Research: Laura Mulvey's Theory.

BLOGGING TASK ON  LAURA MULVEY

The ‘male gaze’ is a Feminist theory developed to draw attention to the power imbalance between men and women. According to Mulvey, the ‘male gaze’ gives a clear analysis of the way men see women, the way women view themselves and other women. Mulvey’s theory suggests that the audience are forced to view the text from the perspective of a heterosexual male as the camera constantly focus’ on the women’s curves, breasts, thighs ect and also events that happen to them that are then portrayed at a male angle.

 She also says that the male gaze shows lack of respect for women as they’re constantly being relegated to the status of objects. Therefore the female viewers experience the text narrative secondarily, by identifying with a man’s perspective (male gaze). In conclusion she argues that sexism can also occur in the way the text is shown. Moreover, people are encouraged to gaze at women in advertising that sexualizes a woman's body even when the woman's body is unrelated to the advertised product. A clear example of this is the “Lynx Rise Morning Shower Gel” Ad. 

Women are hypersexualized and in many Hop Hop videos to be exact. For example close ups of breasts, legs. Jump cuts from one woman to another. However, selling a sexual image is how they are able to promote the video as it is most likely to be remembered for having particular shots that made the women look "sexy".

The objective for women acting and looking sexy in music videos is simply on display for men. We hardly see women as gazers. Arguably, the male gaze drives the production of these music videos. This illustrates a power theme that men have over women. An example of this is Jay Z - Big Pimpin'.

Although we hardly see women as the gazers there are some female artists that challenge this theory. For example in many of Missy Elliot's music videos she is seen as the dominate female, often wearing baggy clothing almost challenging the men. She also has male dancers in many of her videos.  For example in her music video to "Work It".

And a rejection of the male gaze is also show in Ciara's music video to "Like A Boy".