Laura Mulvey’s theory applies to the music videos “Dirty” and “Do it Like a Dude” because both videos invite the audience to view the artists as objects of desire. This is done through the camera shots and angles used, the fact the video is presented in a voyeuristic way to the audience, and the way the artist interacts with others in the video.
In Christina Aguilera’s video of “Dirty” the use of the camera invites sexual gaze by making the point of interest of the video on her at all times, for example in the video at 1:52 she is in front of everyone else wearing very little clothing with a light on her to make her stand out from the rest and be the point of interest throughout the video for sexual gaze and male attention. In my opinion this is Christina’s way to get looked at as a sexual point of view and be the main sexual object in the video. The audience views this video in a voyeuristic way because they see Christina as the main role in the music video and they look at her dancing and grinding on men in a very sexual way, this is to get male attention as men look at this video and see it as something they shouldn’t be watching and they get pleasure from watching the video because they wouldn’t usually see Christina dancing half naked and grinding on men. The actors interact in a way that results in the female being looked at as an object of desire. This occurs when Christina is dancing around men and grinding on them in a very sexual manner to make her look more appealing and almost say ‘Look what I’m doing, don’t you wish you was me’ to make Christina look more desirable to all the male’s watching the video. The target audience for these two artists is young females. However, the way they represent themselves as sexual objects does not appeal to young girls, it appeals more to men. I believe Christina Aguilera and Jesse J choose to represent themselves like this because it will attract the male audience. |