Representation of Theory: Laura Mulveys Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She looks at how the audience view women who are presented within the media. She believes that women are there to be seen and the use of camera portrays them as sexual objects through cinematography.

She focuses upon 3 main things:

• How men look at women from these images
• How women look at themselves from those images
• How women look at other woman and compare themselves to them

The 'Male Gaze' theory focuses upon:

• Emphasising curves of the female body
• Referring to women as objects rather than people
• Display of women is how men think they should be perceived 
• Female viewers view the content through the eyes of a man
• Women are often sexualised and seen as objects, viewed based on sexual desire and the way they look. 

The 'Male Gaze' theory describes how:

• the audience or viewer is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male, i.e the camera lingers over the curves of a woman's body. This can be seen in the music 'Calvin Harris - Blame feat. John Newman'. I will talk about this in more detail later in my post.
• the man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man. This is seen in the video by Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One, I will explore this in more depth later in my post. 
• When you think about the music videos on tv, you can see how the camera objectifies women by focusing on the areas of the body in which you would expect to see the 'males gazing' at desirable assets like: breasts, bottom, legs etc. 
• Mulvey also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze because women look at themselves through the eyes of men.

In the start of one of our theory lessons, we talked about describing a certain type of woman in three words. The first thing we had to do was think of words that came into our mind to describe a woman.

• Woman: independent, make-up and feminine.
• A modern day woman: stylish, equal, hard-working and loving
• Historical representation of a woman: classy, old fashioned, unequal, housewife and stripped back
• Women in music videos: sexualised, performer, provocative, fiesty, powerful, objectified and central

These are all words which I thought related to the topic we were given to describe. It is a prime example of how the representation of women has changed over the years.

• In music videos, women are mainly put in and represented as sexual beings for a man's pleasure. 'Booty' by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea is a prime example of this, which I will explain later.
• Although, some women do choose to be represented in a sexual way as they find it liberating.
• The internet has access to sexual images etc, making it easier to find. In May 2013, 'Nuts' magazine closed down due to people not buying their magazine because it was easier to access it online for free.
• The ideology of the medias portrayal has shaped us to be used to the skinny, perfect and beautiful females. The media controls everything, how everybody thinks to how you see things and how it shapes us as an individual. 

We looked at a few music videos in the lesson which we had to agree or disagree whether they showed evidence of sexualisation to back up Laura Mulvey's theory. 

The videos we looked at are:

1. Calvin Harris - Blame feat. John Newman
2. Lilly Wood and The Prick - Prayer in C (Robert Schulz Remix) 
3. Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One
4. Taylor Swift - Shake It Off
5. Iggy Azalea - Black Widow feat. Rita Ora

Calvin Harris - Blame feat John Newman

This video is a prime example of Laura Mulvey's theory as in the video the camera lingers upon the females curves. The woman is portrayed as a weaker person and proves she is just there to be looked at. She is portrayed as the media wants her to be. 

Lilly Wood and The Prick - Prayer in C (Robert Schulz Remix)

This video also backs up Mulvey's theory. Although it doesn't show it as much as the first, it is still sexualising the females. Slow motion editing is used which shows her bottom and the camera focuses on this. When the male and female are together, he spins her around and her skirt comes up which is very revealing. The video also includes 2 girls kissing which could be seen as very controversial and provocative. 

Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One

This video backs up Mulvey's theory but it is handled in a more sensitive and subtle way but it still sexualises the woman. The video has a narrative and begins with a narrative break before the song begins to get the story going. The man is cheating on his wife with another woman and we see him with the other woman who he handles in a sexual way. 

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

This video also backs up Mulvey's theory in a different way as it is not as provocative as the other 3. We see females wearing very tight denim shorts which reveal their bottom so this appeals to the heterosexual male audience. Although I do not think she intended to include the sexualisation of herself and the backing dancers, the costumes they were are very revealing, so this is deemed provocative and sexual. 

Iggy Azalea - Black Widow feat. Rita Ora

This video is an example of Mulvey's theory as the sexualisation of women is very clear. The camera angles which are used within the video show off their figures very well and also the tight costumes are very revealing in terms of their breasts and bottom. We see Rita Ora and we can see that her breasts are very prominent in her costume, nearly as close to popping out. 

Also, during my research, I found a few videos which back up Mulvey's theory completely. 

