Theorist - Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey - The 'male gaze'

Laura Mulvey argues that in the film and music industry, audiences have to 'view' characters from the desired perspective of a heterosexual male. The camera tends to linger on the curves of a female's body, and the female body is often overly-sexualised in order to attract large audiences. She argues that this is due to males generally working behind the camera as directors, producers and cameramen whereas women tend to feature in the films and music videos being made, so therefore they are objectified to appeal to male audiences. This results in music videos being created to appeal to the 'male gaze'.