‘In a world ordered by sexual
imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and
passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female
figure which is styled accordingly.’
·
In
my opinion this quote is specific to music genres such as pop, rap, hip hop and
R&B as women are often portrayed in a negative way
·
In
many of those videos particular body parts are dismembered (ie close ups are
used to draw attention)
·
However,
even in those genres there are artists that challenge these ideas such as Missy
Elliot and Adele
A perfect
example of this is Robin Thicke’s song Blurred Lines:
A strong
sexual imbalance is shown in this music video and the contrast is very obvious
– while the artists are wearing black and are fully clothed, the girls in the
video are styled in a way which makes them seem promiscuous and are wearing
white. This is an example of binary oppositions as the two ideas are juxtaposed
against each other.
A more
subtle example of this is Come and Get it by Selena Gomez:
Even though
this music video isn’t as explicit as Blurred Lines, it can still be argued
that Selena Gomez is styled in a way which presents her as a stereotypical
female figure that is made attractive for the male gaze. Despite the presence
of a male figure in the video too, the focus is still on her as his face isn’t
shown at all.
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