Tuesday, 9 November 2010

The 'Male Gaze' in a Music Video


Akon - Don't matter  (click on image above to view)

At the begining of the video we get an image of the woman walking out from the house towards the camera. She's not looking at the camera, so we get the idea that she's looking at the man in the video. She produces a 'chocolate box' smile to draw the audience's attention towards her. After seeing her, the male audience have their attention focused on her, and therefore will want to see her again. The rest of the video is focused on her, and she uses many of the other classic looks that Marjorie Ferguson and Trevor Millum suggested.

When she originally walks out from the house, as we talked about before, the female character produces the 'chocolate box' smile, which is described as warmth, where their features are perfect and smooth. This is what is shown here at the begining of the video to introduce us to the character.

She then gets into a car with the male character, and they drive off towards the beach. During their drive, the female character produces the 'super-smiler' look, in which her chin is thrown back, hair wind swept, as if implying that she wants the men to look at her.

Later on in the video, around 1 minute and 45 seconds, the female character is looking back towards the camera with her head titled to one side. Her mouth is shut, almost like it's about to turn into a smile. This is the iconic 'invitational' look, as she is almost suggesting something mischievous may occur.

Throughout the video, the two character's feature in the same image. They're are looking towards each other in a way that suggests that they are in love. This look is known as the 'Romantic or Sexual' look as this shows the love between the two characters in the video. Although it may be romantic, I don't think that it is included to attract a male audience.

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