Page 7
Genre
This term defines a category, style or type of media product.
All media products can be categorised as belonging to genres.
l Genres are identified by the repetition of distinctive features.
l Genres can be divided into sub-genres, for example vampire horror is a sub-genre of
horror.
l Genres can determine the narrative conventions of a text.
l Genres generate expectations in audiences.
l Genres are used by producers to structure media products.
Identifying genre-
l character types
l iconography
l plots
l props
l locations
l music and soundtracks
l narratives or storylines
Plot is different to narrative. Plot is how the narrative is unfolded to the audience.
Page 8
Representation
Representation is the basis of all media products.
l Representations provide models of how we see gender, social groups and places —
aspects of the world we all inhabit.
l They are ideological in that they are constructed within a framework of values and
beliefs.
l They are mediated by individuals and media organisations and reflect the value
systems of their sources.
l No representations are real; they are only versions of the real.
Audience
Audience affects the contents of the media text.
Audience positioning- The responses of the audience.
A professional workers: lawyers, doctors, managers of large organisations
B shopkeepers, farmers, teachers, white-collar workers
C1 skilled manual high grade: builders, carpenters, shop assistants, nurses
C2 skilled manual low grade: electricians, plumbers
D semi-skilled manual: bus drivers, lorry drivers, fitters
E unskilled manual: general labourers, bartenders, porters
Page 9
Values and ideology
Ideology- a set of attitudes, beliefs and values held in common by a group of people and culturally produced within a community to sustain a particular way of life.
l Religions such as Islam and Christianity and meta discourses such as Marxism are
ideologies.
l All media products have an ideological dimension to them and are constructed within
the context of a dominant ideology or a series of common sense values that are
generally shared and understood by all members of a community.
l Marxists see these values as representing the interests of the dominant or ruling class
and their maintenance of power.
Page 10
Determine and constrain the ideology, structure, content and distribution of media texts and are involved in the regulation.
Public service context such as the BBC, financial returns are important but emphasis is also placed on customer satisfaction and ratings to justify taxpayer support through the licence fee.
Control and standardisation of media products by dominant worldwide media organisations, using Western or American value systems, leads to claims of cultural imperialism.
l News Corporation
l BBC
l AOL Time-Warner
l MTV
l Disney Corporation
l Vivendi Universal
l Emap
l Sony
page 11
Media ownership
The term synergy is often used to describe the strengthening outcome of this merging.
Convergence may mean the development of multimedia newsrooms where print, television, radio and online news are combined through a central news hub, with reporters involved in the generation of news for all media.
Cross media ownership
Cross-media ownership is a natural commercial consequence of the coming together of the mass media industries.
This involves a media corporation having interest in a range of different media.
Language
Code through which meaning can be expressed.
Describes the sign systems, structures and codes used by a particular medium.
l In media studies, language is the code used within a particular medium to convey
messages to the audience. Unless the audience can decode messages and share the
meanings intended, communication cannot take place.
l These codes are culturally determined and can be culturally specific. This means that
they may be understood by some audiences and not by others.
EXAMINER’S TIP
l Media language can be written, verbal, non-verbal and visual.
l The language of film refers to all the elements that make up the construction of a film: sets, lighting, mise-en-scène and editing. In order to read a film, audiences must be familiar with all these elements.
Page 12
Genre
l What is the genre, sub-genre or type of media product? For example, is it a magazine advertisement, a television commercial, a television sitcom or a slasher horror movie?
l What are the key iconographic elements that identify the genre? In the vampire horror genre these would include vampire teeth, Gothic settings, graveyards, bats, crucifixes, garlic, wooden stakes and coffins.
l What are the narrative conventions of the genre? Examples include: ‘they all lived happily ever after’ in a fairytale; the girl unmasking the killer in a teen slasher horror movie; the storyline being resolved so that everything is back in place for the next episode in a sitcom; and the identification of the product with a positive and desirable lifestyle in an advertisement.
l How does the genre meet or challenge the expectations of an audience? Is the outcome predictable or does it have a twist? Can the audience guess the ending or are they surprised?
