Richard Dyer - Justin Timberlake

Domino Records

MusicVideo - Male Gaze

Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop

The music video to the track 'We Can't Stop' directed by Diane Martel sets up an on-going house party, where young people are engaging abstract and bizarre actions. However the most prominent and distinctive feature of the video is the provoking presentation of the artist, Miley Cyrus. 

The video does strongly encourage the audience to sexualize the artist, through focusing the artists camera time not on showing her  'singing' the song, but showing Miley presenting her tongue or her beautiful backside to the audience. This sexual presentation gets strongly reinforced by the strong or slight low angle shots, which indicate - especially to the male audience -  Miley's seeming desire to be dominated. 

Nevertheless the video does also convert the typical male gaze as the director was not only a woman but it does also show Miley 'twerking' on other women and kissing a barbie doll, which does not only attract the men but also homosexual women.

This image bisexual image of of Miley is not only created by this video but also by other elements of the media and the star herself. For instance she kissed Katy Perry one of her concerts, which went all through the media.

Furthermore this video does strongly present one of the turning points in Miley Cyrus career as a star as it was her first controversial production and strongly contrasted with her self-presentation before the video.
















This controversial image of her is continued in the media up to this day and does also feature in her other music videos.