Research:Mulvey's Male Gaze

 Introduction:

The male gaze is a theory that was introduced by feminist Laura Mulvey. This theory is applied to the conventional music videos within the mainstream. This theory reflects on how women are mainly represented in music videos.

Origin of Mulvey's male gaze:

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist and current professor of film and media studies at the Birbeck University of London, she had worked at the British film institute for many years. Her theory states that the audience are viewing the characters within a music video from the heterosexual male perspective, she believed women were looked at by men for visual pleasure. She also believed that when it comes to sexual themes being portrayed men were always active while women were always passive. In other words, women had accepted the sexual way women were portraying theme in music videos.

Examples of music videos that portray Mulvey's male gaze:

Blurred lines by Robin Thicke, T.I and Pharell Williams:

The music video clearly portrays the way females are sexually looked at by men. The music videos shows females half naked, wearing small tight vests and knickers. The camera tilts downwards to view the bottom and hips of the females within the music video. The lyrics in the music video had reinforced the theory of male gaze mainly when the lyrics say."I know you want it...your a good girl".
This song and music video was banned in various institutions because It claimed that the lyrics mainly the one I was quoting had promoted rape culture. Also, writer Tricia Romano from The Daily Beast claimed that many female fans were uncomfortable with the music video as well as the song. She also stated that the music video trivialized sexual content.

 Tip drill by Nelly:

The rapper Nelly released his song Tip Drill in 2003. The music video sparked anger especially across the African American community. The music video was originally banned due to it's strong sexual content. Throughout  the music video females are shown in bikinis, some of them are even naked and having sexual interactions with each other. The camera zooms in on the buttocks of the half naked females in the music videos and at one point Nelly swipes a card on the bum of a female and leaves the bum bouncing. The music video had strongly portrayed the male gaze as it was widely criticized for it's degrading of black women.

Baby got back by Mack Daddy:

The song clearly portrays the male gaze theory, especially through the title of the song which refers to the bum of attractive females. In the music video, the camera zooms on the bum of a attractive female dancer. Also an aerial shot is taken when female dancers are in a circle at shaking their bottoms. At one point in the song the rapper Mack daddy is shown standing on a form of a female bottom. Furthermore, an aerial shot is taken of the Dj mixing with the form of a female bottom at the centre. The lyrics within the music video are strongly focus on the sexual bodies of females. The camera used within the music could well argued that it is viewed from a heterosexual male point of view.
How the camera represents the females:
You can clearly see the way the camera is representing women in these music videos, which is as sexual objects as they take close up shots of the bottoms of the attractive females, which seems to be main cinematography that is used. This is as well as the panning shots and the zoom shots which are other shots used in the music videos to emphasize the attractive bodies of the females.


Others ways Mulvey's gaze is used:
How ever female dancers and artists would use Mulvey's Gaze theory to empower themselves. This can be done with a message that they are proud of their bodies having seductive power over men. The theory can also be used to promote the health that is shown with the bodies of the female artists. Furthermore, the theory could indirectly make females looks at themselves as pivotal for the music industry, as they are continually being used for the music videos.

Evaluation of the 3 music videos:

All 3 music videos clearly back up the theory of Laura Mulvey (male gaze), with all the females in the music videos being passive with the way the men are looking at them in a sexual way. There is no resistance to it by the females in the music video.

Criticisms of the theory:

There are aspects of the male gaze theory that will be criticised. The theory seems to ignore the way men are sexually looked at by women in some music videos. For example, in Jennifer Lopez song featuring French Montana 'I luv u papi', men are being sexually viewed by women in the music video until the appearance of French Montana.


This gives the impression that the theory has a double standard when it comes to genders being sexually objectified. The theory doesn't address the sexual viewing from a female perspective.
Further more, the theory doesn't seem to acknowledge the choice female dancers make to appear in the music videos. In addition, the theory doesn't seem to take in mind the opinions of all female viewers towards the music videos where the theory is being portrayed.   


Conclusion:

There is a small chance that I could use the 'male gaze' in my music video as it is likely that females will appear in my music video. If I do use females for the music video, I would not want to represent them  too much in a sexual way, even though their beauty will be portrayed.