Representation of women in music videos

1. By Honor Wilson

2.  Representation is a construction of an idea of
reality presented within the media. The usual
representations made are stereotypes which
are adapted in order to suit the audience for
the music video.

3.  Representations are usually made in order to
increase sales of the song and music videos.
 The representations made are in place to
entertain the audience and so increase the
views of the video itself.
 Representations are also made in order to
increase the fame of an artist and so in most
cases, especially with women, the artist
herself can be portrayed in a certain way.

4.  The main stereotypes of women made within
music videos are:
 The Gangsta hoe;
 Strong and independent;
 The object of desire;
Manipulative;
 The Stripper.

5.  The stereotypical ‘Gangsta Hoes’ are
usually featured in either Hip-Hop,
RnB and Rap videos.
 An example of this is in 50 cent’s
music video for ‘In Da Club’. This
video features many low angle shots
of the women grinding and dancing
with the men in a club. There is also a
slow-motion technique used which
works alongside these low angle shots
– this almost sexualises the women.
The three-medium shot (shown below)
is at an angle in which their bodies are
shown but not to a major extent and
the dancing is not choreographed.
This creates a sense of verisimilitude
as the dancing is reflective of the
situation of being in a club.

6.  Women can also be portrayed as
being strong and independent in
certain music videos. Usually, it is
typical of a female artist to create a
video using this representation.
 Beyoncé is one of the most
influential artists when it comes to
this representation. In her video for
‘Run the World’ women are shown to
be ruling society. There are many
cross-cuts throughout the video
which indicate the importance of
women all over the world. There are
also several long shots used
showing numerous women stood in
very ‘sassy’ stances which all have
connotations of independence.

7.  It is very common for women to be
represented as being an object of
desire for males. This can be taken in a
negative sense as most females feel as
though they are being objectified.
 ‘She’s so lovely’ by Scouting for Girls
revolves around one woman who is
seen as being the object of desire. This
is made evident through the close-ups
featured of all of the men's faces as
the woman walks past. She also
happens to be wearing red lipstick
which has sexual connotations – this
implies that she is in fact an object. It
could be seen as being rather
derogatory to women in general as she
is being represented as someTHING all
of the men want.

8.  Women being represented as being
manipulative is not as common as some of
the other representations due to today’s
media wanting to sexualise women more
and more.
 ‘She said’ by Plan B is a narrative and
performance based video in which the
artist is in court with a woman who has
accused him of a crime. The narrative
shows the woman who has manipulated
the artist into a one night stand and then
accused him of a crime in order to gain his
attention. The video features many close-ups
of the man’s face – this shows the
emotion, confusion and anger of the
situation he is in, whereas the woman just
seems to be angry. There are also
numerous two-shots showing both
characters and their relationship and how
it has changed due to the woman’s actions.

9.  The Stripper tends to have much more
negative connotations due to the over-sexualisation
of the women featured. It
is very common of the pop and rap
genres. These types of videos can be
seen to be rather outrageous and so
are normally done in order to increase
sales and views.
 One example of this is the music video
for the song ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin
Thicke featuring Pharrell Williams. The
explicit version of this song is
extremely provocative due to the long
shots of women in their lack of
underwear. This video happened to
cause a lot of controversy due to the
over-sexualisation featured due to the
younger audiences viewing it and so
overall there are usually negative
responses to these genres of music
videos.

10.  Overall there are many negative associations
and assumptions made about women and
how they are represented within the media.
How women are represented in the media has
sparked a lot of controversy with the public
because there are numerous different views
on the topic and some women are not entirely
comfortable with how their gender are
represented.