Analysing Music Videos 3- The Male Gaze

Ariana Grande - Side To Side - Laura Mulvey's Theory

In this music video, the male gaze was obviously the main objective. From start to finish, we constantly see clips and imagery of half naked women dancing or working out which have sexual connotations. From looking at the comments on the music video, it also seems clear to the audience that this was the main focus of the video too as the top comment was exactly about how the whole video mainly focused on the half naked women.

Laura Mulvey in her theory suggests that women are "denied identity, relegating them to the status of the objects to be admired for physical appearance". She also mentions how women are now see themselves in a secondary males perspective due to the increase of popularity with the idea of the male gaze. This obviously leads to women objectifying other women, thus making it a social "norm" which is an ideology that many would frown upon and disagree with. The music video Side To Side by Ariana Grande supports Mulveys ideas and theory can be applied to the video.

Ariana Grande is seen as a well known idol to young girls in this day and age based on her feminist beliefs and her status. However the video for her latest song seems to objectify her and focuses mainly on her appearance, instead of her voice. This completely supports the Male Gaze theory. From 0:25 onwards in the video, the group of girls who seem to be 'working out' with high heels and minimal clothing, a face full of make-up and hair done to its best potentional. The focus is apparent as the women are constantly being viewed from different cuts and angles. The whipping of their hair, the camera angle from them working out from behind. This has no relation to the song and so therefore was not necessary to be in the video. This was all done purely for the male audience, however, this seems to a big focus and mechanism to lure audience in. The audience falls under this "hypnotic state" and end up forgetting about the song itself.

On the flip side, when the other artist, Nicki Minaj, is introduced into the video (2:10), she is seen surrounded by men, who are moving like dolls. This implies that she is in control men and is seen as supreme; whereas Ariana Grande looked as though she was aspiring to get the male attention. However, Nicki also supports Mulveys theory by dressing to appeal to the audience and dancing in a sexual manner.

Furthermore, the music video contains scenes of women wearing bikinis and dancing sexually in showers. Again this has no relevance to the music video, and was placed between cuts just to hoist in the male viewers. The male gaze is powerful technique which is too commonly used by artists in their videos, and Laura Mulvey's theory was completely proven right by this example.