The Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey

'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'

What is the Gaze?

The term was coined in 1975 - in film audiences have to view characters from a heterosexual male.

The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how the audience views the audience presented.

For a feminist is can be though of in 3 ways;

• How men look at women.
• How women look at themselves.
• How women look at other women.

Features of the Male Gaze?

• The camera lingers on a woman's curves, and events that occur to women are presents in the context from a mans reaction.
• Regulates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

Relation to the music video:

This theory provides useful within the music video being created. In the song 'All Day & All Of The Night' by The Kinks the lyrics relate to this theory as the narrative of the song is about a male wanting to be with a female all of the day and all of the night. For example "Girl I want to be with you all of the time, all day and all of the night". Although there will have to be elements of this theory by using certain camera angles to represent how this male feels about this female, it will not include vulgar voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

Furthermore elements of this theory relate because of the time period the music video will be set in. In the 1960's fashion changed drastically where women began to wear more relieving clothing than ever before. Therefore this changed the way men looked at women, the way women looked at themselves and how women looked at other women.

Example of the Male Gaze in reference to a music video:

Eric Prydz - Call On Me

This music video presents elements of 'the male gaze' because the camera lingers around the woman's curves.