Gender Representation
The Male Gaze
The Male Gaze is a theory or concept created by Laura Mulvey to portray how the media presents women from a heterosexual males point of view. Through watching the three music videos I believe I have identified the male gaze and its use.
Justin Timberlake's 'Tunnel vision' and Rihanna's 'Pour it up' are both quite sexualised music videos with major nudity and sexual references.
'Tunnel Vision' is indefinitely appealing to the heterosexual male. I believe it is degrading towards women as they are objectified and related to materialistically with such lyrics as "Zoom in on you, I wanna see you" portraying them as an attraction to the heterosexual males. The women do not appear to be in control, they are used and manipulated and treated like animals being viewed in a zoo. Their person is dehumanised as they are turned into a sexual object. Timberlake in the video is not dominant even though he should be the main focus, the women are overpowering and possessive of the screen with use of a shallow focus which evidentially shows that it is using the Male Gaze.
'Pour it up' is rather juxtaposing, as on one hand women are again sexualised with the nudity and stripper based music video yet I believe there is a subliminal message showing the women are in control and want to do the stripping due to the money with lyrics such as "all I see is dollar signs". The music video is entirely materialistic towards themselves and money. The explicit images of the women are indefinitely aimed at heterosexual men and show the degrading and sexualisation of women.
The third music video was Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood'. This video is contrasting and I believe there is a mixture of empowerment and the degrading of women. In the video Taylor Swift is atypical of female stereotypes as she is strong, powerful, is battling other men and training to fight. This connotes the empowerment here portraying Taylor and the multiple models used in the video (such as Cara Delavigne and Zendaya) to be robust and showing vigour. Here the video becomes rather like a hybrid, one of empowerment and demise. Technically the video is aimed at teenagers (typically girls). This audience would appeal to the video as it shows famous celebrities and signifies desirable outfit choices and body types of the models. Despite this there is still the male appeal with the women fighting, especially the scene with model Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift consisting of facial shots and a shallow focus to really draw attention to the lust and sexualisation of the two, emphasized even more with the slow motion edit. This is conventional of the male gaze. However there is the fact that this theory could be challenged with the criticism that the women could want to be looked at, especially as they are models and get paid daily to do just that. Therefore for this music video it is hard to say who it is aimed at, yet does include the male gaze.
The Male Gaze is a theory or concept created by Laura Mulvey to portray how the media presents women from a heterosexual males point of view. Through watching the three music videos I believe I have identified the male gaze and its use.
Justin Timberlake's 'Tunnel vision' and Rihanna's 'Pour it up' are both quite sexualised music videos with major nudity and sexual references.
'Tunnel Vision' is indefinitely appealing to the heterosexual male. I believe it is degrading towards women as they are objectified and related to materialistically with such lyrics as "Zoom in on you, I wanna see you" portraying them as an attraction to the heterosexual males. The women do not appear to be in control, they are used and manipulated and treated like animals being viewed in a zoo. Their person is dehumanised as they are turned into a sexual object. Timberlake in the video is not dominant even though he should be the main focus, the women are overpowering and possessive of the screen with use of a shallow focus which evidentially shows that it is using the Male Gaze.
'Pour it up' is rather juxtaposing, as on one hand women are again sexualised with the nudity and stripper based music video yet I believe there is a subliminal message showing the women are in control and want to do the stripping due to the money with lyrics such as "all I see is dollar signs". The music video is entirely materialistic towards themselves and money. The explicit images of the women are indefinitely aimed at heterosexual men and show the degrading and sexualisation of women.
The third music video was Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood'. This video is contrasting and I believe there is a mixture of empowerment and the degrading of women. In the video Taylor Swift is atypical of female stereotypes as she is strong, powerful, is battling other men and training to fight. This connotes the empowerment here portraying Taylor and the multiple models used in the video (such as Cara Delavigne and Zendaya) to be robust and showing vigour. Here the video becomes rather like a hybrid, one of empowerment and demise. Technically the video is aimed at teenagers (typically girls). This audience would appeal to the video as it shows famous celebrities and signifies desirable outfit choices and body types of the models. Despite this there is still the male appeal with the women fighting, especially the scene with model Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift consisting of facial shots and a shallow focus to really draw attention to the lust and sexualisation of the two, emphasized even more with the slow motion edit. This is conventional of the male gaze. However there is the fact that this theory could be challenged with the criticism that the women could want to be looked at, especially as they are models and get paid daily to do just that. Therefore for this music video it is hard to say who it is aimed at, yet does include the male gaze.
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