Blog post 7 - Laura Mulvey Theory

Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey's theory is centered around the phrase 'male gaze'. This is the idea that women are mis represented in the media in order to fulfill the desire of a male. This means that women are often objectified and made a victim of degrading stereotypes. Laura Mulvey states that women are often portrayed as erotic objects for men to view for pleasure. Often these portrayals are very obvious and very common in films. Mulvey states that the female characters are portrayed as the weaker characters that slow the narrative down or are often playing the role of a 'damsel in distress'. This is the complete opposite of how the males are often represented. The male characters are usually the heroes that are 'active' and keep the narrative going. Mulvey states that this is due to fact that we live in a patriarchal society (a society where men dominate the ideology and representation of both men and women)  This is very common in action films such as the James Bond films. 

In terms of music videos, the male gaze and scopophilia are very common in some certain genres. For example hip hop music videos often cater to the male gaze by using models in very revealing clothing. For example the rap group known as 'Migos' use this in their song called 'Handsome and Wealthy'

In this screenshot it is clear that the main focus is on the females curves and Mulvey would describe this as both scopophilia and the objectification of females.