Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey and her theory of the Male Gaze was influenced by Freude, the creator of Psychoanalysis and the elaborator of the unconscious. This inspiration was the key to the Feminist Film Theory movement and has been of great influence since the mid 1970's. Mulvey argues that women are represented only to provide visual pleasure to men and that the audience is constructed in a manner where by they are all expected to be of the male gender. This theory is known as them male gaze and is both voyeuristic and fetishist. Laura argues that films, Hollywood films in particular, had the typical key protagonist character as a male and that the audience members were similarly conventionally expected to be of the male gender. Therefore the audience member gains gratification and pleasure from identifying with the films protagonist, placing themselves "in the shoes" of the films hero (the male). Further the influence of Freud, an influential psychoanalytic theorist, to Laura Mulvey's theory is that the idea of castration anxiety which is what a person unconsciously thinks.

I am going to analyse and compare three different music videos in relation to the theory of Laura Mulvey's male gaze. The three videos I have chosen are... 

 

* Kyle Minogue - Spinning Around

* Scouting For Girls - She's So Lovely

* Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor

This video conforms to the conventions of Mulvey's theory in several different aspects, however, there are some minor features that show the video to subvert against the male gaze.

The first shot within the video is of Kylie's feet. She is wearing kitten heels that are a gold colour. This type of footwear suggests to the audience that Kylie is a confident character and that she is going out. Gold is a colour that is associated with the idea of a prize, therefore the colour of the shoes implies

that Kylie is a possession: this would conform the male gaze theory. The narrative of the shot then shows Kylie to spin around: this follows the lyrics of the song and shows Kylie to be moving in the style of the words of the song. The movement within the shots is slow motion, due to this the audience are able to concentrate upon the characters more and it also gives them more screen time. This too follows Mulvey's theory as she suggested that women were presented in a way to give men pleasure - the slow motion effect of the shot means that the audience can see Kylie in a more detailed way. The next shot is again another close-up which also, in the style of Mulvey, would give more pleasure to the audience. The close-up is of Kylie's behind, therefore giving off sexual connotations.

In the upcoming shots, the character is shown to be wearing again the colour gold. This suggests that she is a prize. She is laid upon the table in front of the bar. The servers behind the bar are men and this implies that they are serving the alcohol. This could suggests that this is the reason as to why Kylie is dancing in such a provocative way, relating to how women are seen as possessions in Mulvey's theory. The men are also watching the character who is laying on the bar dancing. This is almost like she is performing a dance act for them. Her facial expression is happy, implying that she is happy with what she is doing. When the character is laying

on the table she is wearing a bikini top and in the other shots she is wearing shorts and a halter neck top which reveals her shoulders and arms. The character is presented in a way that exposes her body suggesting that the male gaze relates to this video due to the female being shown on screen in a form that gives pleasure towards the audience. The audience are suggested to be men due to the way the main character is presented.

As the character is walking through the club she is singing and dancing whilst making eye contact with the male characters. This would suggest that she is wanting of their attention. In one of the long shots she throws herself over the sofa in-between two males. The way she does this appears as if she is throwing herself at two men relating to how women are pleasurable to men. She then pushes herself upon the male whilst facing the other way and singing with eye contact towards the other character - this could subvert the theory of the male gaze as it appears to be the female who is leading the males. The lyrics read "I found a new direction" and then the female takes the male to the dance floor: subverting against the theory of the male gaze.

When the character is dancing the majority of the shots are a close-up of her face, showing a joyous facial expression. The concentration of the camera on her facial expression shows how the audience is targeted to be of the male gender. The lighting at this point is high key: reflecting this. The spotlights are often on Kylie, giving her a power over the other females. The fact that she has the most screen time also gives her a power but in this sense the power is over all characters, including the males. Although this would go against the male gaze in the fact that Kylie, the female, is given power: it then conforms as the female with the most screen time would be watched by an audience of men. The character also sings 'you know you like it like this' whilst dancing in a sexual manner. Kylie then leads a dance that men join in with. This subverts to the male gaze as it shows the two genders to be performing together. However, due to Kylie leading the dance and being the main focus and in the centre of the camera, the eyes of the audience would still be on the female and some audience members may even overlook the male characters that are joining in.

The majority of aspects within this video conform to the rules of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory.

In my opinion, this video conforms to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory in a vast number of clear ways. The title of the song is 'She's So Lovely' and this can be misleading. The object in this title is a female and the use of 'lovely' could suggests that the female has a lovely personality or that the female is someone's mother, sister or friend. This is not the case as the female that is being spoken about is in fact eye candy for the male singer.

The first verse of this song starts with 'I love the way she fills her clothes' making strong references the females body type. The order of this is important as it implies that the body is the first thing that the man notices: this would relate to the idea of women being pleasurable in Mulvey's theory. The first shot of the female, in relation to Kylie Minogue's Spinning Around, is again the females feet. The shoes in the first video were a gold colour suggesting that the female was a prize; in this second video the colour of the shoes are red, suggesting that the character is provocative. The style of the shoes are similar in the fact that they are both high heels. This makes them appear to be confident. The camera shows the feet to be at the bottom of the screen and the bare skinned legs in the middle giving the main focus to the females legs.

