Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory also incorporates the same conventions of exhibitionism and voyeurism- the only difference is that the artist is actively encouraging the audience to feel this way and is aware of it happening. In fact, music videos can be made around this theory knowing that it will be particularly popular with the male gender in the audience.
Some good examples of this include:
Baby One More Time- Britney Spears (1998)
Said to be pioneer for introducing the idea of a powerful but more importantly sexualised solo female artist, Britney Spears exhibits herself with the song Baby One More Time. Re-inventing the look of schoolgirl, she struts down the corridors and dances erotically. Spears' videos continued like this and voyeurism can be seen further encouraged in later videos such as "Toxic".
Anaconda- Nicki Minaj (2014)
This music video has been ridiculed in the media, especially on the internet, for its explicit use of exhibitionism provoking the audience to gaze upon the artist's breasts, body and buttocks. The use of phallic imagery, seductive dance moves and lack of clothing leave nothing to the imagination. Not only this, there is an actual lap-dance scene at the end of the video where a male hip-hop artist, Drake, is enjoying the company of his seducer. This brings in the idea of voyeurism as we (the audience) intrude on this rather intimate moment between two lovers. This artist has been known to exhibit her body before but not in this fashion.APPLICATION TO MY PRODUCT:
There is more of a sense of voyeurism that exhibitionism in my chosen song Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo. This character is in a very vulnerable state in the narrative as she has lost somebody very close to her (either in a relationship or by death) and feels that the only way to deal with this is by partying and taking drugs to cope. The camera in most of the video acts as a mirror which the character uses especially when applying makeup or getting dressed. It is unclear whether the character is aware of this until she finishes using the mirror and raises her eyebrows at us. This particular mode of direct address suggests that she knows people are watching her and judging her. This action is almost a form of understanding/accepting this and saying "So what?"
The voyeurism aspect of the video is stressed even further during the clubbing scenes. Here we see the character making love to both male and female counterparts in extreme close ups, which is rather uncomfortable to watch.
When replicating this song with our own treatment, I think it would be good to incorporate aspects of exhibitionism and voyeurism in. We should be careful when applying this target audience theory depending what kind of artist we create for the song. For example, if we wanted to create an indie-pop genre of artist we wouldn't want her being shown off in expensive outfits or skimping around in lingerie as it would be inappropriate for that genre.
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