course work

How does the representation of women differ in music videos depending on the gender of the music artist in western pop music with specific reference to the artist Robin Thick and Pink?

 

I plan to investigate if the representation of women differs depending on the gender of the musician being presented and whether the female is the core focus or just an accessory to a lead male. I will analyse if the different stereotypes, ideologies and representations that are presented within music videos and if they gratify their target audience. I will specifically lyrical content in the songs and the ideologies that these present, considering the effects that these representations of women has on both a male and female audience, with specific reference to the Robin Thicke album ‘blurred lines’ and pinks album ‘………’ .To do this I will apply theories such as Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory and how women are objectified for male scopophilia .I will also investigate the Marxist theory of hegemony and how the representations of women are used on a social scale to maintain power.

In Robin Thicke’s album blurred lines there are two singles released that charted the top ten: “blurred lines” reaching number 1 on billboard hot 100 singles (3) and “give it to me”. These are both extremely popular songs. The song Blurred lines has over 206,000,000 hits on YouTube and over 880,000 likes, then not as popular but also very successful “give it to me” has over 12,000,000 views and 77,000 likes. Both of these singles are well known for there videos specifically blurred lines as the original video features 3 topless models and created a lot of debate about the appropriateness of this video with the daily mail stating "its a song that has been seen as deeply offensive and derogatory towards women using controversial lyrics such as i know you want it and let me liberate ya "(4). These two videos share the same representations of women and are both vey objectifying.

The video for the song blurred lines features robin Thicke himself, T.I and Pharrel Williams. It also features three very stereotypically attractive and well-known models. The whole video shows these three girls seductively dancing around in very little, see through or in the original case no clothing. This represents women as sexual objects for the three men in the video "the three fully clothed men touch and gawk at them in which ever way they choose with no reaction from the women"(5)this presents the idea that men can do that they want and that women should be submissive to men’s actions and desires . Laura Mulvey states that women can act as the object of scopophilia for both the audience of the video and the males actually the video “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium” (6). In this video we see the men looking at the girls very clearly, they look the girls up and down and focus on their figure in a sexual manner. As the camera tilts up and down the girls figure the audience watching the video is forced to look at the women in the same way that the male’s in the video are taking on the male gaze. In this video the camera focuses on the girl’s body parts fragmenting them, this is a technical method of objectification so the audience see specific body parts representing them as an object of scopophilia. The women only serve the men, we see the three girls poring the men drinks and lighting cigarettes for them (?). This emphasises the superiority of the males and how the women’s only purpose is to serve men.. The Marxist theory of hegemony would say that this representation is used to maintain power over women in wider society as the women that watch this video see these older attractive women serving men it reinforces them with this patriarchal idea that they should be submissive to the will of men. This hidden message is displayed through lyrics and the video content of the song. This specific video is contributing to the cultivation of females to take on the ideology that females and inferior forcing women to take this on as their own belief allowing men to maintain control and power in society. At 7 years old little girls and little boys want to be president of the United States in equal number, 30%, ask the same question at 15 and a huge gap has occurred (7).this shows that this method of social control is working changing the minds of females from an early age enforcing oppressive gender roles on them and as this is presented subtly through media texts such as this song the women do not rebel as they are not being overtly oppressed.

 

