Tuesday, 1 October 2013

RESEARCH - Laura Mulvey's Theory




Laura Mulvey’s quote on the Male Gaze:

            “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”.  –Laura Mulvey, 1992


My interpretation of Mulveys theory is that there is a sexual imbalance between male and women stereotypically, male having higher roles and the women being looked down on. Men get pleasure from simply looking at women, while the woman being passive meaning allow/accepting them to gawp at their figure and assets. Female figure which is styled accordingly meaning the women wear provocative clothing.

Her theory is commonly known as the ‘Male Gaze’, when one is viewing a music video the women are shown to be objectified. Women are mainly used for male enjoyment; this is mostly with in the genre of grime/rap/R&B/pop etc. When lyrics are based on a woman, the music video shows focus mainly on her assets. Sometimes edited to show just her figure/assets on screen, girls in music videos are always in costume of something revealing or provocative for the male viewers.



Example:

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines        http://youtu.be/yyDUC1LUXSU

From this music video it clearly shows women as an object, the singers/rappers within the video stare at their figure. Also, the lyrics are based on girls. The girls in the music video are walking around being very passive wearing next to nothing! Women are perceived very much as just an object to male viewers.

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