Representations of gender, sexuality and ethnicity in music videos.

1. Representation
in
Music Videos

2. • In music videos females are represented in a different way to men, they are often sexualised,
wearing skimpy clothing etc. This is often to appeal to male viewers reinforcing Mulvey’s Theory of
the ‘Male Gaze’
• The ‘male gaze’ is a concept that deals with how audiences view the people presented. Although
mainly the male gaze is thought to deal with how male audiences view women who are presented,
it can also be how women view themselves and also how women view other women.
• The term ‘male gaze’ was first established in 1975, created by Laura Mulvey as she believed that
audiences have to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The male gaze
often relegates women to the status of an object.
Gender - Females

3. Gender // Ariana Grande - Focus
Here you can see the silhouette of Ariana in a small bright circle. The circle
that Ariana is in resembles a telescope, which reinforces the idea that
audiences gain pleasure through watching someone else with out them
knowing. The contrasting colours between black and white emphasise
Ariana's silhouette in the circle, emphasising the shape of her body. The
fact that she is looking downwards away from the camera forces the
audience to focus on her body. This reinforces Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory
as it emphasises the idea that she is an object to be gazed at, also her
posture and the fact you cant really see if she's wearing any clothes apart
from shoes makes this part of the video highly sexualised.
An extreme close up shot of Ariana Grande’s mouth is shown here, this
could be seen as quite an intimate shot as its an extreme close up of her
mouth it could be as if she’s telling you a secret, it seems like an intimate
and kind of personal moment between the audience watching and the
artist. Also there is no where else to focus your attention but her mouth.
In this shot again you can see Ariana’s silhouette, emphasised by the light
purple background contrasts her silhouette again emphasising the shape
of her body. Again because she’s not looking at the camera it forces the
audience to focus on her body.
The title of the song is called “Focus” and a repeated lyric in the song is “focus on
me” followed with these type of shots where the main focus would be Ariana’s
Body rather than her performing etc. This reinforces a common representation
within the music/any performance industry that for women to be noticed, popular
and “focused on” they need to be sexy and appeal to men and the “male gaze”.
Which is what Ariana does in this video.

4. Gender // Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
Here we see close ups of a mans torso and another mans mouth, similar to the shots
in Ariana Grande’s focus music video, you cant see their faces so this causes the
audience to focus on their body, subjecting them to the “male gaze”. Nicki Minaj who
is a self proclaimed feminist, subverts gender representations by doing this as this is
probably one of the first times where you see Males be sexualised and objectified in
a music video the same way in which females would be. It’s liberating as Nicki Minaj
is one of the first incredibly successful female rappers, in a genre that is heavily male
dominated where the objectification and sexualisation of females is most common,
it’s empowering for young girls who aspire to be rappers as well that if Nicki and can
be successful then they cane successful too.
Similarly in this shot, Nicki is in front of the men who are topless behind her, all the
focus is on Nicki who again is in a powerful pose with her held help high looking
directly into the camera performing, its a powerful pose and sends the message that
girls can still be powerful and in control even if they’re showing off their body. which is
a very uncommon message that is shown in music videos yet is a important message
for young girls.
Although in this shot Nicki is only in a bikini and can also be seen as sexualised,
because of her powerful posture and stance (she has her head held up looking
forwards) rather than being degradingly sexualised like in other rap music videos you
can see that she actually embraces her sex appeal and is in control of her body. In the
background the men are all topless and sitting down on a lower level to Nicki, this also
shows that Nicki in fact in control and in power in this situation despite being sexy
which again is different to previous representations of women.
In this video Nicki Minaj actually subverts the
common representation of gender and rather than
women be sexualised and objectified she has the
male models in the video be subjected to the ‘male
gaze’ theory.
Nicki subverting gender representations within the Rap
genre is clearly seen from these 2 shots:
Nicki in Superbass
with men behind her
Sir Mix A Lot in Baby
Got Back with women
behind him

5. Gender - Males
In Music videos men are often presented as powerful people, who have a
lot of money, who attract a lot of females. They’re shown to be dominant
and that they have sex with a lot of females. This is in order to seem
admirable to other men, so that other males watching the music video look
up to them and want to be like them. The money, the way they dress if
they’re wearing nice clothes could also be said that this makes them seem
desirable to females. This representation is stereotypically seen in hip
hop, RnB and rap videos.

6. Gender // Drake - Worst Behaviour
In one of the opening shots of this music video there is a close up off the
gold chain to suggest that the person wearing it is rich and has a lot of
money. Reinforcing the representation of men in music videos that they
have money
In this mid shot you can see the man standing wearing a suit lots of gold
jewellery standing in front of 5 cars only 3 you can see fully in the shot. He’s
wearing a ‘pimp’ outfit and has ‘pimp’ cars not only reinforcing the
representation that men get a lot of money and are money focused, but this
also suggests that he has sex with a lot of women further reinforcing that
representation of men. Making him admirable to younger men.
Again this shot shows the artist himself Drake standing in front of 3 nice cars
wearing nice clothes, he also has his friends in one of the cars. This shows
the representation again of him having a lot of money, and also that he's
popular making him seem more powerful and admirable to his audience.
Finally this shot also shows that Drake has money as he is wearing 3 of the
same chain 2 in gold and one in silver, showing that he has a lot of money
to spend on to buy 3 of the same chain. This causes young male audiences
to look up to him as they want to get money and be rich so the they can then
be like Drake and have nice cars, nice clothes and nice jewellery too.

