Representation case study

REPRESENTATIONAlice Heffer

THE MALE GAZE THEORY

Laura Mulvey is a British Feminist who argues that there are 3 ways that the male gaze theory works; 1. how men look at women 2. how women look at themselves 3. how women compare themselves. Within music videos, this is clearly apparent that females are altered to attract the attention of males. This is seen by Mulvey’s view as there is an assumption of heterosexual men being the ‘default’ target audience for most film genres.

In Iyaz’s Replay video, the female is dressed in little to no clothing, indicating the sexual references to the female, and the attraction from stereotypically a male audience. Not only this, but Mulvey argues from a feminist point of view that other female watchers will in fact compare themselves to this look and feel as if this is what the ideal woman looks like and lose her self-esteem.

SCOPOPHILLIA

‘The love of looking’ is the definition of the Greek word ‘Scopophillia’ highlighting the objectification of females. Mulvey explains that females are seen to be a passive involvement in any film whilst, males are an active role. This means that the females are left with very little agency therefor, either identifying with the male as a subject or independently but as an object.

All of the bellow including the likes of Rihanna, Britney Spears etc, are all famous and well represented female artists, however, they are all seen as objects towards the male eye by being dressed in a sexual way. Although their fan base would be seen as a heavily female populated it is clearly based towards males. Like Mulvey states, the majority of directors are male, resulting in the up-rise of the attraction of the female performer.

OBJECTIFICATION

Music videos such as Arctic Monkeys – Leave before the lights come on- shows the female relying on the man when she is about to commit suicide. By this it expresses that the female is inferior and dependent on males. Not only this, but it makes the female character feel as if she is weak without a male support.

MISOGYNY

In June 2015, an example of misogyny showed, that the popular NME magazine only had images of 3 female artists in comparison to 13 images on male artists. By cancelling out any female superior, the magazine clearly chose to highlight the male popularity making women artists less accessable.