How typical is sin city of its genres

Sin city is a hybrid ,a film that combines two genres .These genres are film noir and comic book. there are many obvious conventions to show these two genres within the film. these conventions are shown through narrative structure and themes, character roles and types, mise en scene, iconography and visual codes, for example film noir protagonists tend to be hardened by life they have a cynical outlook on the world and they seem to know what is coming as if they have seen it all before. they do not hope for a positive outcome they only see the darkness ahead. this is true of this particular film as both Marv and harrtigan the two main protagonists have this persona and share these views. for example Marv says "hell is waking up every day and not knowing why you are here." this quote also links in with another theme of noir films in that they represent the time in which they were made. noir films reflect the period just after the cold war when all the men came back home and there was a lot of mistrust ,fear, and a strong sense of paranoia a lot of the men had problems adjusting to normal life. marv is a perfect example of this , he has lost his sense of belonging, he does not fit into this post war era and it is even said in the film that he was born in the wrong times and that he should have been a gladiator in an ancient battle field.
the film noir genre has very distinct iconography , the setting are often dark sidewalks often featuring neon lights, in built up urban areas in a hostile city. this is the exact type of setting we see through out sin city, very closely fitting into these noir conventions . another common feature is the use of rain which is very common in this particular film often shown in the dark points of films during scenes of death or loss.
noir films often use a lot of darkness and shadows to represent their characters emotions and intentions. the villains are often shown in darkness however as the protagonists in film noir are not strictly the good guys we often see shots of them with half their face in shadow when they are doing something wrong even for the right reasons. this is a visual representation of the characters dark side. 
the voice over narrating of the characters is a common convention of noir films . in sin city this plays a major role in the narrative ,each character explains their own background, motivations and plans through out the film giving us a deeper insight to them and helping us follow the often complex and non linier narrative that we see in noir.
throughout sin city the trench coats are mentioned a few times , marv makes reference to the coats a few times. trench coats are a common iconography of noir films however as this film is a hybrid these coats tie in with the comic book genre as well. after a character does something heroic we see a low angle shot looking up at them with the coat waving in the wind symbolising a hero's cape which is a convention of comic book hero characters. we do not see this shot when the protagonist is doing things hat are not heroic such a killing or brutality showing the anti hero side to the character.
comic book films often use classic prop character roles. often featuring a clear hero, villain and princess who the hero try's to save. this is true of sin city however as it is a hybrid this convention is distorted. we still have the three clear hero's and they all have obvious villains all trying to save or avenge a female however the heroes in this particular film are not always as strictly heroic as the comic book genre would normal have them be and the damsels in distress are not always what they appear to be either in the fact they they could be the femme fatal character used in noir films that do not feature in the comic book genre.

fish tank

Fish tank is a social realist film, the social realist genre aims to represent the underrepresented giving the mainstream society an insight into different subcultures and alternate lifestyles to their own. this film is not presenting brittain to the rest of the world trying to look appealing but is looking deeper into british society and showing a realistic view of what it is like to actually live here. focusing on the underclass,a group of people that most films tend to avoid and do not acknowlege in maistream film. Fish tank can be used to portrey this groups background and reasons for being the way they are to the rest of society so we can understand rather than judge on face value.
social realist films show the real day to day struggles of life that some people have to endure. the protaganist is someone who wants more for themselves and is not content with their life.
the actors used in social realisim films are often unknown or in fish tanks case just found at a train station having a row. these conventions are all true in fish tank making it very typical of its genre.
in the opening scene we see mia walking round a rough,poor deprivied area a common setting for social realist films. the use of hand held camera shots following her adds to the realism of this fim we are with the character as if we are walking behind her seeing what she does. early on we see mia watching a group of girls dancing. one of the gilrs says to her "what the f**ks your problem" to which mia responds very aggrsivley and headbutts the girl in the nose. she then has an argument with the group of girls with a heavy use of swear words and aggression. this is a very un sterotypical representation of females showing them in a typically masculin ,aggressive manor, also showing the working/underclass very negativley.in this scene there is the group of girls and also a group of boys however mia is on her own a segrigated this lonlyness is a regular theme in this film showing that those who do not embrace there social class and act accordingly in this enviroment are outcasted and bound for trouble.in this scene and throughout the whole film there is only diegetic sound a common feature of social realist films. we can hear music but we see the girls dancing to it and the poor sound quality tells us that this is deigetic music. the absence of non digetic sound make the film seem more real but also aims the film at a more active audience as often in mainstream films the music tells us how to feel where as social realist films are much more open to interpretation.

generally fish tank opposes mulveys male gaze by veiwing the world through mia's eyes.this is made obvious when we first see connor he is topless and the camera focuses of body parts fragmenting him and objectyfing him then at the end we look through mias eyes with the camera focusing on his bum walking up the stairs showing the female gaze. this film challenges the sterotypical representations af females as the family of mia,her mom and little sister do not have any sort of caring relationship. there mom does not care for them and is actually abusive towards the girls. we see physical and verbal abuse many times throughout the film. however in the scene where connor takes the girls out in the car to the river the family get along and there disfunctional family starts to work but only when connor is present . this shows women as dependent on men to get along and work they need him. this confims the idea of mainstream films that women are generally infirior to men and are dependent on a man. the girls are also shown to be niave as connor is actually living a secret life and they are led on by him the whole film. he is just using them to escape from his life whilst in turn mia is using him to escape from hers.