Feminist and Post Feminist Music Video Analyse

Feminist and Post Feminist Music Video Analyse  

Lately in class we've been looking at how certain groups of people are represented in the media but here I shall focus on how women are represented in music videos.

There are two diffrent point of veiws I shall be analysing them with. The first will be from a point of veiw of a feminist then from the view of a post feminist.

Feminism

Came into being around the late 1960/70's women questioned their position in society and wanted to get rid of the stereotypes.

Sexual objection and the male gaze are the main purpose that women are used in the media, especially in music videos. They recognized that in a lot of media women are solely there for the purpose of display and pleasing men's gaze as wallpaper.

In this video a feminist would say that Beyonce in this video is a victim to voyeurism, this is were people take erotic pleasure from looking at a sexual object, and in this case Beyonce is being treated as an object in their eyes. She is wearing reveling clothes, overly dressed up in a barbie doll fashion, chewing a piece of gum; all to make her seem more attractive for men to take pleasure from watching her video. She and many other girls in the video change into even more tight clothed, skin reveling outfits and begin to dance erotically, all for the benefit of the male gaze.

Post Feminism

In the 1980's they wanted a re-appraisal of values. They unlike regular feminists don't strive for equality with men (cause in their eyes this means that they would see men as already being superior, they want to surpass male achievement.) They don't look at how women are being exploited by the media, instead they claim that women actually assert their right to dress and act provocatively to empower themselves and to make men desire them.

A post feminist would say that actually Beyonce is empowering herself by wearing such erotic clothes and acting so provocatively in order to achieve female gaze, wear women actively seek out men and make them want them. This embraces her sexuality and attractiveness and confidence. This coincidentally mathes the lyrics to her song- "do what I want to". This shows her having the control.