2. • Men are seen to be more aggressive and dominant
• Men represented as independent and adventurous, unemotional and competent
• Stereotypical gendered occupations apparent i.e. males as mechanics and women as
cheerleaders
• Women more engaged in explicit and sexual and passive behaviour
• Women represented as objects of sexual advances or as sexual objects
• Women more to be presented provocative or revealing clothing
• Women portrayed as decorative objects that dance and pose
• Sex role stereotyping and negative attitudes towards females
3. Feminism 1960/1970’s
• A movement in which women questioned their
position within patriarchal society and the private
sphere of home/children/domestic bliss
• Women as domestic/based in the home
• Women are inferior to men
• Women as sex objects
• Women as virgins, mothers or promiscuous
• Women began to debates the narrow range of
stereotypes present across all media
• Serves to uncover, challenge and eliminate oppression
and dominant gender imagery
4. Sexual objectification and the male
gaze (Laura Mulvey 1975)
• Definition of Voyeurism: Erotic pleasures gained from
looking at a sexual object (who is unaware of being
watched)
• Presence of women solely for the purpose of display (rather
than narrative function
• Female on display is passive and objectified for a male gaze
regardless of viewers gender
• Voyeurism treatment of female body in male videos – use
of dancers as adornments to the male ego
• The inclusion of women for display is a staple element in
music video’s – across all genres
• Women connote to-be-looked-at-ness and are the object of
the male gaze
5. Adrew Goodwin
• Adrew Goodwin, in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992, Routledge)
identified a key number of features in music videos:
• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics for example stage
performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band.
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative,
amplifying, contradicting)
• There is a relationship between music and visuals
• There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment
of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens within screens,
binoculars, cameras etc)
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups
of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their
work
• There is often inter textual reference to films and TV programmes etc
6. Post feminism (1980’s)
• A re-appraisal of feminist values
• Does not strive for equality as this assumes men
are the best – the wish to surpass male
achievements
• Objected to theories which position them as
objects of the male gaze
• Identifies a female gaze – women actively
desiring men
• Women began to assert their right to dress and
be sexually attractive
7. Examples of feminist/post feminist
readings in music videos
Pussycat Dolls – Buttons
- Females in the clip are control of the male gaze, shown as
assertive and provocative
- - females portrayed as sexy, confident, challenging
traditional image of female sexuality ‘im a sexy mama’
- Challenging Snoop to ‘loosen up’ her ‘buttons’ and proof
that they are ‘too hott to handle’ for Snoop
