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Thursday, 25 September 2014

Research for Music Video: Laura Mulvey's theory

Laura Mulvey is a British film theorist. She writes about the representation of women and the male gaze theory. The male gaze is a term discussed by Laura Mulvey in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema". It is a term used to describe when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. 

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly". 

Simply.. This means in a world where men have power and women don't, men do the looking and women are looked at and whatever image men have on women will be projected.

Therefore, women are represented as beautiful objects in order for men to look at. Particular genres that this is expected from is some pop, RnB and hip hop. Mainly the genres that are based around looks and image. However some genres such as indie rock (eg. Florence and the Machine) challenge Laura Muvley's idea as they are more about their musical talent rather than the women and looks. 

I believe Mulvey's opinion is even more so relevant in today's society as there is an increasing number of music videos that contain the male gaze theory and as time progresses, the representation of women is reinforced. 

Jennfier Lopez - Booty ft. Iggy Azalea is a good example that illustrates Muvley's theory on representation.  After the opening credits/countdown, the first shot is of J. Lo's behind - bum and legs.


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