Laura Muvley Male Gaze Theory

Brief synopsis of Laura Mulvey
Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist born on august 15th 1941. She was educated at St Hilda's college, Oxford. She is currently a professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck University of London, but has previous experience working for the British film institute.

What is the Gaze?
The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how audience views the people presented.

Mulveys main theory is called 'the male gaze', this was to show that the female actresses in the 50s and 60s were to be looked at (to-be-looked-at-ness).
She suggests there are 2 modes of the male gaze of these era, 'voyeuristic', for example seeing women as 'whores' and 'fetishistic' seeing women as Madonnas.
The theory is to show that women were there to be seen and to entice men into the film.

For feminist it can be thought of in three ways:
How men look at women
How women look at themselves
How women look at other women

Laura Muvley coined the term `Male Gaze` in 1975. She believe that in film audiences have to `view` characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Features of the Male Gaze
The camera lingers on the curves of the female body and events which occur to women are presented largely in the contents of a man’s reaction to these events.

Relegates women to status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

For example I found this clip of a music video on a webpage referencing the Male Gaze Theory by Laura Mulvey.
Scouting for girls- she so lovely

“I love the way she fills her clothes
she looks just like them girls in vogue”


Also The 'male gaze' theory can be applied to contemporary music videos particularly in genres such as rap and pop. Here is an example of voyeuristic tactics used to entice men into watching the candy shop video by 50 cent:

Watch the clip and identify how many references are made towards the Male Gaze?

Use of the Male Gaze Theory in everyday life
Some theorist have also noted the sexualizing of the female body even in the situations where female sexiness has nothing to do has doing to do with the product being analysis.

Criticism of Mulvey and the Gaze theory
Some women enjoyed being `looked` at e.g. beauty pageants.
The gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender for sexual reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing.

Key theorist beliefs
Jonathan Schroeder (1998) “to gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.”

The Maccabees website analysis

http://www.themaccabees.co.uk

The conventions that are presented on The Maccabees website are audio and visuals elements, which begin to start as soon as you reach their homepage. The band has create a live performance that audience are shown to engage their fans into their performances I.e. gigs and how the band operates. The focus is straight away gage on the audience, using live footage of their activities keeps fans more interested and keeps them on the website for longer periods of time, but it also shows fans that the band are more targeted to live performance which many indie genres bands and audience enjoy in terms of viewing pleasures. The text on the homepage are links to other pages of the websites with information of the bands, upcoming gigs dates, and music. At the bottom of the page there are links which takes you to The Maccabees social networking sites. This is effective use of 360 marketing because fans can use these social networks to follow the bands activities and what they currently up to. The links at the top of the page lets the audience find out everything they need to about the band there is a section for lyrics, news, blogs, live, images and videos but extras that fans will enjoy. The layout of the website is simple with links at the top and bottom of the page, also the Maccabees logo is featured which is instantly recognisable to their target audience, the navigations buttons are also simple and effective making it easy to follow and use the website.

Who are the target audience?
The target audience are fans are the bands music and also fans of the indie genre. The age will probably range around 15- 30 years olds and most predominately female. Also the live footage will give new audiences a chance to see what the band are like but also draws them into the bands style of performance and maybe even converting them into liking the band.

How successful is it at promoting the artist?
The band are well promoted in terms of the use of videos and links to the bands activities within the website. The band is the first thing you hear and see, using direct engagement to interactive with their fan based. The bands promotion strategy is probably through the use of word of mouth, and the footage of the band its self. The Maccabees aren’t sign to a major record deal so they don’t have the financial backing that major record label do with artists, but the band are effective in promoting themselves in terms of using social networking sites such as Myspace, Twitter and Facebook to reach their fans.

This is the album advert for The Maccabees Wall Of Arms. It uses the same artwork as what is on its album so that the album can be recognised in shops or in magazines. There is no reviews or comments made by Music Critics to give ratings or information on the album. There is however a larger space at the bottom of the image which is taken up by smudges and paint dripping coming from the members of the bands.

The band members are dressed in bright and vibrant colours which gives a up-tempo approach to the theme there are presenting, they are also quite status like, like mannequins shop windows advertising new merchandise that has just arrived in stores.

This space could have been used to provide extra information on the bands forthcoming album or positive reviews which could have been used to market, advertise and entice audiences. This is a good example of an album advert that lacks information and bad marketing and advertising strategies to pull in potential cliental, the advert only shows the name of the band and the album title, and that it out now.

The image is eye-catching and shows that the band has develop a unique and individuality crafted, which goes with the albums marketing strategies. One most eye-catching element of the advert is the that text is ‘acclaimed’ twice on the advert, each time in different colours in order to make it stand out and grab the attention of the audience.

The magazine advert for Laura Marling is very simple but also very effective. The use of abstract picture is a common convention in her type of genre, many indie band use abstract design to convey they messages and values through pictures such as the one above to convey meaning into their personalities and music which are identify by target audiences.

The neutral colour scheme and bold black outlines work well with the plain background and text. The image is rather unusual, but the dark patterns pattern’s highlight the lighter flower in the centre which creates a focusing point and a area of interest to the target reader. There is no direct link to establish the artist from the advert, which makes the advert more imaginative for the reader.

The drawing expresses that though and detail have been inputted into the image and helps emphasise the outline of the human body. The rest of the image features leaves and trees which makes the whole theme more of a naturalistic element of the four elements of the earth. The layout is also very simple as the text and image is centralised, this makes the advert more easy to read and look at.

The colours complement each other and do not overtake one another. The use of one single neutral colour highlights elements to exposed the image. There is no type of shot features within this advert as is a drawing so no shot is need to illustrate the artist. The image fit’s the majority of the page which makes you focus on the image more closely and in depth, although a lot of graphical detail has been added to the drawing to emphasis themes within this advert. Editing has been used on the text to align the text and the image together. I like the use of old folk style text to convey the stylistic elements of a feminine theme. The overall thought on this magazine advert is very unique and eye catching the use of simplistic graphic and icon present a creative and imaginative way to present a artist the image and text links to the genre conventions and provides the relevant information.