A summery of my understanding on Laura Mulvey’s theory on representation.

Laura Mulvey used some of Sigmund Freud’s and Jacques Lacan’s concepts to argue that the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. In the era of classical Hollywood cinema, viewers were encouraged to identify with the protagonist of the film, who tended to be a man. Meanwhile, Hollywood female characters of the 1950s and 60s were, according to Mulvey, coded with "to-be-looked-at-ness." Mulvey suggests that there were two distinct modes of the male gaze of this era: "voyeuristic" (i.e. seeing women as 'whores') and "fetishistic" (i.e. seeing women as 'madonnas').

Here are two music videos that I feel illustrate my understanding on Laura Mulveys theory , along with a short explanation;

Dizzee Rascal – Holiday – Women in this video are dismembered, in other words, the camera is positioned in such a way that we only see certain parts of their bodies i.e. legs, breasts etc. – this represents the point that Mulvey was trying to make since we as the audience appear to see things through ‘male eyes’ or ‘the male gaze’.

All the women we see within this video appear to all be young and wearing very little, in addition, they are only seen and not heard, which once again, reinforces Mulvey’s theory.

Calvin Harris – The Girls – Once again, the women figures on screen within this particular music video, are used in order to appeal to the male audience since they are dancing provocatively in tightly fitting clothing – this strongly links to Laura Mulvey’s points above.