When watching music videos, the audience is put into the first-person perspective of a heterosexual man because of what is shown on screen. Camera shots will show sexy women and focus on their curves, with many of them not wearing much clothes.
Laura Mulvey argues that the Male Gaze takes precedence over the Female, because music videos are tailored for men to watch.
This can be decoded as that the biased male construction of feminine identity has more importance over the biased female construction of male identity- men's views and opinions of women take charge over women's views and opinions of men.
The theory suggests that women are denied human rights because they are effectively used as sexual objects for men's pleasure- also known as objectifying. Meanwhile, female viewers are forced to experience these videos second-hand through a male perspective, and have to tolerate the objectifying of the female form.
In feminist theory, the 'Male Gaze' displays an unequal power relationship between viewer and viewed, and that the men impose their unwanted gaze upon the women. However, other feminists argue that despite if women want this or not, they are conforming to the established conventions and are going along with it, not caring if they are being objectified or not.
Good examples of the male gaze can be seen in R'n'b videos, where the women are dancing around in tight outfits while the men sing. Men are viewers, women are the viewed.
This video is a perfect example of the 'Male Gaze'. The women are dressed in sexy football outfits, who are in a video game being controlled by the men. The camera focuses on their curves, breasts, backsides and legs in these tight small outfits to give emphasis that this video is targeted to men who 'control' the women for their sexual pleasure. This is also reinforced by the fact that it includes a normal man's favourite two things- women and football.
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