INTRODUCTION
 "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke ft. Pharrell and T.I. and "Boys" by Charli XCX are both songs that need no introduction; they both have dominated the charts through the years, and even "Boys" today is getting a revival on the social media platform TikTok. However, both music videos for these tracks feature males and females in provocative fashions to appeal to their respective audiences. "Blurred Lines" is more for the stereotypical “male gaze” that is most common throughout mainstream media, featuring a single backdrop full of scantily clad models. However, "Boys" “remixes” this stereotype, and instead features male celebrities and “heartthrobs” for their audience, appealing to the “female gaze”. In this essay, I will discuss how the music videos "Boys" by Charli XCX and "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke display and strengthen their directed gaze for their respective audiences, where "Blurred Lines" reinforces the male gaze and "Boys" reinforces the female gaze, through the ideas presented by Laura Mulvey in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. 

 

PLEASURE IN LOOKING - MALE VS FEMALE GAZE
Coined by Laura Mulvey, the male gaze is defined as how the male looks, while the female is being looked at; the male gaze projects the fantasy that the presumably heterosexual male audience has, causing the female to be viewed accordingly (Mulvey pg.10 ). "Blurred Lines" portrays exactly this patriarchal male gaze, where the women who are featured in the video are all thin and beautiful models.  Mulvey notes that within the male gaze, “women are simultaneously displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to cannote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey pg. 10). From the beginning , "Blurred Lines" takes this connotation to heart and “displays” the women for the men throughout the entirety of the video. At the very beginning of the video, literally one second in, we see a topless model laying on a mattress lying next to a fully-clothed Robin Thicke (Thicke 0:01). As the video goes on, all of the three models that are shown throughout the video are topless wearing nude colored thongs and white shoes, while the men that are shown are fully clothed in suits (Thicke). Through these clothing / costuming choices, the stereotypical patriarchal views and the gender differences between males and females are expressed; the women are almost near naked to show their submissive and erotic nature; to appeal to that “to-be-looked-at-ness” for the audience, while the men are in suits to signify their dominance and power.

This male gaze can be seen as well beyond the costuming and through the camera pans as well, as in certain shots when the models are walking across the screen, the camera moves with them (Thicke 0:49-0:53). This emulates what Mulvey notes as the “pleasure in looking” or scopophilia (Mulvey pg. 7). Even the other male singers that are featured within the video besides Thicke gaze and look at the girls, even when the girls are not shown. Specifically, Pharrell’s eyes widen to the left of the camera, and the viewer can only assume that his eyes widen at the presumed females that he is looking at out of the shot. 

"Boys" by Charli XCX takes this stereotypical and patriarchal view that "Blurred Lines" and the male gaze has, and flips it on its head, giving the audience the view instead from the female’s perspective, or the “female gaze”. Instead of having the woman like those shown in "Blurred Lines", for example, displayed as “sexy” and beautiful to give the persumed male viewer an erotic and pleasureable view, "Boys" takes male celebrities and displays them in “sexy” ways. Charli includes the stereotypical ways that females might think a male is sexy, like the shots of internet star Cameron Dallas shirtless with a chainsaw, but she also shows other, less common things a woman may find sexy within a male, like producer Flume and A.G. Cook sitting and laying on the ground surrounded by books (Charli XCX 0:13, 0:41).

Similarly to "Blurred Lines", "Boys" also projects the ideas of scopophilia, but instead the lens is the female viewpoint, where looking at the male celebrities doing certain tasks gives the audience itself their source of pleasure (Mulvey pg.7). What "Boys" does that differs from "Blurred Lines" however is that it gives many different celebrity “types” throughout the video, to appeal and pleasure the female viewer. For example, there are scenes with Oli Sykes, a tattooed and “rugged”  metal musician, but there are also scenes featuring Kahlid, a “teddy-bear”, african-american R&B artist (Charli XCX 0:12, 1:57). Featuring these many different types of “"Boys"” appeals to the “long love affair/despair between image and self-image” that Mulvey discusses, where the audience can identify with, admire, and crush on the actors or characters that are shown on the screen (Mulvey pg. 10). "Blurred Lines" however only features women who are the “standard” of beauty for most hetrosexual males; there are no different body types, differing clothing styles, and almost no cultural representation between the women that are shown throughout the video.  

