Blurred Lines ‘The Male Gaze Theory’

Blurred Lines- ‘The Male Gaze Theory’

Sam Carter

• I will be applying Laura Mulvey’s ‘The Male Gaze Theory’ to the music video Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke.

• The 9 points of ‘The Male Gaze Theory’ are:1. The representation of women as a sexual fantasy and from a

heterosexual point of view2. Scopophilia- the pleasure involved in looking at other peoples bodies 3. Objectification of female characters4. Patriarchal society5. Active male and passive female6. Men as controlling subjects7. Women as an image8. Men do the looking and the women are there to be looked at9. Needs of the male ego

Blurred Lines- Male Gaze Theory

The first shots of the video are of the artist laying next to a woman with his arms around her and his name across the screen. This implies that he’s an imposing and confident figure, the camera movement and editing moves up their legs wrapped around each other and then there is a cut to their upper bodies showing they’re next to each other. The part of the theory saying ‘needs of the male ego’ could be applied in this shot as the showing of the artists name across the screen could infer he has a big ego, and the shot could imply that he needs that woman or women in general to fulfil the need of his ego.

These shots could use the theory of women are there to be looked at. It shows the male artists looking at the women in an inappropriate way and the women have no problem with it. This goes with this part of the theory as the women have no problem with this and are acting like they know they are there to be looked at. This could also apply to the point about scopophilia as the men are getting pleasure from looking at the women.

Men as controlling subjects can be seen in the video, in the picture above the women are stood still around the man and the man shouts ‘hey girl come here.’ This indicates an empowering and controlling attitude taken by the man which links with the theory. Also in a lot of the video the women are dancing and following the men around indicating that the men are controlling them.

Throughout most of the video women are represented as a sexual fantasy. This is one example as the close up of the woman showing her looking into the camera seductively complies with the fantasy theory. Also with the majority of the background being red this has connotations of a sexual nature.

This video complies with theory of society being a patriarchal society as the male artists are the dominant figures in the video while the women walk and dance around them. This screenshot however, can be seen either way as the male artist looks like he is trying to dominate the female with the lyrics ‘tried to domesticate you’. However, the facial expression of the woman shows that she is not interested and could show that she isn’t being dominated by the male, going against the patriarchal society theory.

This screenshot shows the theory of objectification of female characters. It does this by showing the female as a source of entertainment for the male characters as the women stand there and dance while the male characters just look at them. This complies with the theory as it looks like the males do not take into account how the women feel about this and just use them for their entertainment.This can also be used for the theory of women as an image as the mise-en-scene shows the women in little clothing, looking like they are performing for the men. This complies with the theory as it goes with the stereotype and the scopophilia theory of women are there to be looked at which is why they are dancing and performing for the men.

This picture shows that the video goes against the theory of active male and passive female. This is due to the male being shown as the passive character in this wide angled shot and the females being the active characters. The females are the active characters as they are dancing for the men and walking provocatively for the male character as he just watches them. This demonstrates that this video has contrasting scenes where the male is dominant, showing in the explanation of men as controlling subjects, and that females are dominant in this explanation.