Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze Theory' describes when, in film, the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. this is achieved through the sexualisation of women, for example, close-ups of body parts take away women's identities and presents them as sexual objects.

Here is an informative SlideShare that I found that describes the theory in detail:

 

The Male Gaze Theory can be seen in many music videos, for example, Arctic Monkey's 'Do I Wanna Know?' and Nicki Minaj's 'Annaconda'. This shows that the sexualisation of women is an issue across genres, from indie to pop.



Above is an extract from 'Do I Wanna Know?' that shows the camera starting at a close-up of a woman's bum before zooming out to expose the rest of her body, with her face being the last part to be shown. This implies that a woman's face, or 'identity' is less important than her body - the close-ups of her individual body parts draw more attention to these areas.



Above is an extract from 'Anaconda'. The overtly sexual movements of the artist and performers, combined with sexual lyrics and revealing clothing, has reduced these women to sexual objects - their body parts are emphasised for the enjoyment of a heterosexual male audience.

Despite the Male Gaze being apparent in 'Do I Wanna Know?', an indie song, the sexualisation of women is less common within the indie genre as these music videos usually contain a serious narrative. As our music video is from the indie genre, it would not be relevant to include revealing costumes or close-ups of body parts. Our music video also contains the theme of female empowerment, with the protagonist being presented as being both reckless yet sophisticated, an uncommon representation of women in the media, sexualising the character may contradict this idea.