The Male Gaze Theory
The Male Gaze Theory
Definition: The Male Gaze is the
way in which the visual arts depict the world and women from a masculine point
of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure. The phrase male gaze was
coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975.
The Male Gaze is encouraged through aspects such as camerawork, costume and makeup.
Camerawork: Within a music video, certain parts of the body are sexualised for reasons such as audience pleasure. These body parts include lips, breasts and bottoms that are subject to camera lingering. This means that camerawork is used to highlight these certain parts of the body to sexualise them and make them more prominent to the audience. Furthermore, the spectators gaze can determine whether the music video is popular or not. So, camerawork is an important aspect of promoting and presenting the Male Gaze Theory. This essentially means that camera lingering and angles used to promote sexualised body parts can almost act as a make or break for the success of some music videos.
Costume: Costume can be used to further sexualise women to be subject to the Male Gaze by wearing minimal clothing. By doing this, the women that are wearing minimal clothing become the centre of attention in a music video. Furthermore, the clothing and costumes used in music videos are exposed to the Male Gaze as well as being subject to the audiences gaze, are commonly skin tight and extremely revealing. This is to increase audience pleasure as well as engagement because body parts like breasts and bottoms are 'paraded' in the music videos. However, the Male Gaze Theory suggests that women are only portrayed as two extreme possibilities. This is either virginal innocence or as a sexy "whore", in other words, virgin/whore dichotomy.
Makeup: As I have previously mentioned, body parts can be subject to objectification through camerawork, this includes facial features such as lips and eyes. This can be exercised through makeup because makeup allows facial features to become more refined and prominent such as lips, eyes and cheek bones. This means that makeup makes females become subject to the Male Gaze as makeup can be stereotypically seen to be used 'to look good for' or 'impress' men. For example, lipstick, stereotypically red, is used to makeup a females lips look more prominent as well as 'sexy' in the view of the Male Gaze as red is associated with romance and love.
A good example of the Male Gaze being exercised in a music video is Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke featuring TI, Pharrell, showing an attempt of hyper-masculinity and assumes that the audience always represents a heterosexual mans perspective.
This music video instantly received heavy amounts of backlash back in 2013 due to the females in the video being treated like objects and animals. Emily Ratajkowski, Jessi M'Bengue and Elle Evans were the models that starred in this music video along side the three men. Firstly, there are two versions of the music video on YouTube, that are both age restricted and flagged by the YouTube community. The 'censored' version is a toned-down version of the uncensored version which includes numerous features of the models nudity. This allows the women to be objectified as the camerawork highlights and lingers on the body parts exposed especially the breasts. This exposed the models nudity to the audience which could be argued that it increased the music videos popularity. As previously mentioned, costume can encourage the Male Gaze, and costumes and outfits selected for the models further allowed for objectification. The costumes included a lot of see-through attire and 'nude' colour bikinis. Also, the lack of costumes promoted the Male Gaze as a lot of the time the models starring in the music video were topless and sometimes not covering that area, especially in the uncensored version. As for makeup, the prominent features were the lips and eyes due to the striking, bright, bold red lipstick and the use of eye shadow and eye liner to make the eyes look more 'sexy'. With the combination of camerawork and makeup, these facial features become subject to the Male Gaze due to camera lingering. Also, one of the models wore their hair in a ponytail, meaning that she was subject to being pulled by it. This is similar to how animals are taken for walks and in some cases pulled by leads that are around their necks. By Robin Thicke pulling one of the models around with her ponytail, it meant that she was able to be sexualised and objectified as well as being treated like an animal.
This video suggests that our society as a whole is becoming more accepting of the sexualisation and objectification of women. However, opposing the Male Gaze, the Female Gaze can be argued to be less prominent but serving the same purpose of objectifying and sexualising men. An example of this is Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen which shows a woman watching a male with his top off mowing the lawn.
This music video used camera lingering on the males chest, biceps and abdominal muscles to promote the Female Gaze. This music video also assumes that the prominent audience is heterosexual females. This music video shows a different view of objectification but it is not seen as damaging as the Male Gaze.
Laura Mulvey also expresses that in a music video, women are portrayed as two drastically different extremes, which I disagree with. This is because not all music videos either sexualise and objectify women or portray them as virginal innocent characters. I believe that in some music videos there is middle ground where the women are not seen as "whores" or innocent characters.
Makeup: As I have previously mentioned, body parts can be subject to objectification through camerawork, this includes facial features such as lips and eyes. This can be exercised through makeup because makeup allows facial features to become more refined and prominent such as lips, eyes and cheek bones. This means that makeup makes females become subject to the Male Gaze as makeup can be stereotypically seen to be used 'to look good for' or 'impress' men. For example, lipstick, stereotypically red, is used to makeup a females lips look more prominent as well as 'sexy' in the view of the Male Gaze as red is associated with romance and love.
A good example of the Male Gaze being exercised in a music video is Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke featuring TI, Pharrell, showing an attempt of hyper-masculinity and assumes that the audience always represents a heterosexual mans perspective.
This music video instantly received heavy amounts of backlash back in 2013 due to the females in the video being treated like objects and animals. Emily Ratajkowski, Jessi M'Bengue and Elle Evans were the models that starred in this music video along side the three men. Firstly, there are two versions of the music video on YouTube, that are both age restricted and flagged by the YouTube community. The 'censored' version is a toned-down version of the uncensored version which includes numerous features of the models nudity. This allows the women to be objectified as the camerawork highlights and lingers on the body parts exposed especially the breasts. This exposed the models nudity to the audience which could be argued that it increased the music videos popularity. As previously mentioned, costume can encourage the Male Gaze, and costumes and outfits selected for the models further allowed for objectification. The costumes included a lot of see-through attire and 'nude' colour bikinis. Also, the lack of costumes promoted the Male Gaze as a lot of the time the models starring in the music video were topless and sometimes not covering that area, especially in the uncensored version. As for makeup, the prominent features were the lips and eyes due to the striking, bright, bold red lipstick and the use of eye shadow and eye liner to make the eyes look more 'sexy'. With the combination of camerawork and makeup, these facial features become subject to the Male Gaze due to camera lingering. Also, one of the models wore their hair in a ponytail, meaning that she was subject to being pulled by it. This is similar to how animals are taken for walks and in some cases pulled by leads that are around their necks. By Robin Thicke pulling one of the models around with her ponytail, it meant that she was able to be sexualised and objectified as well as being treated like an animal.
This video suggests that our society as a whole is becoming more accepting of the sexualisation and objectification of women. However, opposing the Male Gaze, the Female Gaze can be argued to be less prominent but serving the same purpose of objectifying and sexualising men. An example of this is Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen which shows a woman watching a male with his top off mowing the lawn.
This music video used camera lingering on the males chest, biceps and abdominal muscles to promote the Female Gaze. This music video also assumes that the prominent audience is heterosexual females. This music video shows a different view of objectification but it is not seen as damaging as the Male Gaze.
Laura Mulvey also expresses that in a music video, women are portrayed as two drastically different extremes, which I disagree with. This is because not all music videos either sexualise and objectify women or portray them as virginal innocent characters. I believe that in some music videos there is middle ground where the women are not seen as "whores" or innocent characters.
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