Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze

• Camera is used to represent a male audience and therefore encourages objectification of women
• This includes close-ups of body parts, tracking shots to follow the women, slow motion is also used, zoom ins and tilting up from a low angle.
• The audience is encouraged to identify with the male characters and how they treat women.
• Mulvey argued that the make gaze reinforced gender differences in society.

Two music videos that demonstrate aspects of the male gaze are Blurred Line - Robin Thicke & 

The opening shots of the music video is the singer lying in a bed with a woman with his leg wrapped around her body. The camera pans up their bodies to show his arm over her too. This symbolises sexual imagery and the fact that his arms are around her connote male dominance within the video which clearly demonstrates aspects of the male gaze.