Mulvey and the Gaze

Laura Mulvey analysed the way mainstream films 'construct an ideal viewer'. She analysed the way men and women are represented in films and speculated how this would appeal to the spectator. She said 'spectatorship' and the act of looking itself, provided a form of sexual gratification. Mulvey suggested the cinema was the ideal place to get 'scopophilic' pleasure because; the people in the film aren't aware the spectator is watching(so cant be made to feel guilty, this is called voyeuristic pleasure) and no one else can see the spectator getting pleasure as the theater is in darkness, also everyone else will be focused on watching the screen to.
 Mulvey believes that popular films 'are obsessively subordinate to the neurotic needs of the male ego'. She believed this because she thought that mainstream films are all made by men for men, Male characters are usually in the main role and are active, whereas the female characters are passive (often seen as a prize or an object that males fight over, they don't act or think for themselves). Therefore women are presented as 'spectacles' something pleasurable for the male spectator to look at. Mulvey also stated that male spectators narcissistically identify with the male character and gets pleasure by feeling similar to the hero( he is a man too therefore there the same) and admiring/loving the idealised image of masculinity.
Mulvey also noted that sometimes there were active female roles, however these characters weren't for female spectators to identify with, instead their power seemed to be based around their beauty. She said that female beauty was fetishised. A fetish according to Mulvey is when a source of fear becomes a source of pleasure. Humans don't like feeling scared so, psychologically,  they sometimes turn a source of fear into a source of pleasure. So according to Mulvey a male spectator, made anxious by a female characters empowered actions, can turn her into a source of visual pleasure by concentrating on her sexiness and beauty, therefor she is fetishised or sexualised.

50 Cent-Candy Shop

This music video supports Mulveys 'Male Gaze' Theory is created by males for a male audience, by objectifying women. It supports the theory that viewer gains pleasure  through scopophilia and voyeurism.

The music video and lyrics objectify women in a sexual way as all the women are simply there for his pleasure.
'I'll take you to the candy shop

I'll let you lick the lollipop
Go 'head girl, don't you stop

Keep going 'til you hit the spot'

The lyrics tell us that the man is in charge here, he's giving her permission to give him oral sex as if he already knows that's what she wants to do, this tells us that the women in the video are there only for pleasure. Therefore Mulvey would say that the male audience are being told that women are there to be used by men which objectify women.

The women are wearing tight clothing, and shorts and dancing seductively, thrusting and making facial expressions usually seen during sexual intercourse. Males may also 'voyeuristicly objectify' the women as they can look at the women without feeling guilty, as they dont know there being watched. Allowing them to gain pleasure from desiring the women freely without the guilt.

Mulvey would suggest that the Male audience would 'narcissitically identify' with the 50 cent, the males identify with him being a male and having a penis like they do, they aspire to be more like him as they want what he has, the nice car, power over women, commanding them to pleasure him and money.


Adele-Rolling in the Deep

This music video does not support Mulveys theory's as the lead role is a female there's only one male shown very briefly simply hitting a drum. Adele is seen sitting in a chair and singing and is in no way sexualised, therefore cannot be fetishised by the male spectators, she is not trying to seduce the male spectators at all and nor are the lyrics referring to sex.