Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory

Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory deals with how an audience views the people presented within a media text. Laura Mulvey created the theory in 1975, Mulvey believed that film audience had to 'view characters' from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

The camera often lingers on the curves of the female body within films and music videos, the events which occur to women are predominantly presented in the context of a man's reaction to these events. This forces the viewer to look at women in an objectifying manor and relegates woman to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily by identification to the male.

Within Justin Timberlake's 'Cry Me A River' music video, the narrative is mostly consistent of Justin Tuimberlake however, when the female enters the music video she is objectified and used purely for the benefit of Justin. She is wearing minimal clothing whilst he is fully clothed and the camera shows an angle from the back o the woman, lingering, causing the audience to look even if they weren't initially.