Laura Mulvey's Music Video Theory

The ‘Male Gaze’ theory is correct in saying that in music videos featuring women, the low camera angles, and ‘sexualised’ Mise En Scene are used to objectify women. This is often done from a heterosexual man’s perspective, which obviously, sexually objectifies the women. As mentioned in Andrew Goodwin’s theory, this is more common within more ‘radio friendly’ genres, such as Pop and some Rap Music Videos. An example of this is Jennifer Lopez – On the Floor Ft. Pitbull. The video for this song objectifies ‘J-Lo’ seeing her through high camera angles which are used to sexualise herself, whilst the male in the video (Pitbull) simply watches her.

Mulvey also mentions the idea that another part to the Male Gaze Theory is that women, typically, are portrayed one of two ways in music videos, as an innocent, helpless person, or as a ‘whore’, (The Virgin/ Whore Dichotomy). An example of an innocent portrayal of women is the video for the Arctic Monkey’s I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, which shows a woman, as a prostitute. However, despite her occupation, she is simultaneously portrayed as innocent, and weak, as she is constantly taken advantage of. As well as this, the Mise En Scene in the video (Costume etc.) shows how she doesn’t want to be a prostitute, but has to be to stay stable, financially. On the other hand, an example of women being portrayed as ‘Whores’ is the infamous video for Robin Thicke’s hit single Blurred Lines. The ‘unrated’ version not only shows the women as completely topless, but also dancing sexually and ‘getting intimate’ with the males in the video.    

The 'Male Gaze' theory will not apply to my Music Video, as it will not have any female actors.