Laura Mulvey On Reprsentation (Research)

Laura Mulvey

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly". (Laura Mulvey, 1992) 

What Mulvey is trying to say is that we live in a world where man have the upper hand and they dominate over women. And how women present themselves in a way to please and pleasure the male's fantasies. I agree with Mulvey's theory as Women in the music industry have been styled to please the male gaze for decades now. The first women who thrived from selling sexy was Madonna in her prime she would always perform in the most lucrative appealing and controversial costumes

A lot of people criticize singers on their choice of how they represent themselves on tv and in appearances but we know that this strategy of selling females work's. Some of the most BEST selling females in the music industry in the past 20 years Madonna, Beyonce and Rihanna have used their sex appeal in some way to sell music.


When women are in music video the focus is always on their body and features. As a audience you don't really get a chance to familiarize with the female as we only get glimpse while we get to see the male counterpart in full. The man is then shown as more dominate and relevant whilst the women is seen as an object and entertainment for the man. We see these types of shots a lot in Hip hop and metal videos. and example is one of many 50 cent video's

        50 Cent - P.I.M.P                                      

In the video 50 cent is seen surrounded by females , they are wearing swim suites that bear little. The video corresponds with Mulvey's theory as we have the men in the video fully dressed and have lead roles in the video wearing expensive jewellery and have women looking at them lusting and admiring them. whilst we have the female figures are seen walking about next to nothing with close ups of their body and slow motion shot's of them dancing and moving again  proves Mulvey right. 

However thee are some women in the music industry who do not portray themselves in such way's. One of them being Alicia Keys she always presented herself in a classy way, fully clothed and empowering and she has still had the same success as other artist and videos.  In her video super human key's showcases the positive and power of women. You can watch the video by clicking the following link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDApZhXTpH8&feature=player_embedded