Portrayal of Women in Music Videos (Final Project)

How are women presented in music videos?



For my final project I would like to focus on the portrayal of women in music videos.  For as long as I can remember women in music videos have been portrayed in a very dehumanizing manner and in ways that they havebecome sex objects and ornoments to decorate the set for men who are always portrayed with a sense of dominace even when the sets are flooded by women dressed in very little clothing  "shaking it for daddy" as Robin Thicke sings in one of his many controversial songs.


A concept that we discssed extensively in class comes into play when discssing women portrayal in music videos is The Male Gaze theory. As we know this is a term  that describes the tendency
of works to assume a straight male viewpoint even when they do not have a specific narrative
Point of View, and in particlar the tendency of works to present female chararcters as sbjects of implicitly male visal appreciation.

Some points I will be discssing are but are not limited to:

• How women are portrayed in music videos and how these images are perceived as a reality and affect society as a whole.
• Gender Reversal:  Women in the music indutry who reverse roles in effort to expose the idea that if women were to act like men wold it still be considered fair?
• Exploring different music video that attempt to empower women
• How women are potrayed in reggeaton music videos. Women are not only portrayed as sexal objects in videos but also when their vocals are featured they are heard moaning and pleading men to dominate their bodies.

One of the earliest songs I remember that pushed for female empowerment is "Cant hold us down" by Christina Aguilera. In this song which features female rapper Lil Kim both artists attemted to send a powerful message to "Girls all around the world, Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth thinking all women should be seen, not heard, what do we do girls? Shout Out Loud!" This song was defenitely an empowering song, I remember some of female friends in school  who wold quote some of the lyrics of this song in come back jokes every time a boy made fun of them. A few qestions come to mind when thinking about this topic,  If more songs like these were made would it really make a difference in how social aspects are depicted?  Wold more women stand up against for how they are portrayed in music videos of men pouring down chanpagne down their bodies? Outside of music videos can other efforts be made in changing the portrayal of women in music videos?