Representation of Gender

Throughout time women have been seen as people who should be seen and not heard, that they are merely their for males to look at, this is view of females is still around in todays society and some females choose to embrace it and play further on it.

Laura Mulvey a british feminist film theorist stated that woman were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera. And thus developing the theory of The Male Gaze. This can also be stated for music videos, television, magazines etc... women are still used as an object of desire throughout them, when it comes to music videos most female artists choose to take control of this and still pose themselves as diserable but through their own means.

The term 'Gaze' first came into popular use by Jacques Lacan in the early 1950's, around this time film noir became increasingly popular, film noir focused heavily on the male gaze, the male character was seen as the protagonist and the female character would be the femme fatale. This female character was one which was always viewed in the point of view of the male, a view of longing and wanting.

Our music video doesn't make refrence to the male gaze at any single point, as our main character was a 13 year old girl and the other character was her father, the male gaze would not be appropriate. Our music video was strongly narrative based with no performance element. Many music videos that have a performance element include the male gaze, our video was more about real life and what individuals go through on a day-to-day basis. Children all go through a stage in their lives when they don't believe they fit in and feel the need to escape. It was important that we kept to this point and clearly highlighted how alone she felt and her innocence. These are two key features that women shown through the male gaze do not connote.

Clothing: those who are seen as objects of longing are usually presented in minimal clothing or clothing that enhances sexual characteristics which is designed to appeal to the male audiences, our key character wore a white dress displaying her innocence.

The use of black and white highlights to the audience the two main points; the good and the bad, with the young girl highlighting what is good, while we have the male character dressed in black presenting bad.

The male character was also very much unlike those you would see in a situation when the male gaze is portrayed. He appeared as a silhouette in the doorway towering above both the camera and Ellie, rather than moving through the frame or seen watching the woman, the shot is from Ellie's POV and as far as we can see looking directly at Ellie and us. He was submerged in darkness this supplied enigma to the character, this provided fear, for one of the greatest fears is the fear of the unknown.

The setting and mise en scene of our video was very normal thus portraying the scenario accurately, to a passer by the house would seem like any other and yet inside it had so much darkness and a young girl who felt so alone.

Male Gaze in todays society



 

Do I Wanna Know? performed by Arctic Monkeys, it is computer animated and yet even these animations display the male gaze by portraying females in an objectified manner.

The music video stays with one straight line across the screen, as the beat kicks in the line changes acting as if its an oscilloscope. displays sound waves, this continues on. This opening doesn't suggest to the audience what is to follow. It proceeds to be about females in an almost provocative manner.

At 1 minute 36 seconds this sound wave line changes to become a pavement for an unknown character to walk on, for the first few seconds we don't know who they are but the viewer can establish that they are female due to the high heeled boots. The camera then slowly zooms out to display the rest of the female's body. This draws our attention to solely her. As the camera continues zooming out it reveals a woman in very short shorts, with long hair and only a small top on. Her legs are spread as a tire comes rolling through. Even though this is an animation it still complies to the male gaze theory, this is that the woman is displayed on two different levels;

• as an erotic object for the characters within the film/clip
   
 
• as an erotic object for the spectator who is watching the film/clip
 

The camera still continues zooming out to reveal more female characters each of who bend over their individual tyres, this is placing them in a provocative position. As one tyre is then pushed, the camera follows the tire where it is stopped by a woman's boot, the camera then pans up her body to reveal her in a pose with the wind blowing her hair back, looking control, the viewers focus is entirely on her and she poses as being desirable.

 

The scene then morphs back to the sound wave, which vibrates according the lyrics.

"Been wondering if your heart's still open and if so I wanna know what time it shuts." As these lyrics are played the sound wave transforms into a pair of female legs which begin seperate and then cross over to change into a vertical line, throughout this video all the lines change into females, the sole purpose of this video is to attract the male gaze.

"Simmer down and pucker up" a pair of lips morph into the centre of the line, the video here is relating to the lyrics like other Alternative genres do and still highlighting features that males find attractive about females. As multiple lines appear to vibrate on the screen they then transform to become the fingers of a female character, they sweep around the screen to show a naked woman with her back to the camera who then swings her large buttocks into screen, highlighting another element that males find attractive. As the video is animation, certain features are not restricted due to the fact it's not actual females acting, although it still implies the same thing. The animation continues round to show multiple slim woman who then transform into the sound wave lines, the idea of the perfect woman is being shown via different key shots.

 

Smoothly the lines change into the lines on a racing track flag (Starting flag) a female is then shown, this female being different to the others and thus appealing to different male audiences, of a larger build, more of the normal type of woman and not the dream fantasy, and yet still wearing minimal clothing.

Her posture shows her leaning forward and prepared for action.

The audience then follows the line forward, were is continues moving to the lyrics, two bumps appear in the middle which then cut into a female. The outline out her body is shown with no detail but it is apparent to the audience that she is naked, her position shows her sitting back with her back arched and her toes pointed, this is a very seductive pose used throughout media. I believe this shot represents the male gaze best as it's almost erotic and even though the character is animation she still comes across as being human in her pose, the audience is drawn to this character.

At 3 minutes 1 second another woman is shown holding a cigarette which she then takes to her lips and inhales, smoking is deemed very attractive to some people and so this is further amplified here. By having a plain black backgroud and the female characters being made of a white line, the viewer cant help but have their eye wander to them. Then as the cars move forward the central one smoothly transforms into a womans buttock in jeans, again highlighting the male's gaze, the camera slowly moves out to show the rest of her, this allows the audience to capture each part of her.

 Transitions are used well in this video as each animation adapts well to becoming something else.

Another element making this of the Alternative genre is that the band themselves do not appear in the video.

Towards the end of the music video the animation becomes entirely different showing a man getting shot in the head and a number of animals, this is a complete contrast to the rest of the video and therefore shocks you when it usually would not.