Research: Mulvey’s Male Gaze

Mulveys Male Gaze

Introduction

Mulveys male gaze is a theory Laura Mulvey in which how females are portrayed within a music video and towards an audience. Such as how the cinematography may be used to objectify women’s assets which includes boobs and bums and how they entertain for a heterosexual male audience. And how music videos are usually directed from a view of a Heterosexual male.

Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ (1975)

Laura Mulvey is a British theorist who had a theory on how women is portrayed in music videos and how they are perceived from a male perspective. The basis of her theory consisted on the following principals.

• Audiences ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male
• Active male/passive female
• Men looked at women for visual pleasure.

She believed that since that music videos are directed from a heterosexual male point of a view this means that women in music video will portrayed in a manor to appeal to heterosexual males.

Examples of Mulvey Male Gaze

Robin Thicke – Blured Lines

From the outset of the of the music video you can clear see the music video is aimed at an Heterosexual male audience. The women throughout the music video are wearing minimal clothing covering some of the assets and the cinematography used shows with capture of mid shots and long shots at the women in the music video it shows the female assets. Meanwhile the men in the music were dominating over the females and were looking at and portrayed as the female was portrayed in a sexual manor and trying to grab the attention of the males and the audience. Moreover, she also suggests that the males will have a more active role and women have more passive role in the music video.

Criticisms of the theory

They are some criticisms of Mulvey male theory for example it was one sided was suggesting that heterosexual male’s perspective and not taking various other audience members let along other producers who may not suite the criteria that Mulvey set out for her theory. Another criticism is that not only female can be gazed it can also have applied to men as well in certain areas especially since you can say about male assets could be gazed at as well. Mulvey male’s theory doesn’t considers the opinion on all females since people may have different views on the matter and may not agree and some people may enjoy being gazed at.
Mulvey “male gaze” Theory is accurate since they are various representations of the theory in action throughout the music industry. There are various music videos that have shown the theory in action therefore I would agree with this theory because it prominent that females are sexualised for a male audience. This can be for a variety of reasons and the cinematography also used in music videos shows it was capturing female assets and females have a more passive role in the music industry while males have a more active role. Therefore I would agree that Mulvey male gaze is correct.

Conclusion

In the final product I would need to considered “Mulvey male gaze” theory in action. Since the sexualisation of women is quite prominent in music videos especially in Hip Hop, R&B, Rap, Pop and dance genres. Moreover, in most of these music videos the male is more active meanwhile the female is more passive. In my final music video, it will depend on the context of the music video but I would plan to use this theory in my final music video. This means that I would have to look at camera cinematography and how it would satisfy a heterosexual male characters. Since I haven’t made a decision on what I am planning to do for my finial idea it may not apply and may not bother with the theory.