Research: Mulvey's Male Gaze

Introduction: What us Mulvey's male gaze?

The 'male gaze' is the way in which females assets are portrayed within many music video to an
audience which often objectify women due to the camera capturing their bodily assets including their breasts and bums attracting and entertaining the heterosexual male audience. Because of this, this could potentially make female audiences angry as they are likely to believe that this portrays all women badly suggesting that all women are vulnerable and should behave this way to please men.

Mulvey's Male Gaze (1975): Who was she and what did she say?

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist who developed the theory of the 'Male Gaze' in 1975 which is also referred to Mulvey's Male Gaze. She believes that film audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This meant that the camera would linger on the females body, curves and other assets which the goal is to entertain and excite heterosexual male viewers. As a result, this relegates women to the status of objects which could anger many female viewers. Furthermore, the male gaze suggests that females are captured as looking sexually appealing with their sexual assets on show through the numerous uses of close-ups and mid-shots. This is to portray them as sexual objects having no real identity. Therefore, also highlights the fact that females are regarded as passive and vulnerable, dominated my male characters.

There are three ways in which feminists perceive this theory, they consider:

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

Examples of where females are looked at with the 'Male Gaze'

• Chris Brown - Strip

The music video 'Strip' by Chris Brown in a direct song about women 'stripping', taking their clothes off to please men. The male gaze in this video is evident as there are numerous close-ups of half naked women dancing and kissing each other at a party. This video further reinforces the Mulvey's gaze theory as these women are objectified, given no identity but just something the artist and the heterosexual male audience can look at pleasingly. This portrays the male artist as a more superior and dominant individual as he is able to control the situation as the women in the video give what he wants. The lyrics in this video also supports his actions as he sings 'Which one am I going to take home, get my freak on. If you ain't freaky we ain't speaking' which translates to if he doesn't get what he wants, then you don't have a chance. Further enforcing women as sexual objects.

• Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines

The male gaze is very clear in this music video as well as the lyrics. In this music video, Robin Thicke along with his other co-singers watch the women walk by in very revealing clothes (and in the uncensored version, naked). This really dehumanises women and turns them into sexual objects just for the men to watch them, in contrast to the men that are fully clothed wearing suits further illustrating their 'dominant role' as men. The females are captured through medium shots and long shots allowing the audience which is stated by Mulvey, seeing through a heterosexual males eyes to please the audience when watching. In contrast to the shots the male artists get, not really getting shots that linger on them for too long which portrays them as overpowering individuals. This reinforces their dominant nature in comparison to the females who prance around naked trying to gain their attention. The lyrics of the song match the visuals as he sings his quite controversial lyrics 'Okay now that was close, try to domesticate ya but you're an animal. Baby its in your nature. Just let me liberate ya'. These lyrics are very controversial as some argue that it encourages rape culture, portraying women as sex objects and further allowing men to take advantage of women as its 'in their nature' which could 'liberate' them.

• Trey Songz - Foreign

The male gaze is also evident in the music video 'Foreign' by Trey Songz as there are numerous females from around the world in revealing clothes such as short shorts, bikinis etc which exenterates the female assets which allows the camera to capture them in close-ups and mid-shots. The females are perceived as acting sexual and are objectified as they twerk on the artist to try and impress him. Despite there only being one male which is the artist and numerous girls, he still remains in control and dominant as the girls try get his attention by touching and kissing him which further portray women as the inferior sex. The lyrics also objectifies women as it says 'The way she twerk it I just might pull out my Visa. After we leave girl you know where we going, straight to the 'tel you ain't leaving till the morning' which refers to the girl having to go through sexual acts to get something that she is assumed she wants.

Criticism of Mulvey's Male Gaze

• Only see it from a male heterosexuals perspective - This may suggest that they theory only applies to heterosexual males not taking in account other audiences such as lesbian females or homosexual males etc. The theory assumes that only heterosexual males would be interested in the females sexual assets.
• Female opinion is ignored - Some females see the male gaze as disrespecting their sexuality and ignoring their opinions as it displays women as objects an in a promiscuous manner.
• Doesn't consider all women - The male gaze suggests that all women are the same as hey are all promiscuous and objectified in general, lacking respect for themselves however, this is not the case in real life as females starring within the videos are usually models or famous artists. Some may argue that the female assets that are lingered on is there to sell a product however others argue that not all situations where a females body is sexualised in isn't to advertise a product. For example, some women like being looked at e.g. beauty pageants.
• Men can also be gazed at - The male gaze ignores the fact that males can be gazed at by other audiences as it only focuses on female assets and not male assets. Within music videos, males can also ben gazed upon.

Conclusion: With your genre, do you think you might use the 'Male Gaze'?

I may consider using the 'Male Gaze' to an extent as it is evident in the research that I've done, it attracts audiences making it popular and successful. There are specific genres that might use the 'male gaze' more than others such as hip pop, rnb, dance, rap, pop or bashment. All these genres have something in common which is that they are all targeted at the younger audiences ages 15 and above who are more likely to be males. The genre that I'm going with is a mixture of rap and hip pop which would make sense if I use the male gaze as that is what audiences expect from these genres. Although I do disagree on the idea of using the female body to sell my product so I'm not sure if I will use this or not.