talent for entertainment, a particular body type is being promoted for pleasure. This video is also suggestive of a 'booty' only being attractive on women's bodies. 

Lily Allen - 'Hard Out Here'

Similar to 'Booty', many close-ups encourage the audience to look at women's assets. Though this video is different in terms of its' purpose - the artist is mocking music videos of today from a feminist perspective and shares the views of Mulvey.

Judging from the examples analysed, the 'male gaze' seems to be most prominent in the Pop genre. This may be because Pop has a larger audience than other genres, as well as more female artists. Therefore one of the biggest tools of promotion within the pop genre is sexually appealling visuals for the vast amount of men who are exposed to it. MusicMachinery.com states that the female artist with most male fans is Rihanna. This supports the theory, as she is heavily sexulised in everything she does. 

 

Rihanna, insiuating a sex act on a male

 

However, this is not taking into account diversity of gender and sexual orientation within a large audience. 

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CRITICISMS

• the theory ignores other genders and sexualities that could be a part of the audience.
• the portrayal of women might not be objectification, but empowerment or part of a narrative. 
• not all women are oblivious to how they are being shown - Lily Allen challenges this. 
• some women may enjoy being gazed upon!
• more recently, men are starting to be portrayed sexually too.
• the development in attitudes, such as 'sex sells', shows that it is compulsory for mainstream artists to do this.
• Mulvey only focused on mainstream music, other genres such as alternative do not rely on 'objectification' for success. 

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Because I am interested in creating a concept video, I don't want to use the 'male gaze'. Personally, other aspects of videos such as the visual artistry can make more of an impact, if enough people see it.