Research: Mulvey's Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She created the theory of the "Male Gaze" (1975) suggesting that the camera is made to be from a mans point of view. The camera constantly focuses on female's and their body parts in order to entertain the male audiences. The audience view the women presented in these videos as constantly inferior and powerless. Women can be thought of in 3 ways:

• How men look at women; which they believe the women look sexy and attractive.
• How women look at themselves; which they believe they look good and are confident with their bodies.
• How women look at other women; which they believe other women are not representing all women accurately. 

Examples where the "Male Gaze" occurs: 


1) Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines"

This music video is representing women as sexual objects who are dancing around the men half naked with promiscuous attitudes. This suggests the "Male Gaze" does fit in this video due to the focus on the women and their assets being exposed. The females are topless with only knickers on and dancing around the men like they are the superior ones as they are in suits. This represents the women as weak and suggests that women should be under the control of men. This gives the audience the impression that it is ok and normal for women to be treated in this way and is promoting inequality within gender.





2) Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction"

This music video is purely focused on the women throughout. They show the women dressed up as "sexy" builders using tools to cut and drill into the wood. The women are also half naked and the camera is focused on their body parts e.g. bum and boobs suggesting the "Male Gaze" theory occurring. The drill is shown moving in and out of the wood which suggests the reference to sexual activity and develops sexual connotations. This can be seen as phallic actions. This also gives the audience the impression that women can do a man's job however it has to be in a sexy way in which to please the male audience.





3) Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" 

This music video is focused on women dancing and showing their bums to gain attention. The women are shown dancing around in order to show their bums. This suggest the "Male Gaze" fits into this music video also as the camera is focusing on the female's bodies. This represents the women as sexual objects also, to the audience as all they are doing is promoting their bodies while dancing for the male audience.

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.

Trey Songz is an example of the "Male Gaze" reversed due to him being topless and also presented as sexy whilst working out in the gym.

Overall, my choice of genre is most likely to be RnB or Hip-Hip which would be appropriate to us the "Male Gaze" as it it what is conventional to the genres. I plan to represent women in a "sexy" way however, not as sexual objects for men, but standing up for the women they are and using feminism.
This is because, it is clear that not all women are actually weak and inferior which is why I do not want to follow this convention and present them "sexy" but still strong.