Laura Mulvey and Representation

Laura Mulvey's view on representation highlights the fact that sexual inequality still remains in society, especially in the music industry. Men are represented as active, whilst women are passive. Women are belittled through the male gaze and are usually styled to please men, this in film just as in music.

Mulvey see's women as being dismembered by the media. The focus is not on the women themselves but on their body, presented through close ups of the breasts or bum, but not the woman as a whole. Dismembering is highlighted especially in the hip hop genre of music, where women are seen as objects that come with money, houses and cars. Two examples of this are the videos to Ja Rule's 'Livin it up' and Dizzee Rascal's 'Holiday'