Representations of women in music videos with links to my

production.

Jamie Debenham

Early representations - Burlesque

• From the 1860's onward, burlesque was a popular format of show often featuring in theatres, cabaret bars and clubs in the US, most notable for it's 'bawdy comedy and female striptease'. The voyeuristic treatment of women that we see in modern music videos, could well have been born in this earliest of suggestive performance styles.

• The primary attraction of burlesque shows was sex, and many believe that the influences of it's immodestly dressed women stretches into today's contemporary media.

• "Without question, however, burlesque's principal legacy as a cultural form was its establishment of patterns of gender representation that forever changed the role of the woman on the American stage and later influenced her role on the screen. . . The very sight of a female body not covered by the accepted costume of bourgeois respectability forcefully if playfully called attention to the entire question of the "place" of woman in American society."- Robert G. Allen, Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture

The Black Crook (1866)

The Black Crook is a musical, produced by William Wheatley, in which the original production opened September 12 1866 at Niblo's Garden, on Broadway. The plot consists of Count Wolfenstien's evil plan to win over a villager named Amina by throwing her boyfriend Rudolphe in the dungeon with the nasty crook and master of black magic (The black Crook), Hertzog.

One of the most notable features of the production, was it's voyeuristic treatment of women. Wheatley ensured that he topped box office takings for his performance by creating controversy. The show's key draw was the 'transformation scene' which gave birth to the regressive representation of the female gender that we see in the media today, in which the stage mechanically converted into a fairytale land with an underdressed female dance chorus in front of the audience's very eyes.

The Black Crook musical. Opened – September 12 1866, Niblo’s Garden theatre, Broadway, New York City, USA. Directed by William Wheatley.

Modern Media Texts

It's clear to see that the influence that the earliest male media producers, such as American William Wheatley, has been phenomenal. In modern times, the position of the male dominated media industry has changed very little, and the same regressive representation of females in media products has changed very little.

Goodwin's theory of music videos states that the notion of looking, including the voyeuristic treatment of females is a key principle in the formation of such a media text. Furthermore, such a representation seems to create interest, even if it is through controversy as was seen with the 1866 Broadway debut of The Black Crook.

Similarly, Robin Thicke's 2013 hit Blurred Lines made a total of $16 million , and was the biggest selling single of the year. The music video, which was actually directed by a female, Diane Martel, received an extremely critical reception for its strong reference to the notion of looking. A BBC News article from November 2013 reports on how the song was actually banned by the University College London students union following a critics claim that Thicke's lyrics refer to 'non consensual sex'. Thicke's response was that "We tried to do everything that was taboo... everything that is completely derogatory towards women", with his justification being that he was happily married at the time of the song's release and that " we were the perfect people to make fun of this".

Robin Thicke/Pharell Williams – Blurred Lines (2013) Directed by Diane Martel. R&B/Disco/funk. Label – StarTrak/Interscope

British feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, coined the term 'male gaze' in 1975. A key feature of this concept is that the females within a media text are viewed as objects. Events involving the women are presented as a male's reaction to these events rather than from the female's perspective herself.

In general, Mulvey concluded that media should be viewed from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This theory can be applied to both The Black Crook and Blurred lines music video, as in both we see evidence of the male dominated media industry influencing the representation of the sexes. The Blurred Lines music video has the strongest sense of the male gaze being used, despite the director being a female. Robin Thicke's above quote in which he attempts to justify his derogatory treatment of women is evidence of women being relegated to mere objects in media texts.

Jonathan Schroeder expanded on these ideas and suggested that to 'gaze' does not only mean to look at, but also implies "a psychological relationship of power". In other words, the attitude conveyed by representations, such as Thicke's, are influencing the society who view such media to engrain such messages of male superiority into their consciousness and so they remain present within culture throughout time.

The Male Gaze

My music video

My music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes' 'Bravery', challenges the conventional representation of females, in which they are presented as a symbol of sex and male control. In my media text, voyeurism is a convention that is not referenced and instead, the female character is not present. The notion of looking is referenced with the male protagonist viewing an image of this missing female on a mobile phone screen (screens within screens), giving the sense of a previous relationship.

It could be argued that there is still a negative representation of females within my media product, due to the absence of this gender. My music video is still heavily male dominated, with the female character being reduced to a photograph only. In this sense, it could be said that my music video does conform with the representations of gender that is seen in most contemporary texts. Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze can further be applied to my text, in which the events within the life of the female are portrayed fully from the perspective of the male, and thus we gain the sense of the music video being presented from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes’ Bravery. Reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens/absence of female/ ‘male gaze’)