Laura Mulvey’s Theory on representation.

‘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

If we were to break down what Laura Mulvey is trying to say we would see that in her opinion society works in such way that it creates this representation where males are the dominant, powerful beings who shape the way females should act and look, once this idea is shaped it is constantly applied and females are therefore compared to this ‘fantasy’ and represented in such way that is closes to it.

An example of Mulvey’s theory is Benny Benassi – Satisfaction. In this video we clearly see women’s body being segmented for the male viewing.  A lot of the time there’s close ups or pans of certain parts of the female body, reinforcing the idea that there is a focus not on women as a whole, but a focus on parts of their body. The whole video is based on two things we assume men like, hard work and females so Benny Benassi has gone and combined them together. The choice of clothing is too suited for male viewing with there being as little as possible.

           

Eric Prydz – Call on Me is another example that follows Mulvey’s ideas of representation in music video. The whole video is based on females doing yoga in as little clothing as possible. Similarly to the video above there’s constant use of close ups of different body parts of the female, clearly implying that its targeted at males.