RESEARCH: Laura Mulvey's Ideas on Representation

LAURA MULVEY

This is her view on gender representation:

"In a world of sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly"

Laura Mulvey believes that currently, females are represented as a male fantasy in the media. Here is my interpretation of what she is saying: 

"In a world of sterotypical sexism, male and female representation is divided between dominance of males and sexulisation of females. Male fantasies are projected onto woman who fit these fantasies."

This sexual imbalance of gender in the media and in music videos can be expected in our modern society. Although Laura Mulvey's quote was said in 1992, it stills refers and implies to today's modern media of gender representation. It has become all to natural to expect sexual representations of women in music videos based on a specific type of genre. This sexual representation of women is done in music videos by their image (revealing clothing), attitude (lyrics in the song) and body language (outward impression). This is only done in music videos through specific genres of music such as R'n'B, Hip-Hop, Pop and even Rap. Artists in these genres feel the need to glorify their own gender whether it being glorifying your masculinity or glorifying your sex appeal. A wide range of artist all do this, splitting the divide of male and female representation.

However, there are a few artists who are not stereotyped as being part of a males fantasy. Artists such as Adele are not represented as part of a male fantasy. They instead use natural talent and natural presented personalities to gain world wide fame instead of using their image to gain fame and recognition (such as Lady Gaga and Niki Minaj).

Adele uses natural beauty and raw talent to gain success whereas Niki Minaj uses the male fantasy through revealing clothing to gain fame.

Adele focuses on her signing to please the audience whereas someone such as Niki Minaj uses her image to get the same result. This means most women in music videos will tend to use outward appearance and image to gain fame and publicity rather than being natural. They use the their bodies as an object of desire in the male gaze too frequently to the point where it has become to norm for a female artist in music videos in most cases. 

Laura Mulvey states that the female body is being used as a tool in the media to represent a males fantasy of women in general. The fact that females are being dismembered with more focus on specific body parts rather than looking at the person as a whole, is having an impact on what we in society feel women should be, have or do. This has become the norm in society and is forcing normal women to become what the media thinks is normal. This is where some female stereotypes come into play. Some music videos focus on a woman's physical attributes such as her legs, breast or bum in mainly male music videos to project that fantasy onto the public. This creates an obsession that every male should have a partner with similar attributes and that every female should look like this.

This form of gender representation can be seen in many videos:

Dizzee Rascal portrays women in this video more as an object instead of a human being. This is a typical example or what Laura Mulvey's statement was about, that women in the media are only shown as male fantasies, when in feel life, things differ. Camera shots focus more on a woman's attributes rather than talent or personality.


Niki Minaj uses the male gaze and fantasy in her music videos causing a stereotype among women to dress more revealing to get attention. She uses her sex appeal to her advantage.