The Male gaze

The Male Gaze:

The Male gaze means a quality of a visual work, where the audience is put into the perspective of a (heterosexual) man. It emphasizes and focuses on aspects considered interesting, pleasing, titillating to the assumed viewer (for instance, zeroing in on a female character's derrière as she walks away from the camera), and averting aspects considered awkward or uninteresting to the assumed viewer (for instance, zeroing in on a male character's derrière as he walks away from the camera). The term is discussed by Laura Mulvey in her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (1975). It is used to describe when female characters are sexualized, and the camera may zero in on female body parts considered sexual. This takes after the psychoanalytical term brought into popular usage by Jacques Lacan.  The video that I am using as my example, in the music industry, that this male gaze actually exists and an example of this is shown in Nicki Minaj's controversial video of her late single "Anaconda".Upon release "Anaconda" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised the song's production and Minaj's return to her hip-hop roots. Commercially, the song was an international success peaking at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, consequently becoming Minaj's highest charting single in the United States to date. It went on to spend eight consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100 chart. The song also fared well in other countries peaking within the top ten in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Here is a screenshot from the video. This is taken even before lyrics have been exchanged to the audience (18 seconds in). This may show the heavy sexual orientation of this music clip right from the get go. The camera shots shows both curves of the women in a close up shot. The lighting also concentrates the shot onto the women's body as it stands out ahead of the background, connoting the idea of god or an angel. Also the costume of the women is very revealing. The women's face isn't even revealed showing that she is only used for her body and not her personality or even her face, just purely her body.

Here is another screenshot from the video Anaconda. This screenshot is important as it shows clearly the Artist who is a woman "breaking the fourth wall", this means looking into the camera to show the audience that they acknowledge that they are indeed acting and trying to create an effect for a video. This screenshot is sexualised as when she is connecting with the audience she is looking into it as she is trying to seduce the viewer, This creates a one on one affect on the audience which may make them think that Nicki is trying to connect with them and them alone. Also the position of her and the way that she is bent over shows the curves off her arse cheeks this is also sexualised.

She continues to run her fingers through her hair and tilts her head back several times. Her mouth is parted at all times and her eyes remain closed throughout, leaving us to connote what we see with sex, pleasure and orgasms. The camera angle concentrates on her facial expressions.it is also a tilt shot that moves upwards as does the characters head.

Here I have taken two screenshots to help me evaluate on to one specific point. These screenshots show her smirking at the camera in a sexual manor again breaking down the fourth wall trying to connect to the audience through sexual behaviour. These screenshots are taken about 4 seconds apart. One shows Nicki shaking whipped cream which can connote to a sexual act, then after she is photographed holding a pealed back "erect" banana which again refers to a sexualised act.