Representation in music videos

The Feminist Theory section of the syllabus covers these areas:

• Male gaze

• Voyeurism

• Patriarchy

• Sexualisation/Raunch Culture

• Post-feminism

• Female gaze.

Firstly. Lots of students (mostly young men – dunno why that is. . . [sarcasm alert]) go a bit wrong because they see feminism as a political movement which begins with issues like suffrage (the ability to vote) and emancipation (freedom – to work, own property and be educated). Basically they see it as this . . .

followed by this . . .

but that means that they struggle with this . .

This leads to some students finding feminism in Media Studies a conceptual stretch. The conflation (putting things together) of suffrage, equality and ideas like representation means that they don’t see the bigger picture. BTW the image above came from Feminist Frequency. Check out . . .

Cos they are awesome!

We are interested in feminism as a school of thought, as a huge project which, aside from addressing the core ways we see ourselves and organise society, offers a way to look at media audiences and producers and their relationship to ideologies, beliefs and society. It is academic, social, political, economic and cultural.

Male Gaze

There’s a discussion to be had about whether, as women gained more in power and status, they could begin to objectify men in the same way that men objectify women. This ad also coincided with the invention of the male-stripping industry and the rise of male body-consciousness – Men’s Health anyone?

There are are voices (like Darian Leader in his book “Why Do Women Write More Letters Than they Post?”) who argue that although heterosexual women can engage in some scopophilia they tend to look for, and at, relationships. This explains the popularity of romance, rom-coms and erotic (and romance) novels for women and more exploitative, male-gaze based entertainment for men. Basically the success of Playboy for men and 50 Shades of Grey for women.

The Female Gaze

Another way of using the term recently has revolved around the following ideas.

This is media which looks at scenes, characters and situations from a female point of view/perspective.

The female gaze looks at three viewpoints.

• The individual filming

• The characters within the film

• The spectator

An interesting recent version of this would be

Voyeurism

The theory of Voyeurism originates in the psychoanalytic writings of Sigmund Freud and has been much used in Media Studies, particularly in explaining the gendered pleasures of cinema.

Voyeur – to gain sexual pleasure from secretly watching other people. This might include sexual activity, undressing/bathing, or other viewer- fetishized activities.

Voyeurism differs from the straightforward Male Gaze in that the viewer takes on the role of a voyeur, seeing the scene often through the same mechanism as the voyeur and experiencing similar feelings.

Deutschland 83 and Capital: There are moments which utilise vouyeristic tropes in both products – but this is part of the generic expectations of the spy thriller and the crime thriller and are not used gratuitously for male viewer pleasure.