In recent times, certain music videos have stirred controversy because they portray women in an objectified manner. This is done through several techniques, some of the most obvious being voyeuristic choreography and minimal clothing.
Examples of music videos that have done this are Robin Thicke's ''Blurred Lines'' and Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball.
A part of Laura Mulvey's theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity, they are reduced to objects that are only there to be admired for their physical appearance. The theory also states that women have to force themselves into a secondary perspective in order to view music videos and films that are being released in modern times, they must view these releases through the eyes of a male.
Similarly to full length films, women are often not able advance the plot of a music video themselves, however they do sometimes advance the plot because they influence the actions of the male character who is in the spotlight.
Mulvey also argues that the objectification of women is infectious, because the media creates outrageous standards for women and seeing as they have to consume the media through the male gaze, they end up objectifying other women, bringing them and often themselves down because they believe they are not good enough.
Mulvey's text suggests that females have two similar purposes in music videos. The first is to be viewed and admired for their appearance by characters within the world of the text which they are in. The second is to be admired by the audience watching the film or video.
Dr. No is a famous example of this, specifically the scene with Sean Connery on the beach with Ursula Andress.
Mulvey discusses the term socophilia, she describes watching movies and music videos as socophilic practices. Socophilia is defined as the love of watching/observing.
Most of Mulvey's writing relates specifically to Hollywood cinema, however the majority of her points transfer over to pop videos without any need of clarification, in short;
•Men are active, women are passive
•Women do not have agency
•The atmosphere of most pieces is patriarchal, man dominated
•Entire audience forced to view through male gaze
The first sexist pop video I will look at is Lily Allen's ''Hard Out Here''
Mulvey's theory can definitely be applied to this video as it is full of women dancing in voyeuristic ways dressed less than formally. Lily Allen was formerly outspoken about the fact that there needs to be more power given to females in the media industry and perhaps society as a whole, but with the release of ''Hard Out Here'' she is made to look like a total hypocrite. This video is encouraging of the male gaze given the dancing and actions of the performers, which acts to contradict the lyrics of the song completely which imply that there are issues that need to be dealt with, a prime example is the phrase ''we've never had it so good uh-huh we're out of the woods and if you can't detect the sarcasm, you've misunderstood'' This phrase implies that female performers may have a hard time bringing up this issue to their peers and superiors, they are forced to do it in roundabout ways such as sarcastic lyrics and contradictory visuals. This video may be a hypocritical cash-in on the controversies that are currently being discussed by people that have the power to change these things, but it may also have a more significant meaning beneath the surface. It could be both. Regarding the mise-en-scene in this video, it is really simple and in line with the objectification of women, minimal clothing and props that they can use to further make themselves seem like objects, such as the champagne one of the dancers pours on herself.
To focus more on the camera angles, it is interesting to note that there is a lot of voyeuristic shots of women and their assets, ranging from close up to medium shots, but these are never on Lily herself, perhaps implying that she is different from the rest of the industry.
The second video I will be analysing in more detail is ''Wrecking Ball'' by Miley Cyrus.
For a lot of the time in this video, Miley Cyrus is completely naked and behaving sexually. The first example of this is her sitting on the wrecking ball and the second that follows shortly is the licking of the sledgehammer, attempting a seductive shot that looks fairly disturbing on the surface. The purpose of this music video is to be an attempt to get rid of the Hannah Montana image. It is possible that Miley wanted to show that she is not controlled by the industry by making this video, but it could also be interpreted that she played right into the female pop music stereotypes by making it. This video is controversial because it is not as simple as it appears on the surface, critics may claim that she is being exploited by the industry and being thrown straight into the stereotypes talked about by Laura Mulvey, but creating a unique video that stands out like this will undoubtedly continue to attract audiences for a long time to come, whether they are in support of the video or not. There is a large focus on mise-en-scene in this video, as Miley behaves seductively with certain objects that you would not typically expect a woman to do this with.
There are a lot of close-ups of Miley's face as expected and suggested by Andrew Goodwin, there is a range of camera angles, from long shot to medium shot and close ups as mentioned before.
The third and final video I will be looking at is Robin Thicke's ''Blurred Lines''
This video sparked controversy because of the way the women are treated in it. The males are constantly shown to be in a position of dominance throughout. This video is a good example of where the women are behaving passively, while the men are behaving actively, effectively deciding what happens next. This is in line with some of the points addressed by Laura Mulvey, regarding passive and active roles. The women in this video are wearing minimal clothing, while the men are fully clothed which emphasises their dominance, the lack of clothing shows that these women are only meant to be admired for their physical appearance, which means they are presented as objects. There is another version of this video where the women are completely naked, but that is not as popular and has not been marketed as intensively because it is not suitable for all audiences, that version of this video places additional emphasis on all the points covered above. Objectively, the dance routine is simple yet effective, but it has a lot of voyeuristic elements as well which are covered by Andrew Goodwin in Dancing In the Distraction Factory.
