Male Gaze
Some of the issues involved in discussing “Male Gaze”:
- the objectification of women-- seen as objects
- the commonality of female nudity -- display implies subordination
- internalization of the gaze, changes women's perceptions of themselves and makes them think of themselves as objects
- shift to objectification as a source of pleasure (for both the looker and the looked-at)
- men as the dominant group have been the looker (the subjects; women the objects)
- ties back to another aspect of the feminist critique of Freud-- the degree to which Freudian theory is based on visual dynamics
Film reflects the langauge of partriarchy by being bound up in the same story of sexual difference that all patriarchy is founded on. In film women is seen as Other, as an object not a subject. In a way she represents the unconscious of the male because she is always the object he is looking at and never is able to speak for herself.
Split between male, active gaze which looks and female passivity which is looked upon. Women are always on display in film. Seen as objects of sexual desire; this is trasnsformed into exhibitionism. Visual presence of female tends to stop the stroy line to dwell on the image.
The way in which the men in the video are represented as predators and how when the female arrives on the scene their movements change from working on the cars in the garage to a making the car of the female a sexual nature. This video is a typical example of showing juxtaposition through class in a music video. the opening of the video, it shows Billy Joel looking at a poster of a pretty girl, then the camera pans across to a gang of men working on cars in a garage. then they start singing and dancing as the music starts.
As Joel start to sing there’s a high angle of a posh cars driving into the garage. so it goes from greasy men in a garage to a very expensive looking car. then, There is a close-up of a rich women wear diamond earings and a hat, the choice in costume says a lot about her role in the video, of the ‘uptown girl’.
The 2000 remake, made by Irish boy band Westlife, it is very simier to billy joel’s version in the sense that that the performer or in this case, performers are playing the role of the working class, and there are other characters playing the part as upper class posh boys in tuxedos, who have just come from a party. This shows how class and gender has been represented through music videos.
Camera Angles:
Medium Shot - The men are living out the typical stereotype of men. They are cleaning and working underneath the car in time with the music
Wide Shot - As the fancy car pulls into the garage there is an apparent contrast on each side of the shot, on one side there is the first-class, chauffeur driven limousine and on the other side, the men and standing, staring at the car. The difference in class is evident immediately.
Close-up - The men stare at, and dance around the woman in a provocative way. This shows that the sexual energy of the men is present.
Mise en Scene:
Men - The men are dressed in typical working class clothing with overalls, gloves and dirt on their faces. This instantly registers with audience how the men are not upper class and must do manual labour, in working in the garage, to make a living.
Woman - The woman is dressed in typical upper class attire. She wears a dress, a pearl necklace and a hat. The way she walks suggests she thinks she is superior to the men according to class but as the men dance around her, she seems to drop the class barriers.
