gender in pop music videos: femininity
TRANSCRIPT
An introduction to some theoretical perspectives when analysing representations of femininity
GENDER IN POP MUSIC VIDEOS
Andy Wallis
KEY TERMINOLOGY
• Dominant ideology
• Male gaze
• Voyeurism
• Dismemberment
• Performativity
• Gender fluidity
MEGHAN TRAINOR• Analyse the key signifiers in the three imagers in front of you.
• Question: What messages about femininity and gender does this performer embody?
MALE GAZE• Laura Mulvey believes that women are placed in the media to
be looked at.
• She calls this ‘the gaze’.
• This can be both:
• Voyeuristic – The notion of looking and gaining pleasure from seeing these beautiful objects
• Fetishistic – A more highly sexualised desire to have something, women are placed as objects of desire.
• Therefore ‘The Gaze’ can be voyeuristic and fetishistic – turning women into a fetish (object) that is beautiful and celebrated for her looks but considered as an object.
DISMEMBERMENT
• A theory developed by Jean Kilbourne who said that
dismemberment is used in print advertising to:
• highlight one part of a woman’s body while ignoring all the other parts of her body.
• employ female body parts for the purpose of selling a product.
• leave many women feeling that their entire body is spoiled on account of one less than perfect feature.
LILY ALLEN – HARD OUT HERE• How can we apply Mulvey’s and Kilbourne’s ideas to a study of women in music video?
• As you watch the following video make a note of how the audience is positioned as either male or female. And how we are encouraged to ‘look’ both voyeuristically and fetishistically?
• Does the gaze shift sides in parts? Why is this interesting? Do we have a ‘female gaze’ emerging?
• How is the female body dismembered and for what purpose?
DEBATE
• Is Lily Allen challenging / subverting / adhering to the male gaze?
• How did it position you as the audience?
• Does it reinforce or challenge (or maybe both) objectification?
GENDER AS A CONSTRUCT - BUTLER• Judith Butler says gender is a role we play and we choose to
conform or resist.
• She says there are some set rules that are constructed through the media but we can choose to actively resist these through performativity.
• Sees gender as a PERFORMANCE.
• Gender is socially constructed.
Can you think of any celebrity or musician that actively resists the dominant ideological perspective on gender or who is gender fluid?
LADY GAGA
LADY GAGA & FEMININITY• How does Gaga present modern
femininity?
• Does she conform or resist dominant ideology? Why in each case?
