Laura Mulvey was a successful professor in media and cinema, she derived a theory in which is visual across all types of visual media, such as film, television etc, including music videos. She suggested the idea that females are made to watch the videos from a hetrsexual males perspective and not vice versa.
The male gaze is a feature of power asymmetry, as many modern music videos are produced on the basis of appealing to hetrosexual males. This means that videos contain a woman in a light that would sexually appeal to male, this may involve a scene in a music video that lingers on a womans exposed curves. It is said that the stereotypical identity that is given to females by males overpowers the stereotypical identity that is given to males by females, causing there to be an unbalance. Mulvey suggests that females are denied human agency and are subjected to being used as objects in music videos produced for males.
Some second wave feminists believe that whether women agree with the gaze, they may simply just be conforming and letting themselves become part of majority, accepting hegemonic norms that are based purely on the benefits of men.
An overview of Mulvey's theory is that she believes females are reduced to being objects in music videos that are placed within the music video purely to appeal to male viewers, and many believe that women may not agree with the theory but simply conform because it is so common for women to be seen as 'objects'.
Below is an example of a music video that portrays Mulvey's theory completely, displaying a woman in minimum clothing revealing high amouns of bare skin such as legs, curves etc whereas the male in the video is seen in full clothing such as a coat, a shirt trousers showing minum skin.
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