Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Laura Mulvey essay


Laura Mulvey’s theory applies to the music videos “Dirty” and “Do it Like a Dude” because both videos invite the audience to view the artists as objects of desire.  This is done through the camera shots and angles used, the fact the video is presented in a voyeuristic way to the audience, and the way the artist interacts with others in the video.

In Christina Aguilera’s video of “Dirty” the use of the camera invites sexual gaze by the camera having a close up on he face especially the lips as they are a sexual object and can be used to attract men to the video

The audience views this video in a voyeuristic way because the actors and the artist are wearing very little which you don’t see day to day basis and is very out of the ordinary which can be classed as a sexual video and some people would class it as porn.

The actors interact in a way that results in the female being looked at as an object of desire. This occurs when Christina Aguilera is in the boxing ring and coming out of the cage to an audience of men wearing very little cheering and chanting at her in a positive way they also have their hands close to her as she is the main attraction of the video

In Jesse J’s video of “Do it Like a Dude” the use of the camera invites sexual gaze by having the camera close to her face especially her mouth because that is a sexual object which can be ‘in your face’ looking intimidating as she looks angry and fierce while the camera is close to her face

The audience views this video in a voyeuristic way because the video is a bit violent as Jesse Js squaring up to the men and talking in their faces as to say its trash talk also to the end of the video she walks in a room and stares at everyone in a negative way and looking intimidating.

The actors interact in a way that results in the female being looked at as an object of desire. This occurs when Jesse J is dancing in front of a group of women wearing clothes that stand out to the rest and dances always at the front making her the most important person in the video

The target audience for these two artists is young females.  However, the way they represent themselves as sexual objects does not appeal to young girls, it appeals more to men.  I believe Christina Aguilera and Jesse J choose to represent themselves like this because as young girls enjoy listening to their music, men still think the music is targeted for teenage girls as the lyrics may not be appealing to men, however they choose to represent themselves like this as they can attract more and more men to watch the video and persuade them to buy the song or album.