 

OBJECTIFICATION
Associated with the concept of scopophilia is also the “taking other people as objects, or objectification, where by viewing the persons as such, the audience is subjecting them to a controlling gaze, and in a sense subjecting them to their own power (Mulvey pg. 8). Within the male gaze specifically, there is a sense of erotic pleasure that is gained from looking at a person or persons as objects, which is evident within the display and characterization of the models shown in "Blurred Lines". Many of the women are seen dancing next to the males, or walking past them in a provocative manner while the males remain static during multiple shots to really cement the notion that they are “on display” for the males (Thicke). They are nothing but mere objects to be gawked at by both the males in video and the presumably male audience for them to gain the sense of “erotic pleasure”. Specifically, the women in many of the shots are seen in the background with only their bodies highlighted, or they are shot in many “submissive” positions. For example, near the beginning of the video, one of the models is shot close up biting her lip (Thicke 0:15). By biting her lip in a provocative and sexual way, the model is being viewed in an objectifying manner that goes along with the male gaze.

 
Like how many view their own pet animals, whether it be a dog, cat, or other species, "Blurred Lines" gives the connotation that many of the models are viewed by the males in the video as well as the audience as a “pet-like” object. In some scenes, one of the models is holding a white goat, which is commonly found in petting zoos (Thicke 0:36). This almost gives the connotation that the model is like the goat, she is also a pet to their male counterparts, and should be viewed as such by the audience. There are multiple shots of one of the models getting her hair brushed by one of the males featured in the video, T.I., while making a provocative and sexual expression (Thicke 2:38). Even in the scene where all three of the models are stroking the stuffed dog while surrounded by Thicke also adds to the “pet-like” nature; as the models are shot crouched and low to the ground, Thicke is standing straight up, which adds to the dominance that the males possess, and the submissiveness that the models are to have since they are their “pets” in a way. 

In contrast to "Blurred Lines", "Boys" takes these stereotypical things, like the dancing and sexual expressions that are seen in Thicke’s video, and reverses them onto the males to appeal once again to the female gaze. In Charli’s video, the males can be seen partaking in pillow fights, laying in rose petals, and even washing a car, which are all stereotypical female tropes that are used in media to gain the male gaze (Charli XCX 0:59, 0:19, 1:29). During each of these scenes, the camera pans and lingers on the bodies of the males, just as in "Blurred Lines", the camera lingers on the bodies of the female models. Mulvey notes that “According to the principles of the ruling ideology and the psychical structures that back it up, the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification” (Mulvey pg. 10). In "Boys", Charli objectifies the males in similar fashions such as the ones above, the same way that the mainstream media has objectified females within many genres of media. Because of this, Charli and her team are almost self-aware that their audience is not all heterosexual males, and they almost want that demographic to be uncomfortable with the transition of objectifying the male celebrities in the way that she does.

In an interview with BBC radio 1 on July 26, 2017, Charli states, “They’re basically doing all the sexy things that girls usually do in videos. I started thinking about all the guys that I’ve worked with or met [throughout all] my years in the industry... I just want to flip the male gaze on its head and have you guys do the sexy stuff” (BBC Radio 1). Unlike "Blurred Lines", where there is more of a straight on and more adult-like objectification of the female models that are shown, Charli objectifies the males in almost more of a “sweet” manner. For example in one scene, she gives musician Diplo multiple puppies to surround himself with, completely going against the stereotypical “male figure” that Mulvey mentions above. 

 

CONCLUSION
Both "Boys" and "Blurred Lines" set out their intended goal within their respective music videos; to appeal to their presumed audiences. Even though both are really maintained in one singular shot within their mise-en-scene, and even have the similar camera pans when it comes to shooting some of the celebrities that are featured, the main difference between these two videos is who they are shooting for. In "Blurred Lines", the shoot revolves around the stereotypical “male gaze” that is prominent within almost all Hollywood media, whereas in "Boys", the shoot actually decides to reverse the male gaze, and revolves around the female gaze. Through Mulvey’s work, we are able to really see how these videos appeal to their respective gazes and what types of camera movements, celebrity choices, and actions that these celebrities partake in to add to and cement their respective gazes, whether it be male or female, for their intended audiences. 

 

 

WORKS CITED
BBC Radio 1 (BBCR1). “'They're doing all the sexy things that girls usually do in music videos' 
@charli_xcx reveals the all star cast in the video for '"Boys"'” 26 July 2017, 2:57 PM. Tweet. 
 

“Charli XCX- Boys [Official Video].” Youtube, uploaded by Charli XCX. 26 Jul. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPRy1B4t5YA. 
 

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, 1975, pp. 6–18., doi:10.1007/978-1-349-22098-4_25. 
 

“Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I. & Pharrell (Unrated Version).” Youtube, uploaded by Robin Thicke. 28 Mar. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwT6DZCQi9k.