GENERAL CONVENTIONS 4: Representations

Possible Influences

• Have both Countertypes + Stereotypes in characters
• Challenge some normative representations 
• Male/female gaze to a certain extent 

Summary:

• Laura Mulvey's Male gaze is very important 
• Normative representations 
• Queer/ing 
• Huge scope to represent what you believe in
• Male gaze vs Post feminism

Summary Vodcast:
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(CS) Lily Allen - Hard out Here 

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Lyrics

Lily Allen created this song as a satirical video for how music videos are treating women like objects. Where her argument is "I think objectification of women is fine if I feel that there is a sense of ownership from the woman. If it comes from somewhere else and it feels like the woman is being coerced or forced into something then it's gross." She has tried to empower women who feel confident in themselves and send a message that they can do what they please. This video has however backfired a received a lot of criticism. The representations of independent confident females is striking in this video, along side with the male producer in the video objectifying the women telling them how to "act". 

The song was dubbed "feminist anthem through and through" by Rolling Stone magazine. 

Many believe that some of the lyrics and one part of the music video where there are balloons spelling out "Lily Allen has a baggy pu**y" were a direct response to Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines and  Miley Cyrus.

Here you can see that the lip stick Lily Allen is wearing is black. This signifies her saying stop towards the normative of having glossy red lipstick. She is saying she is refusing being objectified.

Many celebrities have backed the lyrics in the track and the music video as a positive feminist text, so you may be wondering what the backlash and controversy is about.
Controversy

There was black female dancers used in the video. The dancing/performance in the music video mainly consists of twerking which is seen as an objectifying dance. Many people have criticised this as racism as black women are often the first ethical group to be objectified. Lily Allen responded with a long message "Privilege, Superiority and Misconception" on her twitter. One quote that stood out was 
"The message is clear. Whilst I don’t want to offend anyone. I do strive to provoke thought and conversation. The video is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all."
There is controversy because of the misrepresented representations in this music video and the preferred reading of many was not what Lily Allen intended.

Additional Examples

Logic - 1-800-273-8255
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This video follows the life of a boy who is homosexual and how society rejects him. There are clear representations to indicate his sexuality. The mise -en -scene tells us a lot of what is going on, with the two boys jumping as the father walks in and the fact they are topless helps anchor what is being shown. As this sequence happens there is also dietetic sound which connotes a more serious moment in the music video. 

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice 

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This music videos is challenging the normative representations of a business man. Acting as a countertype. The mise - en -scene denotes a serious situation, with the grey suit and red tie with antique furniture. However the business man starts dancing in a very non serious fashion as a direct opposition of what the mise -en - scene was signifying. This all happens as soon as there is a drop in the track. 

Queen - I Want to Break Free

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The four band members are being seen dressed in drag in this music video. The lyrics are linked to Freddie Mercury wanting to break free and come out as a homosexual man, hence the way he is dressed and his performance cleaning the house, the video can also be seen as a women who wants to break free from having to clean the house while the man sits around.

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

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The knife in slasher movies has a stab motion and that represents and certain male body part, the phallic object in wrecking ball.
http://prodeval.blogspot.com/2017/01/mulveys-male-gaze-gunsn-roses-avicii.html
http://musividz.blogspot.com/2015/06/conventions-links-points-playlist.html

(JC) Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines

Robin thicke's music video for blurred lines became very controversial as soon as it was released, the un-rated version which was eventually banned for featuring topless women was criticised for its objectifying of women. The video was even labelled "eye-poppingly misogynist."

This is the clean version of the video, not the unrated version
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Gender - Females:

Male gaze - Laura Mulvey:

The male gaze is a concept that deals with how media productions unconsciously or consiously target a more male oriented audience. This includes have female bodies being objectified by having tight specific framing as they are being objectified. Females are stereotypically treated as secondary characters in a narrative. Although mainly the male gaze is used to describe how a male audience views the women presented it can also refer to how women view themselves and how women view other women.

In music video's women are often represented differently to a male audience when that is their primary demographic then how they are represented to a primarily female audience. Women are often sexualised, wearing revealing clothing etc, this is usually to appeal to the male viewers.

In this video in particular woman are heavily sexualised and used too appeal too a male audience, the woman are treated as objects and the men in the video seem to view them as toys.

Sexuality:

Non - binary sexuality is a topic that has only recently become acceptable to talk about and appeal to a mainstream audience. However, in this video this is not displayed, this is a normative representation of a male sexuality, the males in this video are all displayed as Heterosexual men.

