Sexism in Pop Videos

Sexism and Laura Mulvey

In the music industry, there are a lot of issues to do with sexism, especially with women. A lot of the sexism issues are based on how men are presented and how women are presented. The women are treated a lot differently to the men. With regards to this, Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory is very important with dealing with issues of  sexism as much of her theory covers the way that women are treated in media texts. One of the more important points with her theory is the male gaze. This means that the media texts are made out to be designed for the viewing of males, and not the viewing of females. This is why in media texts, women are designed to be "objects of erotic desire" as this is what would appeal more to the majority of men, and therefore they would want to see that more. Even when women consume media texts, they have to watch it from a male point of view as they are forced to watch the exposure of women. Laura Mulvey says that women have 2 roles within a narrative: To be an erotic object for characters within the text or To be an erotic object for the audience consuming the text. Women are simply seen as sexual objects and are relegated from their human status. They are objectified as just an object used by men to be enjoyed. Women are also presented to be weak, and needs saving by a male character, and are irrelevant without the main character. The female characters are known as passive as they are under control by the males are present subject to the male gaze. In most texts, women slow the narrative down and are unable to add meaning to the plot. They have no agency. Most texts live in a world of Patriarchal Society in which men are in control.




The song "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus is a song and video which has caused issues to do with sexism in video. A lot of the video is spent with her being sexual, and naked. She is seen to be naked while swinging on a wrecking ball, and she is seen to be licking a sledgehammer in a very seductive manner. This pop video was able to cause controversy because of what she is doing, and the messages that it would send to young kids. I think that Miley Cyrus made this video because she wanted to show that she is her own person, and that she isn't controlled by anyone but herself. She wants to show that she is an independent woman, and she's not the young girl anymore. She wants to get rid of her Hannah Montana young girl image, and wants to be known as her own woman who is able to make her own decisions. I think this video is quite unique in the way that I think that she is exploiting, and is being exploited at the same time. I think she is exploiting the music industry because she is doing something unique and being controversial about it, thus creating interest in her, and therefore giving her more chance of achieving revenue. On the other hand, I think she is being exploited, as she is using her body to appeal to the audience, and making herself look like an object of erotic desire. She is exposing herself in order to appeal to a wider audience, by having less clothes on her. The mise-en-scene is used a lot in this video, especially with the costumes and props. With the props, she is seen to be performing sexual acts on them, and with the costumes, she's mostly naked which completely exposes her. There is an amplified relation of visuals to music video, as she is constantly shown to be sitting on the wrecking ball.





Another example of a video which creates sexism issues within the music industry is the song "Hard Out Here" by Lily Allen. Laura Mulveys theory can definitely be applied to this music video as most of this video is with lots of women being half naked dancing in sexual ways, and making themselves to be sexual objects, and objects of erotic desire. Lily Allen once said that she wanted have a more feminist society, but this video makes her seem like a bit of a hypocrite as she is using ideas that she doesn't agree with in order to be popular with audiences. Lily Allen is sexualising women by having them in their video and by making themselves to be objects. This is not a feminist video, and completely does the opposite as it is inviting the male gaze to be active. This video makes women look like objects and doesn't achieve her purpose of living in a more feminist society. The mise-en-scene is most effective here, as the costumes are very limited and there isn't much of it, which allows for the women to be able to expose themselves and make them be objects. The lyrics of the song kind of match the song because she says she doesn't want to be in the kitchen, and she wants to be in the studio, which is where she spends the majority of her time.





This video is also controversial when it comes to dealing with sexism issues because of the way that women are treated in this video. The main character is shown to be very dominant over the women and so much so that they are in his control. They are doing what he wants them to do which shows that he is dominant over them. Also, the women in the video are wearing very little clothing (if any at all) which he is fully clothed which again is able to show his dominance. This women are wearing this little clothing and are therefore responsible for being the objects of erotic desire for the male gaze, which is agreeing with Laura Mulveys theory. There are different versions of this video because one of them is very extreme, and has the women being 100% naked, and other versions which are not quite as extreme. I believe that different versions of this video were made, because i believe that the version which shows all of the girls being naked was the original version, but then they realised that it wouldn't be suitable for all audiences at all times so they should make a version of which would be watered down. In terms of Goodwin, the girls in the video have a dance routine which is a characteristic of his theories.