Men and Women in Music Videos

Recently in English, our student-teacher has been moving onto our topic of critical literacy. This lesson we looked at five different music videos and how they presented men and women.

The first music video was Cheerleader by OMI, a music video that can be labelled as controversial due to how it portrays the woman he sings about as his supporter. He also sings about how every other girl is tempting as he doesn't particularly deny that he would cheat on her. The video also shows the women as provocative through the revealing clothing that showed them as eye candy.

The second video we looked at was Blurred Lines, by Robin Thicke (I can't link a video because my account bans me from viewing it). This song was largely controversial by itself without the music video adding onto it, which features the three main singers in the song chasing after various women in revealing outfits and the men inappropriately touching them. The song mentions many other controversial portions such as the lyric that talks about domesticating women as if they are animals and many others.

The third video we looked into was Marina and the Diamonds' 'How to be a heartbreaker.' This song flipped the switch as it was now the female being portrayed as a player character that is usually given to the male. As well as the fact that the eye candy that was similarly portrayed by women in the previous two videos were now males in the background barely wearing anything. This was seen as more of a funny take on the videos that use women in their shots purely as eye candy and to attract male attention towards the song.

The fourth video, Boys, by Charli XCX was a much more wholesome take on the usual music video created to purely attract male and female viewers. This video features a variety of celebrities each participating in separate activities, some paired together, smiling and having fun. This differs from a music video such as Blurred Lines because of how the men are portrayed. The men are having fun and smiling while the women in Blurred Lines don't seem to happy and are wearing provocative clothing to attract male attention.

The final video, Bad Girls, by M.I.A, was a much more controversial topic as it featured many women in their traditional clothing and men standing to the side. This video was less about the eye candy topic and more to do with how women in the Saudi Arabia region and other places alike cannot do anything without a partner, husbands or fathers permission, this includes driving. The main feature of the video is showing the women driving while the men walk alongside the cars. It gives a powerful and controversial message.