Research: Mulvey's 'Male Gaze'

                   Mulvey's Male Gaze

 The 'male gaze' refers to the idea that the camera has the visual of a heterosexual man. This means that in music videos the camera views woman in a sexist way; representing them as sexual objects as it lingers around the women's assets.

Mulvey was a feminist who put forward the idea that women on camera are represented as sexual objects due to the theory that the camera is like a heterosexual man and lingers around the women's assets. She looks at how men look at women, how the women in the videos look at themselves and how other women look at those women. She also stated that this theory leave men in an active position; having the power over women and women are left passive.

Examples of where women are looked at with the 'male gaze':

1. Nelly - Tip drill

This video definitely supports Mulvey's idea as it shows women in such a degrading way. It displays a mansion full of both half naked and naked women dancing erotically and displaying sexual acts on each other; meanwhile a handful on men throw money and champagne on these women and touch them inappropriately. Most of these women's faces are not even shown as the camera has several close ups of these women's body parts with the men's faces in the shot. It is clear that the men are very active and the women are passive.

2. 50 Cent - Candy Shop
 This video also supports mulvey's theory as it showcases women dressed in little clothing with only one man in the video who is seen as active. The camera again lingers around the women's body parts as they danced and move seductively. There are also close ups of the women when they pull seductive facial expressions. 


3. Rihanna - pour it up

Although this video is by a female artisst it also displays ideas of the male gaze theory. From the beginning we see shadows of a female in sexual positions l. We then see low angles of Rihanna on a chair not wearing much, giving an inappropriate view of her body parts. Throughout the video the camera lingers around her body parts as she dances erotically, shaking her bum close up in the camera. Most of the long shots that we see are simply of girls pole dancing .

Criticisms of the male gaze theory:

- does not look at the view of other sexualities such as homosexual men and women

- doesn't account for women such as female artist who use the male gaze oin their own videos (e.g Rihanna , Nicki minaj)

Conclusion:

After looking at the theory it has allowed me to move away from doing this in my own video to avoid criticism on my own music video as it is seen as disrespectful to a lot of women and other people .