In relation to representation in music videos Laura Mulvey stated in 1992: “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly.”
Here Mulvey is basically outlining the fact that today’s outlook on life, especially in relation to the entertainment industry, is quite obvious that there is a distinguishing divide between the male and female. The male is stereotypically heralded to focus himself on the ‘curvaceous’ woman, who is purposefully made up for his viewing.
Representation of women often discovered in music videos today are based on Mulvey’s outlook. Women are dressed provocatively for the male attention. Good examples of this are female artists such as Nicole Scherzinger, Beyoncé Knowles and Shakira etc.
However though, representation itself consists on many aspects. These aspects include gender, place, ethnicity, age, sexuality, class and so forth. In the preparation stages for an artist’s appearance their image would’ve been closely considered. This consideration would’ve involved a range of things, from the style of the artist’s hair to their choice of outfits. As artists ourselves, we’d then initially deconstruct this representation & interpret what we see in our own personal understanding. In this, we then become familiar with representations in videos for specific artists/bands.
Dizzee Rascal ‘Holiday’ – In this video there is a large scale of female dismemberment. Breasts legs bums etc., all that’ll entice a man on a woman is on show.
Missy Elliot ‘All N my grill’ – Here a different aspect of woman is played before the audience. Missy’s persona of being a “female boss” is put forward to the viewer. We see a clear narrative of female empowerment against men, something that is seen very rarely in todays videos.
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