Gender Roles In Music Videos

Director Sut Jhally, in his documentary film, “Dreamworlds 3: Desire, sex, and power in music videos”, analyzes the issue of how women are portrayed in the music world. Jhally, in his film argues how music and media has become a proud industry when it comes to advertising women, all for the benefit of popularity and record sales. Jhally believes these videos both inform and misinform our culture about our dominant attitudes regarding femininity masculinity, sexuality and race. He uses an empathetic tone in order to appeal to pathos, the feelings and experiences in women when he presents video clips that are somewhat offensive to watch as proof that women have become a common necessity shown in music videos. Often presented as being sexually aggressive and submissive, being objectified by men. He also intentionally wants to try to stir up emotions as he introduces song lyrics of women being called inappropriate names and images of women being fondled by men throughout the film. Sometimes, aggressively without consent.

From wearing cupcake bra outfits to performing in a lavish swimsuit, Katy Perry has demonstrated how women in the music industry use sex appeal to captivate their audience. In today’s society, it isn’t uncommon to see female artists in revealing, flashy outfits surrounded by flashing lights and steam. Artists such as Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj have certainly made news headlines for their audacious performances. In many cases, artists are presenting false images to their fans as an investment for future sales. Female artists continue to be sexually objectified by their audience, which increase their viewership, which leads to record labels pressuring artists to keep a sexy image.

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

Since the explosion of music videos in 1981, a large portion of their popularity has been due to the objectification of women and their sexuality. “Early content analyses showed that anywhere from 40% to 75% of music videos contained sexual imagery”(Arnett, 2002). Hip-hop music videos especially have a reputation of degrading women. In these videos “women are often depicted in positions

Dance communicates a variety of things; it not only entertains but also educates. The way in which and individual dances can contest or propagate ideas. Dance in films, commercials, television and music videos often have underling hegemonic concepts. A way of illustrating this is in Fifth Harmony’s latest music video for their song “Work From Home.” In Fifth Harmony’s music video “Work from Home” featuring Ty Dolla $ign the propagated sexualized idea of femininity through dance is communicated.

The video material that I chose to view for this assignment were music videos, which was an unsurprisingly easy decision to make for writing about gender stereotypes. Music videos are watched by millions every day, and many of these provide misogynistic visual media that has been regulated and accepted by society. These negative connotations for women showing them in highly gendered roles mainly doing medial things such as dancing around in lingerie or fawning over a rich, famous, and/or successful man are dangerous towards equality for genders. Young girls and boys seeing this kind of harmful content could lead them to grow up believing they have to conform to these stereotypes and gender roles instead of living how they would prefer.

In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.

"Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft before the final masterpiece." Author unknown. It is indeed hard to imagine or comprehend such a quote in a society where women are often portrayed as sex symbols and sex objects. Media is one of the major sources for gender depictions in our society and it has played a major role in placing unfathomable gender roles on women in regards to how they are to behave, and address themselves within a society. The gender depictions of women in our society are truly very saddening and mind-blowing!

(BBC network, 2014). It can also force people to change in character, which is a growing concern. Sexualisation in our society has become extremely prevalent within the younger female gender. Some may dismiss this issue as no more than yet another moral panic situation between sexuality and young girls, but some see this as a serious subject and some of these people are in fact the girls being targeted (Church, 2014). The music industry with their music

The most prevalent issue observed in the lyrics and music videos was gender and sexuality. This was in issue that was present and reoccurring in all of the top songs but occurred in different ways. This was no surprise though because we live “In a culture where sex and gender are centrally important” (2015; 73). The issue arises in the genre of music because of the way gender and sexuality is presented. In the top song “Die a Happy Man’ by Thomas Rhett, objectification was presented in both the lyrics and the music video. In the lyrics he says “Baby that red dress brings me to my knees, Oh but black dress makes it hard to break” and goes on to say “You’re a saint, you’re a Goddess, the cutest, the hottest, a master piece” (lyrics). It seems that his goal is to complement her, but he is objectifying her by judging her femininity (2015; 203). He also does this in the music video by having the girl in a bikini the whole time. Not only was the women objectified, but Thomas exposed a stereotypical relationship consequence. In modern society men tend to make a stereotype that they have to give up everything to be with a woman. Thomas did this in his lyrics when he talks about how he could “never get to see the Northern lights” or “never get to build my mansion in Georgia or drive a sports car up the coast of California” (lyrics). The second song was “Strip It Down” by Luke Bryan. In this song Luke definitely introduces gender roles in both the lyrics and the video. The song

Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.

The development of visual media has introduced the concept of The Male Gaze Theory. The Male Gaze Theory is defined as how women are depicted in the media from a male perspective, such as presenting women as sexual objects for men’s pleasure (Loreck). The article, inexplicitly, talks about the male gaze: “Up to 81% of music videos contain sexual imagery, the majority of which sexually objectifies women by presenting them in revealing clothing, as decorative sexual objects, dancing sexually, or in ways that emphasize body parts or sexual readiness.” The article talks about how women are sexually presented in the media which is what the male gaze encompasses the “male gaze” is a harmful contribution to the sexualization of girls and is also seen throughout the music video. The beginning of the music video shows 50 Cent walking into a brothel-type mansion where the camera pans to focusing on the writhing, half-naked women in the foyer of the mansion. This scene is viewed from a male’s perspective because the camera focuses on their sensual movements and physical assets instead of their normal facial expressions or more appropriate places on their body. Also, since 50 Cent is the only male in the mansion, the camera is only coming from a male perspective because brothels are only truly for a male’s pleasure. The other women in the video are objectified from their revealing clothing

The subject of this assignment is about pop culture, sexual content, and censorship. When it comes to the subject of music I do not, or try not, to listen to music nor watch music videos that insinuates secular or sexual content. I have thought about the messages that TV and music send to its viewers and whether or not these messages are beneficial or harmful. My two favorite (secular) songs are Lauryn Hill’s “Doo-Wop (that thing)” and American Authors’ “Best Day of My Life”. I have never watched either of these song’s music videos.

One of the hottest American singles in 2013 generated critical reaction towards the music business. The American production Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I portrayed a “grey area” between consensual sex and assault. Despite a positive reaction towards listening to the music, an erotic content of lyrics and music video caused a controversy among followers of the song. The ubiquitous song titled “Blurred Lines” is a genuine message of the “thin line” between what disparaging on a woman. Both the music video and lyrics depict a negative connotation and representation of a woman’s integrity in society. It is considered to be a parody however the way it’s being expressed shows it is not positively correct. The 21st century has showed many changes in society especially in regards to human rights and equality. Multiple campaigns have been made by woman urging for equality and unfortunately is being contradicted by the music video. Female models are portrayed and advertised as sexual objects, the actions made show how they will do everything to satisfy their owner’s needs and give them pleasure. Through the visual and hearing aid, the ideology of woman is shaped by specifically

In music videos the dancing or portrayal of the people within these videos is often of a very sexual driven nature. This re-inforces the idea that women are sexual objects and the purpose of their being is to provide the male population with sexual satisfaction. Women portrayed are very thin and pretty, wearing heavy layers of make-up which portrays the idea that women need materialistic items such as mascara and lipstick