Laura Mulvey's Theory..
The 'Male Gaze'
The 'Male Gaze' is simply how an audience views woman usually from a a heterosexual males perspective. This theory tends to exaggerate the males perspective when viewing women due to the over use in promiscuity in young attractive females used in music videos.
For feminist, it can be thought of in three ways:
- How men look at woman
- How woman look at themselves
- How woman look at other women
Benny Bennasi's 'Satisfaction' portrays a clear example of Mulvey's theory and also the three ways which this video is seen by females.
How men look at women - Men would find the visuals of the attractive skin revealing young women, dressed promiscuous, very seductive and pleasurable. This method of attracting male viewers is widely used across many artist in the industry both niche and mainstream which this is natural to most audiences because as a spectator we are so used to this type of visuals.
How women look at themselves - Some women would embrace the fact that they are beautiful and favor the idea of showing of their assets. They would be very aware of what they're trying to portray but still like to show off and look beautiful. They can also look at themselves as just modelling.
How women look at other women - Some women can enjoy the visuals of other beautiful women and embrace the idea of femininity although other would disagree and look at other woman as 'selling themselves just for money. Women can also understand that it is just a job and much like modeling, which most people don't take notice of that it is just like posing in a music video.
Mulvey's Theory; Criticism...
- This seen mainly through the heterosexual perspective
- Doesn't take in the views of females and homosexuals
- There is no female empowerment
- Woman have conflicting opinions that are not take to consideration
- Biased! Only focus on woman in which men are sometimes used with the same purpose in music videos.
- Exposed to non-interested viewers
Genres:
Genres rely on the 'Male Gaze are mainly mainstream genres such as R&B, Hip Hop, Pop, Dance, Rap, Dance, Bashment etc.
Artist who are known for applying 'Male Gaze to their music videos and examples; Trey Songz - Foreign, Chris Brown - Strip, Sean Kingston - Beat it, Nicki Minaj - Anaconda, Tyga - Hookah, Rihanna - Pour It Up etc.
Genres that don't usually include or rely on Mulvey's theory are more niche genres such as Rock, Ambient, Chill, Classical, Jazz etc.
Overall, I think that Mulvey's theory is widely use all over media, not just the the music industry but also the film, TV industry. The idea of the camera lingering around female assets is a key technique of filming, when wanting to connote or portray a sexual or seductive ideology. Now that i have developed my understanding through my research of Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' I believe I can now recreate her theory in the future, when I create my own music video.
For feminist, it can be thought of in three ways:
- How men look at woman
- How woman look at themselves
- How woman look at other women
Benny Bennasi's 'Satisfaction' portrays a clear example of Mulvey's theory and also the three ways which this video is seen by females.
How men look at women - Men would find the visuals of the attractive skin revealing young women, dressed promiscuous, very seductive and pleasurable. This method of attracting male viewers is widely used across many artist in the industry both niche and mainstream which this is natural to most audiences because as a spectator we are so used to this type of visuals.
How women look at themselves - Some women would embrace the fact that they are beautiful and favor the idea of showing of their assets. They would be very aware of what they're trying to portray but still like to show off and look beautiful. They can also look at themselves as just modelling.
How women look at other women - Some women can enjoy the visuals of other beautiful women and embrace the idea of femininity although other would disagree and look at other woman as 'selling themselves just for money. Women can also understand that it is just a job and much like modeling, which most people don't take notice of that it is just like posing in a music video.
Mulvey's theory also focuses on what specifically attracts the heterosexual male. The camera usually lingers around the female assets which thee include; boobs, ass, face, lips, waist, stomach, legs, hair, back etc.
Many videos also use the phallic technique of women using objects in a seductive way to exaggerate the promiscuity which creates more attraction to the heterosexual male audience.
Mulvey's Theory; Criticism...
- This seen mainly through the heterosexual perspective
- Doesn't take in the views of females and homosexuals
- There is no female empowerment
- Woman have conflicting opinions that are not take to consideration
- Biased! Only focus on woman in which men are sometimes used with the same purpose in music videos.
- Exposed to non-interested viewers
Genres:
Genres rely on the 'Male Gaze are mainly mainstream genres such as R&B, Hip Hop, Pop, Dance, Rap, Dance, Bashment etc.
Artist who are known for applying 'Male Gaze to their music videos and examples; Trey Songz - Foreign, Chris Brown - Strip, Sean Kingston - Beat it, Nicki Minaj - Anaconda, Tyga - Hookah, Rihanna - Pour It Up etc.
Genres that don't usually include or rely on Mulvey's theory are more niche genres such as Rock, Ambient, Chill, Classical, Jazz etc.
Trey Songz - Foreign
Rihanna - Pout It Up
Sean Kingston - Beat It
A proficient post here. Mulvey's Male Gaze clearly understood. The idea of objectifying women and how males and females respond to the music videos is clear. A good example drawn upon.
ReplyDeleteTo improve;
-in the intro: how does the camera move around women? Are women perceived to be active or passive and why?
-your opinions on the theory. DO you agree? Yes/no and why. State before the conclusion
-think about the layout here, move the images of other videos that represent it before you go onto criticisms
-provide some comments to each video/images you provide on how the Male Gaze is displayed