7. Sexuality
Although before commonly only heterosexual relationships were presented
in music videos, arguably due to the fact that being LGBT+ wasn’t
accepted by society. Recently, as societal opinions on sexuality has
changed and being LGBT+ has become more accepted by society, there
have been a wider range of sexualities represented in music videos. A lot
of the time different sexualities such as gay, lesbian or trans are commonly
represented within the indie genre and indie sub genres, as despite the fact
being LGBT+ has become more accepted it is still not a mainstream view,
as the indie genres hold and appreciate alternative values it could be
argued that this is why different representations of sexuality are most
commonly represented within that genre.

8. Sexuality // Troye Sivan - Fools
The video opens with a shot of the two boys kissing, to show that they’re
gay. The boy on the left is the artist Troye Sivan, who is gay in real life too,
therefore showing a real representation of him and his relationships in the
video. This helps inform his audience on what kind of struggles and
problems he faces in his relationships which are different from heterosexual
relationships which are so commonly represented in music videos.
This shot shows the two boys sitting together watching the sunset on the
beach, a stereotypically romantic thing to do, this shows that Troye’s
relationship is just like any other heterosexual relationship, and reinforces
that gay relationships are normal too, despite being seen as weird and not
normal by mainstream societal views.
This shot shows Troye sneaking around so that he can see his
boyfriend/romantic interest, we know that Troye has to sneak around as in a
previous shot we see the other boy’s dad shouting at him and even going to hit
him because he knows that his son and Troye have feelings for each other,
because he is homophobic he doesn’t approve and tells his son “if i see you
speaking to him gain I’ll kill both of you.” Emphasising that although being gay is
more accepted than it was, it’s still not very accepted and sometimes can put
people in danger.

9. Sexuality // Troye Sivan - Fools (continued)
In these shot the boy’s dad sees Troye, and in order to gain his dads approval and to
protect himself as well as he Troye, he goes over to Troye’s and pushes him as if he’s
going to fight him, acceptingly th dad walks away and he thinks his son is going to fight
Troye and he's happy about it as his doesn’t want his son to be gay. instead the boy
tells Troye to leave and that he doesn’t want to see him anymore. Obviously Troye is
upset by this but he leaves as he knows it’s whats best for him and his romantic
interests safety. Again it emphasises the fact that being gay isn't accepted or seen as
the norm, it can put people in danger and can even turn parents against their own
children. This forces people to hide their sexuality for their own safety and become
unhappy as they cant be with who they want to be with and therefore are hiding a huge
part of their life.
To try and get his dad to accept him and for his own safety, the boy gets a girlfriend
so that his dad and other people think that he is straight. This “two shot” shows the
boy and his girlfriend walking together, the boy looks unhappy and disinterested as
the girl is speaking, as they’re walking they pass Troye but the boy acts as if he
didn’t see him at all in order to further distance himself away from Troye as if he’s
trying to convince not only other people but himself that he is straight
When Troye sees them he has a flashback of when he and the boy were together, the
flashback micros the present day shot as it shows the boy and Troye walking along the
beach together, however in this shot the boy is happy smiling and laughing as he was with
who he wanted to be with and didn’t have to hide who he was. This shows that if people
were accepting then everyone could be happy and gay people wouldn’t have to worry
about their safety and feel as though they need to hide who they are. As this shot is so
similar to the one where the boy and the girl are together it also reinforces the idea that any
relationships are the same and heterosexual relationships, and therefore should be
accepted by mainstream society.

10. Ethnicity
Different ethnicities and cultures are often represented in music videos,
however they rarely challenge the stereotypes and representations
which are shown about the different ethnicities in other forms of media
such as TV and Film. Different ethnicities in music videos can also be
used to show an insight to that culture so that audiences can gain a
better understanding.

11. Ethnicity // Beyonce - Formation
This mid shot of Beyonce shows her standing onto of a police car, this is to
represent the devastating effects that Hurricane Katrina had of New Orleans, this is
big part of african american history as the majority of the population in New Orleans
was black people, and so they were the people most effect by the effects of this
hurricane. This doesn’t really show a stereotype or representation but rather a part
of black history.
The next show shows a black pastor, he’s wearing a cross around his neck and
looks as if he’s giving a sermon reinforces the stereotype that black families people
have strong religious beliefs, they attend church regularly and often tend to be
pastors.
This next shot shows 3 black girls standing in a wig shop playing with a wig, this
reinforces the stereotype that all black women wear wigs and weaves, and thats
what they care about.
This shot shows a black man holding a basketball and wearing a basket ball
uniform, this reinforces the stereotype that all black men are good at basketball and
are more likely to become basketball players.