Research: Mulvey's Male Gaze

Mulvey's Male gaze

The ‘males gaze’ in a music video refers to how the male audience views the females presented in a heterosexual viewpoint. The representation of women is dominated by a male point of view. Her belief is that men have the ‘active’ role and that females are ‘passive’. For feminists it can be thought of in three ways: 

1. How men look at women
2. How women look at themselves
3. How women look at other women

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. Moreover, men play the active role which drive the narrative, whereas women are seen as erotic objects which slow the narrative.

In the music video for Nelly's 'Tip Drill' all females in the music video are seen as exposing their body for the pleasure of the males and to visually satisfy them. Women are viewed as objects that play the passive role in the music video.

Benny Benassi - Satisfaction - Women are represented in a sexual way throughout the video. This is conveyed when the breasts were jumping up and down when the female character was using the stone breaker. The impact this has is that men would look at women for sexual pleasure as suggested by Mulvey. Moreover, the tools were used in a sexual way in which heavy tools should be used for working purposes and not seducing a male.

From Diplo ft Lazerdisk party sex - Set It Off multiple women are viewed pole dancing and performing while they show of their body. Revealing clothes have been worn by the females.  Pole dancing isn't normally associated with music videos but to sexually please the male gender, it has been used. Sexual pleasure is raised when looking at the women as they are performing a pole dance which is seductive in itself.

Critisism of Mulveys male gaze:

There are some criticism that arise with Mulveys male gaze theory. 

• This is quite a dated theory as it was proposed in 1975. The gaze could also be directed towards men, especially in this new age of commercialism. In the example from Niki Minaj's ' Super bass' music video, male performers are shown as passive and topless revealing their body.
  

• 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.

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.