Representation Theory

Laura Mulvey (1975) - Male Gaze Theory

Depicts how women are portrayed as sexual objects to please men and how they are viewed in the media.

- She states that women are there to be seen and that the use of cinematography portrays them as sexual objects through shot types and movements. In film, women are seen as objects, rather than possessors, which is displayed by the control of the camera.

Her focus is on:

• How men look at women
• How women look at themselves
• How women look at other women

The 'Male Gaze' focuses on:

• Emphasising curves of the female body
• Referring to women as objects rather than people
• The display of women is how men think they should be perceived
• Female viewers view the content through the eyes of a man
• Women are sexualised

The Male Gaze Theory describes how the audience or viewers is put into perspective of a hetrosexual male.

However, some women may disagree and feel icberated.

Examples of music videos which display her theoery:
1. Calvin Harris - Blame

• Women wearing limited amount of clothing
• Appear sexual - underwear
• The male is dominant, sat up singing, whilst the women are his accesories
• The silhouette of female body emphasised by lighting and cinematography

2. Lilly Wood - Prayer in C

• Slow motion, close-up of her bum
• The men are surrounded by women
• Girls kissing each other - appeals to men
• Non stereotypical 'butch' lesbian - what men prefer
• Use of cinematography exhaggerates female body

3. Sam Smith - I'm not the only one

• Woman is inferior to woman
• She is his puppet
• Camera movement down her body

4. Taylor Swift - Shake it off

• Medium shots on female
• Women's costume very limited

5. Iggy Azalea - Black Widow

• Tight clothing - accentuates woman's body
• Men staring at her body
• Camera zooms on sexual parts of body

As all of these music videos do conform to Laura Mulvey's theory, this proves that her
theory is correct majority of the time.


Richard Dyer - Star Theory

To be a star you need certain ideology to meet everyone's expectations.

The idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and are built to target a specific audience or gorup of people.

Dyer's theory can be broken down into three sections:

• Audience and Institutions
• Constructions
• Hegemony (cultural beliefs)

1. Audience and Institutions -
Stars are made to make money for that purpose alone. The audience consume what they think is the ideal (or made to believe ideal). The institution then modifies the artists image around the target audience.

2. Constructions -
The star is built for an audience and not an actual person, so they can identify with them. They also need to be individual from everyone else so that they can stand out.

3. Hegemony -
We relate to the star because they have a feature that we admire or share with them. This develops from admiration to idolisation. Some people replicate the star, but this can be negative as sometimes they can be bad role models as the pressure of the media its toll on them.

The media constructs who we are.

Tessa Perkins - Sterotypes

Sterotype = Prejudged view of a gorup of people/person, an assumption is made in association with the ideology of the group.

Stereotypes stem from the media, people base all their assumptions on the media as they shape our minds.

Sterotyping contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged.
Perkins identifies five assumptions:
1. Not always negative
2. Not always about minority groups or less powerful groups eg. 'upper class twits'
3. They can be held about one's own group
4. They are not always rigid or unchanging
5. They are not always false

They are about people who we have no/little contact with. This proves that they are not always true.

• They can lead to negative behaviour
• Without stereotypes we would not know our place in society or where we fit in.