Feminism & The Male Gaze In Music Magazines

The Male Gaze is a theory penned by Laura Mulvey that addresses the power that woman can have over men with there sexuality. Take this image of Lily Allen in Q Magazine For example:

We Can apply the male gaze to this image because the first thing we are attracted to in this image is the fact that Lily Allen is wearing no shirt so we can see her bare back, Allen is also doing a seductive pose with her biting her finger and looking over her shoulder so this instantly attracts males. Also the subtitle which says 'Sexy Beast' also shows us Lily Allen is looking attractive. Also the actual masthead, 'Lily Allen & Her Wicked Wicked Aways' specifically appeal to the male demographic. It appears that for a music magazine to sell with a woman on the front they have to be seductive and sexy in some way. However when we look at a male on the front of the magazine our perspective changes:

 

The First thing we notice about this image is Jay Z's face and not his body unlike Lily Allen. Here we connote that Q is only concentrating on his music and his music only unlike Lily Allen who's looks are more concentrated on than her music, It could connote that men in music are more celebrated than women in music. The masthead by Jay Z 'Meet the planets greatest rockstar' shows us that the magazine is concentrating on his music and not looks unlike Lily Allens masthead 'Sexy Beast'. 

However The Nme Cover of Beth Ditto reverses the Male Gaze theory:

Beth Ditto here who is a feminist and lead singer of punk band 'Gossip' reverses the male gaze theory as here she shows how woman do not have to be conventionally attractive to be presented on the front page magazine covers. Ditto makes a kind of statement here that women in music do no have to be pressured to look good on the front of magazines as most men might not consider Ditto to be an attractive looking woman, The Masthead 'Kiss My Ass' suggests Ditto is telling other magazines to focus on Women's music and not there looks. She makes this stand by posing naked suggesting that you don't have to be greatly attractive to make it far in the Music Business.