The Male Gaze Beyoncé - Partition

Throughout this video there are clear signs of 'the male gaze theory' in action, there are many scenes associated with intimacy, sex and orgasm. All of this leads to prove the theory of male gaze true.

This is the starting scene where Beyoncé is playing the role of a very wealthy man, we she as an over the shoulder shot first and this shot shows that she is trying to get her partners attention. She is wearing red lipstick and red nail varnish, this colour has the connotation of danger, energy, passion, love and determination which shows that she might want to impress her husband in asexual way.

This is a close up of the object of significance which is her breast, they show this because she wants to emphasise to her partner that she is attractive and want to do something,. She tries too sexy which might turn her partner on and grab his attention.

Beyoncé then grabs her napkin and drops it, this shows that she still wants to get the attention of her husband and show herself to him. But he is still reading his newspaper. This is also an over the shoulder shot again because they want to show what she is doing. 

This scenes shows that she is all dressed up for her husband which shows that again ‘the male gaze theory’ might be true, she might only be dressed for his pleasure. She is wearing a highly designer bodice which is very shiny and glittery this might imply that she wants to grab the attention of her partner.

This shows that Beyoncé is trying to impress her man, she is wearing minimum clothing which is just a lace lingerie which suggest that she is trying to seduce her man who is in the car. She isn't wearing anything else on top except a long black leather coat which is also a type of sex symbol because she showing to her man what she has to offer, and showing that she is worth of him. It also shows that she has been accepted only so that he can admire her not as a human being and a loving partner but an object who is inferior.

Here we see ‘Jay-z’ the superior male, and he is stroking her legs which suggest that they he is getting turner on by her choice of clothing and also there are some diegetic sounds like ‘ummmmms’ and ‘arrrrrrs’ these are sexual noises. This highlights that they are getting aroused by each other and are going to have sexual intercourse.

Again you can tell by her body language, that she is feeling aroused by him shown also by her facial expression as well. It also show the intimacy between them, but he thinks of her an object, a toy not a human, it devalues and takes away her humanity. Laura Mulvey said that women in the ‘male gaze’ have only two functions: an erotic object for the character to view and an erotic object for the audience to view as well. In this video, I think that this theory is true because she dress up to impress her partner, and also her looks very appeasing to the audiences because of the way she is dressed.

In the next scene, she is sat upon a piano wearing a black velvet body suit with a black netted Victorian long coat. Her facial expression shows a sexual expression which suggest that she is still ‘turned on’. She then starts to dance and brush her hands through her hair and does a private dance for him. Which again shows that she is just an object for him to look at and she is nothing more. In the bottom left we see that she is dancing and we see this from his point of view which shows us the ‘object of significant’ which is her. This proves that part of Laura’s theory id true because of the way he treats her.

Here it shows her in a bikini, with lots of hands touching her which highlights that the male gaze leads to ideological hegemony, this is the idea of dominance in politics and social contexts. In the next scene she is being very nudist showing for the audience to ‘erotic object’ which I mentioned before shows that she is trying to lead you on because it might be ‘tempting’ for some viewer. This could relate to Beyoncé using male gaze and sexualisation to get more fans and views.

In my opinion i think that this video example does reflect Laura Mulvey's theory of 'THe Male Gaze', but I don't think that this is all it represents. Beyoncé is seen as a sex symbol, but also an inspiration to women everywhere, i think that parts of this video encourage women to to be confident about their body as well.