The Male Gaze

The male gaze is a theory put forth by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay entitled, 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' within the essay Mulvey addressed the representation of women within film and how women are frequently sexualised given the dominance of men in shots and how the audience usually watches something from the perspective of a heterosexual male, but also how the woman is always the subject of the male gaze - women are positioned to please in a voyeuristic manner.

Mulvey's theory relates directly to the music industry and how women are presented in music videos as women are frequently the subject of the male gaze within a male artists video or make themselves the subject of the male gaze through the camerawork of their own music videos as 'sex sells'. Controversial music videos such as Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' have been criticised for their conformity to the male gaze theory and sexualisation/ objectification of women.

Anaconda

WARNING - This video contains explicit content. 

Female artists such as Nicki Minaj have also utilised the male gaze theory to promote their music. Minaj parodies Sir Mix-a-Lot's track 'Baby Got Back' within the video and follows the sexual nature and provocative dancing which evokes the male gaze. The camerawork of the video focuses on shots of Minaj's body and minimal clothing, her dancers and the provocative routines are use intentionally to ensure the audience views Minaj in socophillic manner. Minaj ensures that she is the subject of the male gaze from the audience, when performing to the camera and then equally she is the subject of the male gaze by the artist 'Drake' who appears in the video. 

-Minaj becomes the object of the audiences' male gaze by the angle of the camera, her seductive stance, and the focus on her eyes and lips, typically associated as the most attractive part of a woman to the heterosexual male audience and complying with the male gaze.



- Minaj subsequently becomes the object of artist, Drake's male gaze. The positioning of this sequence is important as the male is given a chair and status/ dominance, whilst Nicki crawls along the ground instantly devaluing her and making her the subject of Drake's male gaze. This is encouraged by Minaj and her provocative stance/ clothing.

Blurred Lines 

WARNING - This video contains explicit content.

Male artists such as Robin Thicke have been criticised for objectifying women in their music videos and adhering to the male gaze theory. The video contains the artists interacting with and staring at, three models in limited clothing (topless in the original video) with plastic wrapped around them in some cases - the use of the plastic highlights the sexualisation/ objectification of the woman and shows them to be (in accordance with Mulvey's findings) present purely for the voyeuristic pleasure of the male artists and male, heterosexual audience. The models in the video are both the subject of the male artists' male gaze in which they leer at the women, blowing smoke in their faces, counting out dollars and dancing with them, however the woman are presented as enjoying this which conforms to the theory of the male gaze in which women are pleased to be the object of sexualisation.


- The positioning of this close up shot is designed to make the model the object of the male gaze. The emphasis of the shot is of the model's bright red lipstick, drawing the audiences' eyes to her lips and the subsequent seductive placement of her finger - this positioning conforms to Mulvey's theory of women being positioned in a socophillic manner to please the male audience.


- This shot is a clear indicator of how within music videos women are often the subject of the male gaze, from either the (male, heterosexual) audience or the other character in the shot. In this case it is clear that the model is the subject of Robin Thicke's male gaze as is evidenced by his stance towards her.



- Lastly, this shot conforms to Mulveys' argument that within film/ music videos women are presented in a sexual manner by camera shots which linger on the woman's body and encourage the male gaze to occur, like within this shot which precedes to have the toy car roll down the models back emphasising her curves.