Research: Mulvey's male gaze

The male gaze theory

The concept of male gaze is how the heterosexual male gender looks at the voyeuristic female genders that are presented to them in music videos. Feminist believe that women are viewed different in order to attract and please the male target audience in return for success within their career. Moreover some women actually enjoying being in the video and feel a sense of empowerment with what they are doing e.g. beauty pageants. This shows that being e.g. a candy girl is not a negative thing to do as long as it is what a female loves and has a passion for doing.

• This theory also assumes everyone is heterosexual and does not consider the homosexual viewpoint.
• Some women enjoy being looked at and showing off their figure and body.
• The female gender isn't considered as the main focus is the male gender.

    Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birbeck, University of London. Her theory (1975) suggests that audiences view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. She believes that men look at women for sexual pleasure in music videos. 

 

Different ways it can be thought of:

• How men look at women
• How women look at themselves
• How women look at other women

Example of the 'male gaze' within music videos

Rihanna - pour it up




Male gaze is heavily exploited in this music video as every female is seen demonstrating the male gaze, including the artist Rihanna who is known for her sexual behavior in her music videos. Firstly, when one of the women is seen dancing on a pole in her revealing clothes, close up editing is used to focus on the women shaking her ass. This is a sign of voyeurism as the camera movements make the women viewed differently as they are now seen as sexual objects and fantasy’s to men. This relates and reinforces Laura Mulvey’s theory of men looking at women for visual pleasures.

 


Benny Benassi - Satisfaction
;
In the Satisfaction music video, women are represented as hard working, voyeuristic individuals. The way they are dressed and how they choose to wear their clothes makes them in a male’s perspective look like sex symbols. An example of this is when one of women are viewed using the sander in a seductive way, cinematography is seen in this motion as the camera focuses on her body rather than her face. A close up shot is then used to view her breast. This reinforces Laura Mulvey’s Theory of characters being viewed from a heterosexual male’s perspective


It is clear that female artists in the pop music genre, we are likely to see women sexualised this is mainly because the audiences already have a large female fan base base therefore they need some way way of attracting the male audiences


 Some urban genres such as, rap, hiphop and R'n'b are more likely to use Mulvey's theory  however theyre more likely to subvert the roles. as there is already a large fan base for the hip hop genre   
The female models are conventional to the theory however the usage of the artist being topless shows him as a sex symbol towards an audience subverting the male gaze theory and attracting women instead.
Some criticisms of the theory:

• The camera is assumed to be a man's perspective looking at women, which assumes all men are heterosexual.
• Excludes gay and lesbian people.
• No female empowerment, degrades women in the media.
• Doesn't apply to all women, the theory isn't representative of the women in today's society. Not all women want to be presented as objects of men.
• Men can also be gazed by females, e.g. when topless.

Conclusion
In my music video I could consider using aspects of the male gaze as it would enhance the popularity of my music video. If I do use women I would represent them in a more passive way as this would gain popularity from the male audience. However I would not portray females as sexual objects or other extreme ways as such shown in the examples.