I was watching the music channel and the new video from Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea 'Booty' came on and after watching it I knew I could write about it and link it to her theory. This video is VERY provocative as it mainly focuses on their bottoms, hence the title of the song. I think it is a very good example of her theory as we see that the camera focuses upon their curves and the purpose of the video is to please males.

Another video I found was 'Anaconda' by Nicki Minaj. This again clearly proves Laura Mulvey's theory correct Nicki and her back up dancers are seen to be portrayed as sexual objects. Nicki Minaj is well known for her 'big behind' and in this video the camera focuses a lot on her bottom. Although this can be seen as controversial, Nicki is giving out a positive message as she is saying it doesn't matter if you have a big bottom because it is actually better to have one as men prefer it. We can see in the lyrics that Nicki is not shaming her backing dancers, she is praising them for their bottoms.

In the same lesson, we also looked at film trailers to prove that it is not just music videos that sexualise women. We again looked at 5 different products to watch and see if Laura Mulvey's theory is presented within the trailers.

The trailers we looked at are:

1. Sex Tape
2. Lucy
3. Before I Go To Sleep
4. Inbetweeners 2
5. Let's Be Cops  

Sex Tape
This is the first trailer we watched and straight away you can see that the woman is sexualised as we see her in her underwear. The scenes carry on and they prove that Mulvey's theory is correct. Although Mulvey doesn't talk about the sexualisation of men, the man is also seen in a sexual way as we see him in his underwear as well. Obviously, this is not seen as unusual compared to the woman because females are seen as the weaker sex. 

Lucy
This is the second trailer we watched and again we see immediately the sexualisation of the woman, who is the protagonist. We see her eyes in one shot, then the mouth and then it cuts to her in her underwear. This could be seen as provocative. Also, the sexualisation of the woman isn't really needed here but it has been done because it appeals more to the heterosexual male audience. 

Before I Go To Sleep
The sexualisation isn't as prominent in this trailer as it is in the other trailers we have already watched. There is a few scenes where we see the sexualisation. In one scene we see the man trying to kiss her but she pulls away which shows how she is the weaker sex. Also, we see her at one point from the back and she is naked, this is done in a more subtle way to others. 

Inbetweeners 2
This trailer is male orientated compared to women but we do see some sexualisation. In one scene we see one of the males grab a females bottom, this could be seen as controversial because it looks like sexual harassment. Also, we see the male again sat on a throne and a female is stood with a towel, she then drops the towel revealing the back of her bottom. This is basically showing that the woman is there for the mans pleasure. This clearly proves Mulvey's theory correct. 

Let's Be Cops
Again this trailer is male orientated but women are in the trailer and they are seen as sexualised. In one scene we see women running in swimming costumes which are very tight and revealing. Then we see a woman in another scene eating a lollipop and her breasts are very prominent. Lastly, we see some girls walking and it has been edited in slow motion to show them for longer. 

In my research I also found some other trailers which I think prove Laura Mulvey's theory correct. As I was looking at these trailers I found the 50 Shades of Grey trailer. I watched the trailers through to see if it had any sexualisation of women in and I could see straight away that it did. '50 Shades of Grey' is very well known to be sexual so I had an incline of what was to come. The woman is portrayed to be very innocent and we then see the male who is obviously very dominant compared to her. As the trailer goes on, you can clearly see that the woman is performing some kind of sexual act for the male protagonist.

Another trailer I found was Addicted. I did not initially think this was going to be sexualised as it begins with them all as a family but as the narrative progresses the sexualisation of the woman is seen. In one scene we see the male being very dominant compared to the female as he is passionately kissing her but we see this is her fantasy. We then see her walking through the streets and as she walks men look her way and smile at her, obviously because they are pleased with what they see. Then near the end we see a very sexual scene in which the male is more dominant, showing the female as the weaker sex.

Laura Mulvey states that women are seen as sexual objects in the media. From watching music videos like 'Blame' by Calvin Harris and 'Black Widow' by Iggy Azalea we can see that women are constantly being portrayed as sexualised because it is pleasing for the male audience. Also, we can see that women in films are also sexualised, no matter what genre it is. By looking at trailers like 'Sex Tape', 'Fifty Shades of Grey' and even 'Before I Go To Sleep' as it was unnecessary for her to be sexualised, we can see that Laura Mulvey's theory is presented in a range of different media forms. I agree with her theory because even when it is not necessary for the woman to be portrayed in this way, the media still does it because it is what the media wants and this gains a wider audience, meaning more money.