Wednesday, 26 September 2012

RESEARCH: Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulveys theory on representation:
Representation consists of many parts, this may include thing such as gender, age, ethnicity and place. Laura Mulvey states "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."The image of an aritist(s) in a music video will have been carefully planned out: the clothing, the style, the hair, to the situation/narrative they are put in.

In most music videos we see women literally being advertised with their bodies. Mulvey discusses the idea that women are 'dismembered' in all forms of media- that there is a focus, not on women as a whole but the focus is on their body parts. She argues that this is responsible for some womens' focus and obsession with specific parts of their bodies such as legs bums etc. Men on the other hand, she argues, are shown as a whole, they often don't dismember them especially if its a male artists' music video.

An example of dismembering is Dizzie Rascals' 'Holiday' music video. This video is mainly about showing off these girls' body parts. The camera solely concentrates on their bums and breasts. Such as at 2:10 we see the girls' lower half of the body, whilst she is walking. This videos target audience seems to be more for the male gender since they are showing these girls in bikinis and directing the camera at their body parts only.

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