Research for Music Video: Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey's view of representation is based on gender. She says that in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in appearance has been divided between the active dominant male and the passive female. The male's fantasy is portrayed in the female figure which is styled to the man's liking.

In layman's terms, female's are being shown as figures of male's sexual desires. This is used in music videos as promotion for the artist, using half undressed women with good figures as dancers or just extras in their videos. Two particular genres use this method of promotion: Hip-hop and Metal, they use women as props to show off and make the artist or band members look cool.

Nicki Minaj

There are artists who challenge this. Adele is a Soul singer who doesn't show herself as a figure of male sexual desire, she is very successful with her songs.

I do believe that Mulvey's view is still relevant today, I also believe that it's more relevant than ever with the rise of hip-hop, RnB and other genres, old and new portraying women in their videos as sexual objects.