MICROSOFT OFFICE USER
DEFI NE REPRESENTATI O N
The way something or a specific group of people are
portrayed. With our topic, it is how they are portrayed
within the Media
REPRESENTATION IN GE NDER
What sort of music video do we expect to see
representation of females?
The music videos we can expect to see some sort of
representation of women are both Hip Hop, and
Rap. These types of genre are well known for
creating an imbalance between male and female.
The females are often the back up dancers and they
wear very little clothing (have a lot of cleavage skin
on show). These genres clearly portray the female
character to be passive.
However, in the present day of music, a lot of these
representations of gender have been changed. A lot
of hip hop and R&B artists have started to challenge
these stereotypes and revolutionized the music
media.
A few artists I can think of off the top of my head are;
ADELLE, PINK, LILLY ALLEN, and AMY WINEHOUSE
I still feel that this stereotypical representation of
gender still exists in the present, they just do it in
different ways. We still capture features like the
sexualized back up dancers that were used in music
videos ever since Biggie, nas, and 2 pac shakur.
Task 3
We were given a task during lesson. This task was all
about the lyrics compared to the pictures created
on screen, and how they both tell different or the
same stories.
LAURA MULVEY
(1975)
Laura Mulvey is a feminist film
theorist. Her education in this field
began at ST HILDAs college, oxford.
She is currently a professor for film
and media studies at BURBECK
University.
Laura Mulveys theories:
The male gaze occurs when the
camera puts the audience into the
perspective of a heterosexual man. The
camera lingers on the curves of the
female body, and events which occur
to women are presented largely in the
context of the mans reaction to these
events. (1975)
In a world ordered by sexual
imbalance, pleasure in looking has
been split between active/male and
passive/female. The determining male
gaze projects its fantasy onto the
female figure which is stylised
accordingly. (1992)
RE-WRITE MULVEYS
THEORY
The male gaze is the way a female
character is seen through the eyes
of a heterosexual male. Certain
camera shots and techniques are
used to often sexualize the female

The song we were told to listen to was called
BEAUTIFUL produced by Pharrelle Williams and
featuring Snoop Dog. We were also told to think
about how the video might look. From listening to the
lyrics I was given the impression that it is about a girl
and our singer finds her absolutely perfect and
special. He talks about wanting to comfort her and
calls her beautiful. From this impression on the lyrics I
imagine the video presenting a male and female
character in a romantic setting.
Task 4
We were now told to watch the official music video
to this song and compare the lyrics with the images
on screen.
The music video looked very different to what I had
expected. The video both reflects and rejects the
lyrics because; I thought the video would be about
two characters yet we a introduced to multiple
female characters, showing that the male is actually
a player rather than this kind, sentimental person I
thought he was. They purposefully chose the setting
to be in the streets of Brazil because Brazilian woman
are well known for having desirable body figures.
Again this makes them passive and the male gaze is
used because the camera focuses on the curvature
of the females body.
Does this conform Mulveys theory?
Yes, because certain camera angles and
performances sexualize the female characters and
somewhat objectifies them, making them passive.
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character. This also objectifies the
female character to an extent and
makes her desirable.
The society of which we live in has
an imbalance in equality between
the two genders, males are often
taken the most active role, making
him more dominant. On the other
hand the female takes on the more
passive role, making her the binary
opposition compared to a dominant
male.
Task 5
In the next task we were told to listen to
another song called I LUH YA PAPI
personally I think this song is complete
garbage, and I despise the singer
Jennifer Lopez and French Montana for
producing this. This type of music is
what ruins the music culture for me,
because these people are being
recognised and awarded for
composing a bunch of crap whilst the
artist with real talent are being ignored
by the public. Most of the blame is on
the public because theyre stupid
enough to buy into this.
Moving on
The message behind this song is
apparently trying to raise awareness of
how female characters are often
portrayed to be passive in other music
videos. She completely failed at
attempting to reverse the common
conventions and make the men the
passive characters.
She does get her point across to some
extent by making the men less active,
but stupidly makes herself passive
aswell. Her clothing, the camera
angles, and her performance all
contribute to fact that she objectifies
herself and makes her desirable.
Im not going to even give her the
satisfaction of saying that this
challenges Mulveys theory. I believe if
your going to do something different,
then make it unique and your own.
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