Page 13
Representation
L Consider who or what is being represented. If it is people, are they men, women or children? What are their race, origin, social class, status, nationality, age and state of health?
l Who (organisations or individuals) is responsible for constructing the representations?
Examples are a BBC news team, a charity such as the NSPCC or a pressure group like War on Want.
l What places are represented?
l Are the representations positive or negative?
l Do the representations involve idealised versions of people and places? Such idealised images include cover girls on teenage magazines such as Bliss and Sugar, or photographs of Greek islands in a holiday brochure.
l What attitudes, beliefs and values are represented?
l Do the representations confirm or challenge existing stereotypes? For example, in light of the history of slavery, is it possible to represent black people as servants or low-paid agricultural workers without the associated negative connotations?
Audience
l What is the intended audience for the media product? For example, is it aimed at pre-school children, school children, pre-teens, teenagers, young singles aged 18–30, married couples with or without children, separated singles, middle-aged couples with adult children, retired couples or pensioners? It could be combinations of these.
l How is the audience defined and targeted by the product? Is it a mass audience or a niche audience?
l What is its gender, ethnicity and social class?
l What are the expected preferred readings for the product?
l How does the product reach the audience, and through what media?
Page 14
Values and ideology
l How does the text represent relations between men and women?
l Is heterosexuality seen as the norm?
l Does the text show violent solutions to disagreements as the norm?
l Does the text assume that people live in nuclear families (a man, a woman and
their children)?
l How are older people represented? Are they treated with respect or ridicule?
l Are acquiring and spending money represented as the principal goals of life
l Which cultures and ethnicities are represented?
l Who and what are not represented?
l Are the values mainstream or alternative?
Institutions
l Which business or corporate structures are involved in the production of the media product?
l Under what circumstances is it produced?
l Is it produced by mainstream industry or independently?
l How is the product financed?
l Who profits financially from its creation?
l How is it distributed?
l Under what circumstances is it accessed by the audience? Examples include cinema, home video, computer game, magazine, terrestrial television and satellite television.
Page 15
Language
l What media languages are involved in the product? Are they written, verbal, nonverbal, aural, visual or a combination of these?
l If the text is a film, how is the language of film used? If verbal or written language is involved, what kind of language is it — formal, colloquial or slang? What is the language register? Is there a regional accent? Are other techniques used, such as rhyme or alliteration? Are there any examples of intertextuality?
Page 16
Wider contexts and the analysis of media texts
Chronology
Early twentieth century
The creation of media texts involves the prevailing attitudes, beliefs and values at the time a text is produced- Zeitgeist.
1918, Germany, as the defeated nation, was in social turmoil, with a fear of communist revolution.
Germany, particularly fears of foreign influence reflected in the growth of anti-Semitism.
1930s
Years of the great economic Depression and growing uncertainty about political developments in Europe.
1920 the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution had prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drink.
Prohibition was abolished in 1933.
1940s and the war years
Britain, films reflected the need to raise national morale in the face of the threat of invasion; they emphasised self-sacrifice and the need for personal courage in facing the demanding and difficult tasks ahead.
America- Growing patriotism but also the dark, uncertain and amoral world of wartime.
Film noir
1950s and the post-war years
Science fiction films in the 1950s reflected the growing fear of science gone wrong. Fears of mutation with the development of the atom bomb.
Post-war triumphalism led to a whole range of films celebrating wartime achievements.
Hammer Horror films provided escapist entertainment in the form of highly sexualised vampires.
Page 17
1960s to the present day
1960s, changes in attitudes towards sex, marriage and family life were reflected in the increasingly relaxed censorship of films and written texts, and the increase in violent crime was reflected in more graphic representations of violence in films.
Continuing Cold War gave rise to a generation of spy thrillers.
Horror and suspense films during this period began to reflect the growing interest in psychology, schizophrenia and the killer as a boy next door.
Vietnam War (1964–1975) provided material for exploration of the horrors of war and its dehumanising effects.
Page 18
Key media texts
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock 1960). This film, regarded as the first ‘slasher horror’ where the killer is ‘the boy next door’.
