Preview

Representation of Women in Music Videos

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1047 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Representation of Women in Music Videos
Women and girls are being exploited every day in this world. Even though this has been around for centuries this epidemic has grown tremendously throughout the years. Media within our society constantly degrades women and sends out negative messages about the way in which women should be treated. Music videos is one of the types of media where women are demoralized and are seen as sexual objects.
An example of a music video in which women are represented negatively and are being degraded is Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’. The main woman starring in this video is the artist, Rihanna. Rihanna is a very successful singer and is many peoples idea of a role model. There are plenty of people all around the world, who listen to her music and wish to become just like her.
Famous. Successful. Rich. Independent.
However, in her ‘We Found Love’ video, throughout the entire video she seems as though she is very dependent upon men, as she is always shown with her partner, and is extremely exposed and poorly dressed around him. Women should not and most are not dependent upon men, they can control themselves and be able to depend on themselves and work and learn to earn a living for themselves. In the video, it shows Rihanna with a man who seems to be her partner, taking part in many recreational activities. The first recreational activity they take part in together is kissing each other and smoking while lying on the curb of the road. This carries on showing them hugging, drinking, taking drugs, shoplifting, attending music festivals, and having sex together. It also shows Rihanna’s partner tattooing the word ‘MINE’ on her backside. The tattooing of this word on her back shows how woman are referred to as objects in the music video, as one human cannot belong to another. This is inhumane.
The clothing that Rihanna is wearing in the video suggests that women like to be extremely exposed around men and like to meet men’s need all the time. She is wearing tops that are above her

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Beyonce is recognized as an icon of women empowerment. She is one of the most influential celebrities in the world. In Beyonce’s music video, “Pretty Hurts,” femininity is shown through the struggles and pressures women go through to meet the unrealistic standards of beauty. Compared to the topic of femininity, the representation of masculinity is very limited in the music video. Also, the music video challenges the gender stereotypes and deals with third wave feminism.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I feel this is an appropriate choice for Swift’s video because she often dons and flaunts the feminist label as many current influential woman in celebrity culture are doing; many however continue to perpetuate a stereotype of the traditional subordination of women through overt sexuality. Swift is blazing a new trail where she connects and empowers other women instead of creating a sexual persona for the male gaze. She also tackles the double standards of woman in today’s music industry being melodramatic if writing about anything sentimental or non-sexual; in a Rolling Stone’s interview, she stated, "A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    anthro 2a final

    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “I Enjoy Being a Girl” (music videos and women’s capitalist role as primary consumers and sexualized objects)-…

    • 1892 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The concept of a music video has changes many times over the last few decades. They all still have the basic concept to get as many likes as you possibly can. They also try to get the most attention so that they can become more famous and be seen by many. This increases the target audience and intern more people will see it and download the music. Recently within the last decade or two the best way to do this has been to appeal with a scandalous and sexually manner. Humans are naturally curious and enjoy the idea or a scandalous video that tells the story in a song with out it being like porn. “Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music gives them a specific message about sex, said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for the corporation in Pittsburg. Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls and learn to view them as sex objects”. (“Raunchy music influences teens sexual habits”, Theage.com). Many pop, rock, and rap artist have started to introduce real strippers in their videos so that many people will talk about it and view it. Along with strippers and dancer is an appeal with cash. It is the dream of many American to become rich and have lots of money so showing lots of money in a music video makes it more desirable to watch. This is a good method that recording studios and directors have taken because it reaches millions of teens. The teens see what…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “The music industry is a vicious business. It chews women up and spits them out.”, says singer/songwriter Tori Amos. Much like the world of advertisements and fashion, female performers are hypersexualized and objectified. The music industry, being run by mostly men (producers, directors, etc.) make it very unlikely for a woman to succeed based on their talent, but more so because of the way they express their sexuality and flaunt their looks.…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    For my creative media project, I put together a short music video. I decided to make a music video because I felt is was significant to a problem in todays society. Today, popular culture, such as today’s hits music, has a negative impact on women and young girls. For example, in a lot of songs with a male artist, the male will degrade women. With that said, one may turn on the radio, or television, and hear a song about how the male artist is so wealthy that he can sleep around with any girl that he would like. In the music video of the same song, one may see a women, wearing little or no clothing, dancing seductively on the artist. This is very alarming to our youth of girls. Because of the lyrics and music videos, young girls will look up…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pop Songs Essay