Lyrics:

Lyrics linked here.

The lyrics to "Blurred lines" caused a lot of controversy and anger, many people spoke out against them and in places the song was banned (University college London) as it "promotes a very worrying attitude towards sex and consent"

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The lyrics of the song contain lines such as "I know you want it," which understandably caused concern, this alongside the video which is viewed as misogynist create a representation of woman and how to treat them which should not be accepted in society.

Gender - Males:

Males In Music videos men are often presented as powerful people, who have a lot of money and attract a lot of females. They’re shown to be dominant and the ideal masculine image. This is in order to seem admirable to other men and "flex".  This representation is very typically seen in hip hop, RnB and rap videos.

However, sometimes, in music videos starring females, they can often be portrayed as tools by women, creating a counter type to Laura Mulvey's Male gaze in the form or Female Gaze.

In "Blurred lines," it is again the normative representation of men being surrounded by woman, confident, rich and sexually active.  This can be seen by the clothing the men are wearing, the clothing they have on is visibly expensive, they have nice suits on, large watches, sunglasses and chains. There movements around the woman is what demonstrates their confidence as they parade around them, seemingly trying to show off their dance moves and their attitude.

Other Examples:

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

On the other side of things, this video was well received as a empowering message. Although the video features Nicki Minaj in a bikini in shots that are sexualised, the mise-en-scene of the video changes the meaning. Instead of the women almost being controlled by the men and seeming like they are only there to make them happy, Nicki is seen in-front of the men, in powerful poses multiple times through out the video, it is done to show that she has power and is in control of the situation she is in which is something that is often not represented in other music videos. The meaning is that girls can be powerful whilst also showing off their bodies and in control of the situation which again, is not always represented, for example, the video before, blurred lines, the men are portrayed as completely in control of the women and the women are seen as just there to please the men.

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Examples:

Wiz Khalifa - Work Hard Play Hard

This video is a perfect example of the representation of men in music videos. The video opens with shots of construction workers, which are seen as typically manly, moving and lifting heavy objects, shots of weights in a gym and a man with an American Football. The portrayal and representation shown in this video fits the stereotypes of masculinity and represents the convention well.

Warning: Song is explicit and contains a lot of swearing

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(SS) Promises - Calvin Harris ft Sam Smith

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This video deals with the idea of gay stereotypes of liking to dance and expressing themselves through dance.
There is an opening montage of different gay men talking about how dance makes them feel and that in the male homosexual dance community they feel accepted and that they can express themselves freely through the art of dance. While the men are talking they show clips of them dancing a bit feminine.
However there are binary oppositions. Calvin Harris is in the video too, which is unusual because he is the DJ and they tend not to be in their videos. And Calvin Harris is in the video but he has some girls around him which goes against the Homosexuality acceptance in the video.

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Notes:
Dick Hebdige & Subculture:
Dick edge argued that there is a specific subcultural identities.

How youth have subcultural identities with clothing, hair, slang, attitude etc.
This is seen with Goths. Binary opposite to pop (commercially successful, mainstream mass audience)  

Teens influenced by genres of music (shared knowledge) 

Everything is a simulacrum, nothing can be original anymore, everything is just remixes of one another 

Niche vs Mass (Alternative vs Mainstream) 
Indie Rock is often referred to Alternative Rock in America 

When Niche becomes mainstream, it isn't really subculture anymore

Subculture are in some regards transgressive to social normative 

The attitude of goths can be seen as pessimistic and consider "life is pointless" with dark themes. 



Bourdieu Cultural = subcultural captital:

High culture vs Popular Culture 

Chess vs Video games

Typically what women like is lower cultural capital versus the higher cultural capital of males

What is popular culture today can change into high culture

How music can change and what was once seen as "bad" to seen as "good" due to people growing up and becoming representative in edit and social class increasing

This is usually linked to social class and audience

Classical vs Rap

Jesus and Mary chain vs Mozart

Low cultural capital
High cultural capital

Audience also has a role, Indie seen as C2DE Classical seen as ABC1

Person with classical cultural capital will be seen as superior and more intelligent compared to someone who listens to rap.

Cultural capital is a form of wealth, form of currency
Sophisticated and high cultural capital can get you into higher up jobs.
Can be seen as hegemony

Retromania (come back to this) 

Queer Theory