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick 1971). This film was withdrawn from circulation in the UK by the director following many complaints that its portrayal of graphic violence and rape encouraged ‘copycat behaviour’.
Halloween (John Carpenter 1978). This classic suspense slasher horror movie has been imitated and parodied by many since, but perhaps not equalled. It firmly established the generic and narrative conventions of the genre, in particular that sexual promiscuity leads to a violent end and that the ‘final girl’ (Jamie Lee Curtis as Lauri Strode), who fights back against the killer, is saved. Both these elements had in fact been present in Psycho, 18 years earlier.
Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven 1984). A teen slasher horror classic.
Queer as Folk (Charles McDougall and Sarah Harding 1999). This Channel 4 production deals explicitly with promiscuous gay relationships involving young people. The series portrays frankly and non-judgementally the sexual behaviour of gay men in a way not seen before on British television.
Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee 2005). This film is a sympathetic and positive representation of homosexual cowboys in a western genre setting.
Historical contexts
1901–14
l Growth of the suffragette movement, which demanded votes for women
l Titanic disaster (1912)
l Beginning of modernist movement in architecture and the arts
l Early development of radio
l First moving pictures shown in cinemas
Friday 9 May 2008
Monday 4 February 2008
first draft
"…her lovers read like a Who's Who of rap."
To what extent does the sexualised representation of women in hip hop videos reaffirm Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze”?
Since the birth of the media the ideologies and messages has been very parallel with the spirit of the time, for many years this has meant that the media was focused very much on addressing a male spectatorship and catered more so to fulfil the needs of a male dominant society. Men have always assumed dominant roles and females have always been featured in a subordinate light. Gunter (1995) provided a guide too many content analyses carried out in the early 1970s on television, which revealed the inequalities and stereotypes of a passive and traditional woman are still very much alive and showed that it is indeed factual that women have always been underrepresented. However, due to the second wave of feminism that occurred during the 1970s, it is possible to suggest that females have taken positive steps towards equality. A study carried out by Cumberbatch in 1995 on the content of advertisements present in the 1990s revealed that advertisers on television were becoming increasingly wary of representing women in a traditional domestic role, which led to men instead being shown in these typically feminine roles. Recent texts such as “Kill Bill” and “Eastenders” also both reinforce this new representation of a stronger woman taking central roles in an active manner. Therefore, it would seem that due to the second wave of feminism that women have been empowered and allowed to progress towards a state of more equality. However, the subordination of women is not only present in the sense that they typically conformed to the passive and traditionally domestic roles, according to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze” women have been further held back as far as positive representation is concerned, as Mulvey argued that women appearing in the media, specifically on screen, are merely objects to satisfy the male spectatorship. Mulvey argued that on screen texts were created primarily to satisfy the male audience and its sexual needs. The male spectatorship is the idea that the man is the bearer of ‘the look’, which is the way in which the male audience receives what appears on screen. Mulvey went on to differentiate between the two ways that the male spectatorship saw women; these were defined as either voyeuristic or fetishistic. Voyeuristic or voyeurism has been said to be associated with the idea of sadism, where the male audience gains pleasure over punishing and ascertaining forgiveness over the guilty. Fetishistic looking, in contrast, involves ‘the substitutions of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. The erotic instinct is focused on the look alone’. In more recent years, this theory has come under criticism and is believed to be less relevant to today’s media, however, some industries continue to explicitly sexualise representations of women and seem to be regressing rather than progressing in its representation of women. The hip hop music industry in particular has always been famous for its controversial messages and ideologies about political correctness and as far as it being misogynistic by nature is concerned. With an industry where women are commonly referred to as “bitches” and “Hoes” ,it is evident that both the verbal and non verbal constructs created by this industry has to some extent dehumanized women and transformed them into mere inferior devices for the males within the industry to exert their power over. One must look in to why these ideologies are allowed to exist so overtly in the hip-hop industry and to what extent does this reaffirm the relevance of Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze”.
