Laura Mulvey Music Video Example

I have taken these screen shots from the music video for the song ‘Destination Unknown’ by Alex Gaudino. I chose to analyse this video because I think it strongly follows the Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’. Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. The Male Gaze suggests that all media text especially is shot from the perspective of a heterosexual male. In the sense of cinematography, Mulvey explains that the camera lingers on the curves and shape of the female body, in a way that a heterosexual male may look at a female.
This music video stood out to me as a great example of the Male Gaze because in almost every shot of the video, it shows a woman being sexualised. This is shown firstly, through the clothing that these young women have been dressed in. They are all dressed in exactly the same outfit, taking away any individuality. The outfit consists of a black mini skirt, a matching black bra, a cropped jacket and black high heels. These ‘skimpy’ clothes are stereotypical examples of sexually suggestive clothing. There is a contradiction in the doll-like portrayal of the women dressed in ‘majorette’ costumes and the womanly features that are highlighted throughout the video in close-up; legs, bottoms, stomachs and chest.
Secondly, the women have been beautified in the video; they achieved this by applying make-up such as coral, red lip gloss and ‘perfecting’ foundation. This is not only unrealistic but makes them appear robotic. Red lip-stick is another typical accessory used to portray a sexual female image. Further emphasis is placed on this image in the many extreme close-ups of the women licking their lips, and applying the lip gloss.
The camera constantly focuses on their figures and assets. I have noticed in the video that the audience hardly ever is shown one of the woman’s faces above the lips. This shows that they do not want to be able to identify these women as separate people, that they want to focuses mainly on their bodies. By their eyes and faces being hidden by their uniform in this deliberate way, some may say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, so this video could be seen to deny these women of their very souls. For all these reasons, this video supports the Male Gaze theory.