RESEARCH: Laura Mulvey's theory

Laura Mulvey basically thinks that thanks to male dominated world, where the male appears to be the active figure, they have created this fantasy of women as an object and this is visible in music videos.

Based on this theory you could expect to see women in little clothing and sexualised and often dismembered by the camera seeing as the lens is being viewed through a man’s eyes a.k.a the cameraMAN. The genre that appears to me to sexualise women the most is rap and hip hop as the image is based around flash cars, money and women.

Adele is the artist that I think challenges this idea the most because she is more about the music more than anything else and when this topics ever arises it is often debated that women don’t need to act sexually in music videos to make money and Adele is always used as proof of this.

If I wouldn’t have been made aware of the year Laura Mulvey made her quote I would instantly think she was talking about 2011 instead of 1992. Her opinion is still completely valid if not even more so.

‘Down’ by Jay Sean ft. Lil Wayne is an example of how women are used in an inferior way. Even though in this video they are not as scantily dressed as in other videos, at 0:36 a number of women surround him and help him put on his jacket, because he is clearly not able to put it on himself.

In the video ‘Spaceship’ by Tinchy Stryder ft. Dappy, even though there is only one woman that appears in the video she is mostly filmed from behind as she walks in slow motion which reinforces the idea of the male fantasy; and also when she appears on the boat she in the middle of the screen therefore the focus is on her.