Again, in this video men are watching the female character. This shows how the audience would be doing the same and that they to would be of the male gender. This conforms to Mulvey's theory as it shows how women are presented in a way that provides pleasure for men. The man that looks at the female is again behind a counter giving him control and more power than the female. This could suggest that the women is a possession. There is also a close-up shot of the characters behind relating to the selection of shots within the first video.

The chorus reads 'She's so lovely' and this is too the actual title of the song. The fact that these words are both the title and the main chorus of the song show how the male character is only focusing upon the females looks. As this is being sung, the audience see the male gazing upon the female as a series of close-ups show her walking past different men with a happy expression upon her face. She is clearly enjoying the attention. If the character is happy then the audience would be to showing how the female is represented in a pleasurable manner for the male members of the audience. The speed of these shots are slow giving the female longer screen time and giving the audience a longer viewing time of the female.

The lyrics are continuously making references towards the characters looks. In one shot the male sings "she's got a boyfriend though and that's a pity " and then the audience see the couple kiss whilst the

boyfriend raises his eyebrows towards the male singer. The boyfriend is tormenting the other male as if to say 'she's mine not your'. Again, the female is being presented as a possession. The lyrics are demoralizing also "she's flirty and dirty" however, the female appears to be enjoying this. The video does subvert from the theory of the male gaze if you look at it from a different perspective. The male is the singer and the video comes from the males point of view. In the his opinion he believes that she enjoys attention from males. However if the point of view and the narration of the shots was selected by the female then the video could potentially be completely different. In comparison to this, the first video was from the females point of view and she clearly did enjoy the attention of the males. The name of the band is Scouting for girls, this again is very demoralizing and suggests that they are all about girls. Scouting is about being chosen and therefore this suggests that females are possessions in the eyes on these men.

This video is different when compared to the first and second. The speed of the shots to begin with are slow which does give the audience more time to focus upon the main character, which is a female. However I think that the purpose of the slow pace is to show that the female, in this case, is stronger than what women are presented to be like in a video such as She's so lovely.

The car pulls up and the camera focuses upon the make of the car by using a close-up of the bmw sign. This suggests that whoever is in the car has money and therefore power. A mid shot then shows a male to be driving the car and a female to be in the passenger seat. The audience would assume that the male is in control as he is in the drivers seat, however, the female is the first to leave the car and she does it on her own with no help : implying that she has a sense of direction and that she knows what she is doing. The male character is not shown within the narrative to be leaving the car which shows how the focus is only upon the female, giving her the most power. A close-up then shows the characters expensive life style by showing her to be opening a Swarovski box. In comparison to the other two videos, when the female gets out of the car there are three background characters standing against the door watching her; two are male and two are female. The female is standing in the middle, this gives her some power. The man on the right rubs his hands together when he notices Jlo, this is demoralizing alike to Mulvey's theory.

The first verse that Jlo sings is 'let me introduce you to my party people' this shows how the other characters are Jlo's possession and how she is not conforming to the theories of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory as she is not yet shown to be a possession. The male singer, Pitbull, then sings. In the song Pitbull is only a feature. The fact that a man is featuring in a female's song gives the female a superior role when compared to the male. As he sings his part, there a re females in skimpy bikinis dancing around him - this does follow the theory as it suggests that these women are for the pleasure of the audience and of the male within the video. There bikni's are also gold which, alike to the Kylie Minogue video, suggests that they are a prize and more so a possession. The females are even sprayed with glittery gold body paint which puts a high emphasis on the prize-like idea. Pitbull says 'you will lose yeah' showing his cockiness. he fact that he says this whilst females are dancing around him enhances his confidence.

The female character wears extravagant clothing that is too gold. This would also suggest that she is a prize, however the audience would assume that she is a prize that cannot be won due to her not being seen with any other characters. She is not associated with the people down on the dance floor, she is segregated from the others. The reason behind this is because she does not conform to the male gaze theory. On the other hand, the clothing she wears (although not prerogative) does enhance her features and this could suggest that she is presented in a way that makes her appear pleasurable towards the male audience members.

Both men and women are shown to be dancing and both men and women are shown to be sitting on

pink sofa's watching everyone else dance. At this point, a final character is introduced. It is still Jlo, however she is playing a different role at this point. This time she is wearing a bra let that exposes her body. Her clothing is dark and dull. I think that his relates to the stereotype of the male gaze in the sense that everyone assumes that women and possessions and that this can get quite boring. The dullness reflects how the audience would assume that she is just another possession. however, she then gets up onto the stage and dances. Everyone joins in and she steals the show. If you compare the routine to that in the Kylie Minogue spinning around video then you would notice that she is less provocative and dances in a less sexual manner, subverting from the male gaze theory ideas. However, it could be argued that she is conforming to the male gaze theory as she is performing and she is receiving the most screen and therefore male audience members can watch her. But, as she is not dancing in a sexual manner she could not be presented in a way that is pleasurable for men.

The female from the beginning is being served by another female. This is not conventional and enhances the characters strong persona.

Although this video is less con-formative of the male gaze theory when compared to the first two videos and although it does subvert in several ways, it still does follow some rules of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory.