The Male Gaze

The Male Gaze analysis:
Rita Ora- Body on Me ft. Chris Brown

This video is a narrative of a boy and a girl meeting in the same building and hitting it off, suggesting sexual themes.

The narrative starts with the two associating in a lift up to their floor of the apartment building. At this point, They are both dressed quite modestly however Chris gives Rita's body a quick glance before he makes conversation at 0:06 seconds.

 At 1:03 seconds, Rita is in her room and the camera does a quick pan of her chest area, still clothed, promoting it to the audience. The camera does another pan of her torso at 1:20 but this time, Rita's hands are running over her curves suggesting that she wants some intimacy, again promoting her body to the audience. 

10 seconds later at the chorus, Rita is topless but with a Union Jack flag to cover her chest, edging towards nudity. This frame only lasts for 3 seconds but is enough to keep 'the male gaze' occupied until another topless shot of Rita is shown. 

Then at 1:44 we see a topless Chris Brown peering through his shutters, presumably mesmerized by Rita, and then at 1:45 we see a frame of Rita with messy hair and a playful look on her face and by the looks of it she is also topless.

At 1:59 we see a more seductively suggestive frame of topless Rita where she is leaning back with the flag draped over her body as though she is feeling sexual. This frame is pleasing to the male gaze as the thought that she is topless lets their imagination take shape and suggest images for them rather than showing her chest plainly out. 

In the next few frames, Rita is clothed again and getting intimate with Chris Brown with random intervals of Rita being seductive in a bra and shorts, appealing to the male audience as Rita is getting sexually penetrated by Chris and enjoying herself alone as well at 2:14.

A more explicit frame of Rita and the flag is shown at 2:40, intertwined with frames including close ups with Chris Brown, Chris on top of Rita, Rita taking her shirt off and Chris and Rita with their faces very close to each other. These frames again all appeal to The Male Gaze as the male viewers most likely want to be in Chris Browns position after seeing the sex appeal Rita has to offer.

The narrative then continues to Chris knocking on Rita's window implying her wants her to come outside with him and more shots of Rita and the flag, Rita and Chris' close up shots and Rita on the sofa, until we then see Rita and Chris on the rooftop dancing intimately with each other; Rita showing her body off by using sexual movements and showing pleasure to attract the male gaze at 4:00.

 At 4:10 we are back at Rita and Chris in the bedroom, with Chris on top of Rita implying sexual acts between them. Notice how Chris is dominant in this frame, physically on top of Rita, seducing her and is about to undress her bottom half. This motion is more acceptable for the video as throughout it we are seeing Rita viewed as a sexual object, showing off her body to please others and usually when in a frame with Chris, being touched by him rather than her touching him. If this was the other way round, the audience wouldn't see Rita's sensual reaction to Chris' actions and Rita would be seen as more dominant and therefore less desirable by men because they would rather be in control of her body. 

 And finally this frame of the music video shows Chris kissing Rita at 4:25 with his hands all over her body and hers are on her hips accentuating her curves and once again giving the male audience something enjoyable to focus on. The knee high boots make her outfit seem more modest as it hides more flesh then has been on show before in other frames of the video however she still comes across as sexy and the red colour of her boots has connotations with passion. 

 The rest of the video shows very quick jump cuts of snippets of all the other scenes in a rewind motion, creating a summery of Rita's suggestive sexual actions and ends with the beginning scene in the lift.