The Male Gaze in Music Videos

Bad Blood – Taylor Swift

The video is aimed at women because of the empowering of women seen throughout the video. It begins with two women fighting a group of males to introduce this female > male world. The video continues to show well-known women to be equipped with high tech weapons and possessing incredible skills. This emphasises the empowering of women as they are quite simply seen to be literally very powerful. The lack of powerful males seen in the video emphasises the specific aim towards women.

Tunnel Vision – Justin Timberlake

At first sight, a viewer may see the exposure of female breasts on screen to be absurd. But after looking deeper into the meaning behind the video, it becomes clearer that the video could have an empowering essence for women, but overall, the video is more degrading. On purpose, the lighting teases the nudity of the dancing women as we, as an audience are used to seeing the exposure of the female body on screen. But when the full exposure is released, the viewer is most likely to be shocked, at first. As the video progresses there is a lack of male presence around these women, removing any aspect of vulnerability so that the video is simply women dancing nude, not being afraid to expose their top half, like a male would; this can be seen as quite empowering. However, there are more factors that contradict this, such as the scenes when Justin Timberlake is projected onto the bodies of the dancers, this could be seen as degrading as the male (Justin) is overpowering them. Having the two males be shown fully clothed can also be seen as degrading for the females as they could be seen to be more vulnerable. The lyrics aren’t associated with the empowering of women as they talk about a man wanting to get with a woman, creating a more empowering essence towards men. The dancing seen can be seen as quite sexual dancing, showing that these women are just dancing to represent a sexual image, emphasising the male gaze idea. Overall, the male gaze is seen throughout although it could easily be a video that could empower women.

Rihanna

The video features a number of women exposing their bodies and dancing sexually. The lack of male presence can remove any indications of vulnerability. Similar to an idea in Justin Timberlake’s video, the women n the video are proud to show off their bodies on camera, so this can be seen as quite empowering for women. On the other hand, the video could be seen as degrading as due to the exposure of women on screen and that everything seen can be associated sexually. Portraying that women are just seen sexually, emphasising the male gaze.