Why is the public row between the music artists Sinaed O'Connor and Mylie Cyrus important in understanding the relationship between artists and between artist and audience? Explore with reference to the representation of women, media institutions and the role of the media.
Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory:
Mulvey's theory is that women actors in films are objectified because heterosexual men were in charge of making films.
"The Male Gaze" happens when the camera puts the audience watching a film into the perspective of a heterosexual man. Ways in which this may happen could be that the camera focuses a lot on the woman's body and curves and focuses on specific body parts (eg bums and breasts).
The Male gaze has struck up many feminist arguments stating that this makes men look more dominant than women and therefore undermines women and makes them appear to be weaker than men and just there for men to look at.
A clear example of this theory is this film clip for 'Transformers' starring Megan Fox:
Sadly, it appears that this is now becoming the norm in films. Women are often seen as sexual objects and this is now to be expected from the industry and society.
However the male gaze isn't only happening in films. It has been happening within the music industry for a very long time.
A very good example of this is Miley Cyrus' new music video 'Wrecking Ball'. (Directed by Terry Richardson).
In this video, Miley is seen licking a sledgehammer, posing naked and straddling a wrecking ball. The video completely oozes of the Maze Gaze Theory. In fact, there isn't really any shots in the video that doesn't have any sexual representation.
For example:
These were just a few of the snapshots that I managed to get from the video that support Mulvey's male gaze theory. As you can see, the images presented within this video are extremely provocative.
However this style of music video seems to be extremely popular with the general public. Miley Cyrus' video has a huge number of views which must mean this this video has a huge appeal to people.
However, the vast majority of the comments on this video completely contradicts the idea of the video appealing to audiences. It seems that a lot of people dislike Miley's new video.
So, why is this video so popular?
In my opinion, the reason why this video is so popular is due to the moral panic that this video brings. I believe that the reason the video has so many views is not because of Miley's fans, but because of people wanting to watch the video to see what all of the fuss and press coverage was about.
The video was directed by Terry Richardson. Richardson is known for his provocative photography work with celebrities.
Here are some examples of his work:
His work is very overly sexualised which has made him a very successful and well known fashion photographer.
The truth is, sex sells. It gains the public's interests because of scandal that goes along side it. This has always been the case, and I doubt that sadly, this will never change.
