Representation of women in music videos

1. Representation of women in
music videos

2. Representation
• Representation refers to a construction of a medium especially in mass
media of a ‘reality’ of people, places, cultures and identities and other
abstract concepts.
• In music videos on the whole women aren’t represented in the best of
ways. They are often sexualised and not empowered. This can especially
be seen in rap music where they would be referred to as “hoes” and other
demeaning names.

3. M.I.A
• In this video we can see that women are
meant to appear as strong and powerful as
much as men because they have weapons and
are drifting cars
• The artist again aims to show the strength of
girls in another video named The New
International Sound Pt. II

4. Burlesque
• The modern image of women in music videos has been moulded by
previous stereotypes and is used intelligently by the producers as a means
to attract a mainly male audience. This stereotype has emerged from the
era of showgirls in the time of silent films of the 1920’s and the burlesque
culture of that period.
The characteristic of a burlesque dancer were fishnet
leggings, feathers and elbow length gloves. At the
time this was deemed to be quite sexualised because
of all the flesh which was on show and the flirtatious
nature of the act itself. Burlesque has of course
influenced much of the style of music videos in the
modern era and many artists such as Christina
Aguilera have adopted the Burlesque theme and
have used it in a number of her music videos which
have been of a huge success.

5. “The stripper”
• Another common image of women portrayed in music videos is the
“stripper”. The characteristics of this style include the open crotch, the
bum shot, dancing on poles or walls, G-string underwear and also hair
flicking and glitter.
• The image of the stripper has taken off in mostly the pop and RnB genres
and once again its sexual nature has resulted in a amplification of the
effect of the male gaze which suggest males only look at women in music
videos in a voyeuristic and sexual fashion.

6. “The gansta hoe”
• The characteristics of this stereotype include usually black women wearing
very little and exposing their figure, usually also wearing jewellery and
have tattoos and covered in oils to increase the sexual nature. Their
actions would include simulated sexual positions often with the male
artist of the song which creates sexual anticipation and from the
audiences point of view they may feel envious, women are jealous of the
woman and men are jealous of the artist who gets to be with the woman.

7. Result of the negative representation
• The result of this representation of women has had a significantly negative
affect on their position in society. Women are objectified and viewed as
disposable or easily replaceable objects, their position in the narrative in
most music videos is often irrelevant to the main purpose in many rap
music videos and even when they are the main focus of the song it is often
for a reason that attaches a negative stereotype to women such as them
being “gold diggers”
This poster for the well known music video
by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx portrays the
stereotype of women chasing men with
money therefore calling them “gold diggers”
we can see from one of the snapshots from
the video a woman who is very sexualised
and the text sinful written next to her which
implies that she herself is a sinful person
and may imply women who behave in that
kind of way. However feminists would argue
that why cant a woman show her sexuality
without being negatively labelled.