2. Katy Perry Analyse the key signifiers in the two imagers in front of you. Question: What messages about femininity and gender does this performer embody?
3. Male Gaze Laura Mulvey believes that women are placed in the media to be looked at. She calls this ‘the gaze’. This can be both: Voyeuristic – The notion of looking and gaining pleasure from seeing these beautiful objects Fetishistic – A more highly sexualised desire to have something, women are placed as objects of desire. Therefore ‘The Gaze’ can is voyeuristic and fetishistic – turning women into a fetish (object) that is beautiful and celebrated for her looks but considered as an object.
4. Katy Perry How can we apply Mulvey’s ideas to a study of women in music video? As you watch the following video make a note of how the audience is positioned as either male or female. And how we are encouraged to ‘look’ both voyeuristically and fetishistically. Does the gaze shift sides in parts? Why is this interesting? Do we have a ‘female gaze’ emerging?
5. Dominant Ideology In what ways does this Music Video conform to dominant ideology?
6. Gender as a Construct - Butler Judith Butler says gender is a role we play and we choose to conform or resist. She says there are some set rules that are constructed through the media but we can choose to actively resist these. Can you think of any celebrity or musician that actively resists the dominant ideological perspective on gender.
8. Alejandro In this video she chooses to subvert traditional gender stereotypes. Men are shown to be confused with their masculinity in modern times and women to be more dominant. We see: the ‘trapped’, confused male Trapped in traditional ‘masculine’ roles: guard, policeman On strings: a patriarchal puppet? Wearing fishnet tights & stillettos; androgyny
9. Men dominated by Gaga She possesses the phallus Reverses sexual positioning Alejandro
