Rihanna 'Shut Up and Drive' - The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist published an essay in the influential journal 'Screen' which she titled ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’.

She laid out a logical argument based on two assertions she had seen in society:

1. Cinema reflects society

2. Society is patriarchal, a social system in which men hold primary power. Males predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social authority and social privilege.

She proposed an argument that the 'gaze' of the camera in "unchallenged, mainstream film" (Modern Hollywood) is one of a heterosexual male's perspectives of events. Women are seen as objects of erotic desire for male characters and the audience. This objectification of women reinforces this dominance of males over females in today's society. Men characters are often the dominant figures in film and media texts have agency and can make decisions that move the plot forward.

The male gaze is active while the female gaze is passive making the female audience may feel uncomfortable or uninterested in film and media text being presented. The narrative and mise-en-scene are equally as male orientated, which forces all audience to view the whole media text from a male perspective.

Three Levels of the Male Gaze

1. Male character watches the female character

2. Camera shows the male character watching the female character.

3. Audience sees the female character from the point of view of the male character through the camera.

Rihanna 'Shut Up and Drive'

The concept of the male gaze clearly applies to Rihanna's music video for 'Shut Up and Drive'. The camera's positioning and movement appeals to the male audience, often zooming in her when performing sexually suggestive moves depicting her as an object of erotic desire. The mise-en-scene also enforces this as the revealing clothes Rihanna and her dancers wear appeals to a male audience.