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are many topics out there that seem to appeal to the ears of the music industry. A popular approach is to objectify women by comparing them to animals or anything that is worth less of them. This approach is extremely popular, since it is adding to the long, long list of ways society is still oppressing women in the 21st century. While you are at it, you can focus on singing about either a woman’s chest or butt or maybe including both will land you a higher spot in the music charts. As your song becomes a top hit, sooner or later, you’ll hear a 14 year old boy singing about women’s body parts, and parents will praise the music industry for exposing young children to content that sexualizes the female body.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women have constantly been cheated out of credit and money. They have also not been taken seriously as musicians. They have been oversexualised, as well, in rock and roll. As Runaways’ Joan Jett says, “People don't want to see women doing things they don't think women should do.”…

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women In Pop Culture

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The cultures present in today’s society stem from ancient traditions where there was the perception that women were belongings who were owned by their father and then their husbands. This created a sense of entitlement that is still present today- the idea that women are there for men’s desires and are to obey them for their pleasure only. A prime example of which is the public’s response to a rape victim Tatiana Andreeva’s self-defence saying “there is nothing wrong with a man wanting to have sex with a girl.” It is perpetuated through the use of pop culture and glorified in lyrics such as “tried to domesticate you, but you’re an animal, baby it’s in your nature” and “What? You don’t like…

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Olly Murs Stereotypes

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The gender is communicated to the audience through the figure of the person in the picture. For example, the picture of Olly Murs on the cover immediately tells the audience that he is a male. Also, the fact that Olly Murs has dressed smart in the album cover represents his success which is a typical association with men. He is seen to be portraying confident facial expression and he is standing straight with his shoulders apart and chest high suggesting his gender to the audience as it is part of being masculine to be confident, strong and aggressive. On the other hand, Rihanna is seen to be naked.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article, written by Shanara R. Reid, discusses the over-sexualization of women in rap/hip hop songs and music videos, and the possible social causes of this. It has become apparent nowadays that women are heavily degraded in all kinds of media in order to appeal to the male viewing audience. Scantily clad women partaking in provocative dance routines and actions has become a norm of music videos. Machismo ideals that stress the extreme superiority of men over women and encourage the representation of women almost as an item prevail among lyrics. African-American women are especially susceptible to this kind of treatment, and many, including the author of this journal article, believe that more should be done by these women to protect the good name of their own class of people.…

    • 629 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most sensitive and controversial topics from time to time is gender representation. Gender representations in media often portray male and female stereotypically, in which they are depicted differently (Doring 2006, p. 173). Even though the representation of gender in media has already been developed lately, but women’s representation in media are still portrayed stereotypically in various ways. According to Amancio (1993), he stated that gender stereotypes are seen as social representations or collective ideologies defining model of behavior. Media do not simply reflect the reality in society about the gender stereotypes; it supports the ruling class’ ideology of patriarchy which controls the issue of gender all over the world by producing…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Issue Paper

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Music videos came to popularity in the 1980’s with such television stations as MTV, BET, and VH1. The aim of these music videos is to market and promote different artists through the use of visual appeals. Gangster rap, a subgenre Hip-Hop music, presents violence, homophobia, and sexism in its lyrical content. This type of music presents the youth with an ideal identity, one that is consumed with money, cars, drugs, and multiple women performing sexual favors. Gangster rap videos usually focus on the buttocks, hips, and breast of women, (specifically black women). These videos depict black women as: hypersexual, money-hungry, sex objects. The success of these music videos relies on the imaging of these women in these videos and their use of their sexual appeal to sell the song. Music videos portray woman in a positive and negative light and these portrayals of woman could essentially play a role in a young girl’s self-esteem.…

    • 1874 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It will now be discussed how the sexualization of females in music videos can portray the wrong image of maturity and empowerment to young females.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beyoncé wants to empower women and help them be proud while at the same time she goes to great lengths to ensure that men should not feel ashamed of who they are. Through the video, she tries to convince the viewer that women are independent and can handle many things without a man’s assistance. This shows a significant change between this generation and earlier ones. For example, women did not have the right to vote in the past. Also, they were expected to do chores around the house such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of their children while their…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics