Laura Mulvey's Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey, a successful media and cinema professor identified a theory in cinema and film of which can be related to all types of visual media, music videos included. She put forward the ideology that females were made to watch the form of media from the perspective of a man, as visuals were produced and filmed with the intentions to show women in a sexually appealing light. She called this the Male Gaze Theory, meaning that women are forced to look at videos or films in the same way in which men look at women.

Features of this Gaze in media would be shown in how the camera lingers over the attractive females in the video, paying close attention to body parts of which may evoke sexual desire in men, such as the breasts and curves. Mulvey Believed that women in media are shown as objects of desire rather than people, to the criteria of what the stereotypical male in society wants to view. we can see examples of the male gaze in a number of videos, and here is a clear example: