Laura Mulvey's Theory

Representation

 
Representation is the way in which people, events or objects are shown by the maker of the representation, meaning it is the point of view of the people involved such as the director,  producer, writer, actor and even the broadcasters. The representations offer specific values and messages to the viewer which can be positive or negative.

Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist, has this theory which highlights the power imbalance between men and women analyzing the way men see women, the way women view themselves and other women. Her theory indicates that an audience are forced to view the text from the perspective of a heterosexual male; this is evident in films and music as there is a constant focus on women’s body parts (something Mulvey calls dismemberment, which suggests women are treated as pieces of meat) and events that happen to them are portrayed at a male angle.

She argues that in classic Hollywood movies women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men, and the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men. This male gaze is voyeuristic and Mulvey’s concept of "to-be-looked-at-ness" exemplifies that women were merely shown on screen in classic Hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure. 

Due to differences in power between men and women, roles such as writer, cameraman, and producer are taken by men. It is the dominant ideology to represent men as strong, positive 'alpha males' but the women seen in music videos and movies are sexualised, objectified by men and shown to be less powerful.
The way in which women are represented reflects the male point of view and their personal ideology about how women should look. Males are active (the looker) and females are passive (being looked at.)

Dizzee Rascal's 2009 single Holiday has a music video that reinforces the ideology of the male gaze. The main way in which it does this is through the mise en scene of scantily-clad women and the dismembering of their body parts through lots of close up shots. The focus on the women in this video is not of them as a whole person but through the focus on parts such as legs and back. There are no close up shots of the males but only medium and long shots, which means they are not being sexualised. Also, they are all fully clothed, some even wearing a suit to a pool party! 

Like in Mulvey's theory, the men in the video are represented to be be stronger and dominant because there are MUCH more women in the video than men and the men are fully clothed. This creates the male fantasy of having many women around them. The typical male audience member is aligned with the video's protagonist, by identification and admiration and aspire to be in their position. Therefore the audience member gains narcissistic pleasure from identifying with the films protagonist, placing themselves "in the shoes" of the men in this video.  

Despite the increasing objectification of women in the music industry over the last two decades, there have been some women who have challenged the male gaze through their music videos and lyrics in their songs. Artists like Beyonce Knowles and Kelly Rowland have become icons of female empowerment.

The 90s group Destiny's Child (of which Knowles and Rowland were leading members of) projected the idea to women (especially black women) that women can be independent. This is clearly demonstrated by lyrics such as "Tell me how you feel about this/Try to control me boy you get dismissed/Pay my own fun, oh and I pay my own bills/Always 50/50 in relationships" in the video above. 

There are very few music videos where men are objectified (female gaze). One that I thought was suitable was Lil Kim's How Many Licks. The typical features such as close up shots of women have been reversed here and there are a few close ups of the men. Normally in music videos, the male artists talk about the body parts of women and brag about the number of women they 'have'; you'll notice how the artist here has taken on that role and is dominant rather than the men in the video who are portrayed as weak.