Through analysing various texts it has become more apparent that the hip-hop music industry has in fact experienced a somewhat regressive movement, when looking at how women are represented. When one compares this industry against another, such as the Hollywood film industry, a more clear contrast is created. With titles such as “Charlie’s Angels”, with all its displays of “ass-kicking female empowerment”, the dynamic female protagonists and villains presented in “Kill Bill” and Tomb Raider’s very own Lara Croft all being successful due to their atypical characteristics as a female on screen, it was evident that females were becoming successful for their attributes rather than their sexual uses of the male audience. However, since then it has seemed that the hip-hop music industry has remained ignorant to these changes occurring in other areas of the media and continues to further degrade women and represent them as purely sex objects. The leading male figures of the industry are notorious for their use of women in their videos in order to appeal to a vastly male populated audience. Music videos such as Fat Joe’s “Make it Rain on these Hoes” and 50 Cents “P.I.M.P” are both shown to conform to Mulvey’s theory and appeal to both aspects of the male spectatorship. Where in the “P.I.M.P” video, there are compositions which include scarcely dressed females on dog leashes and in the “Make it rain on these hoes” video, there are numerous shots of women in very vulnerable positions. These examples exemplify the relevance of Mulvey’s theory in today’s media, as men are shown exerting their strength and dominance over females. It can also be argued that the extremity of female degradation in the industry has worsened, which in some respects can prove that Mulvey’s theory is most relevant to media today.
Furthermore,when looking into why misogynistic values in hip-hop are allowed to exist, it is important to consider historical trends. It has been suggested that historically speaking, whenever progressive feminist movement has occurred, there has been an uprising and backlash from males in order to regain and assume the dominance that they had prior to any feminist movement. This idea was first recognised through the female role in the Great War. Women were essential in providing and upholding the services required for the British war effort to continue, as well as keeping the economy from collapsing. Women were most noted for their work in the munitions factories as well as filling other typically non-feminine positions of that zeitgeist. Some propaganda of that time really reflected the extent of change that was undergoing as far as the role of women were concerned, an example of this being a famous poster which stated "If you've used an electric mixer in your kitchen, you can learn to run a drill press". Therefore, it was evident that the traditional roles for women were being broken and women embraced the empowerment and the new conjugal roles that society had allowed them to create. However, when the war was finished and the men returned to resume their normal life, it became evident that women wanted to be valued as they were during the war. However, oppressive forces, ideologies and values created by the rich aristocrats were strongly indoctrinated into society and therefore a backlash effect was present, where women were morally forced into resuming passive and nurturing roles in society. A study carried out in 2001 revealed that of the 17.5 million women of a working age, 70% of women are in work. Although, this number was still lower then the proportion of men in work, which was 80%, this is still a drastic increase in the amount of women in employment. If one extrapolates the trend which these statistics reveal, this statistic is likely to be even more equal now. Therefore, it can be suggested that the male dominated hip-hop music industry is threatened by this new idea of an active and independent woman and therefore depicts females in a derogatory manner. By releasing records and synonymously releasing equally degrading videos to accompany them, hip-hop is attempting to preserve its male dominance that society initially based itself upon. Titles such as Akon’s “Smack That” and 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology” are abundant with examples of women in roles such as erotic dancers. Thus creating the idea that women must rely on the way they look in order for them to be recognised in society and that their main value lies within the sexual pleasure they can inflict on the male audience. Therefore, by the hip-hop music industry fetishising and degrading women it can be said that they are rebelling against the positive change in the media’s representation of women. By increasingly representing women in an undermining and sexualised way, hip-hop as an industry is very much reaffirming Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze”.
The misgoynistic values that are represented and portrayed through the hip-hop industry can not all be rooted and traced back to be caused by the insecurities of men and their assertion of dominance. It must also be considered that a lot of what is shown to the public is with consent from the females that appear to be degraded.
The hip-hop industry is very much afrocentric and is highly dominated by the African-American male. Many more ethnics are represented in the hip-hop industry and the same can be said about the females that appear. Hip-hop has always been seen as a creative outlet for ethnic minorities in America to boast their collective consciousness of their history and uprising as people. However, when looking into the history and considering the brutal relationship that used to exist between the black female and white male in particular, other causes for the sexualised representation of females can be drawn. “During slavery the black woman was often forced to have sexual relations with any male (slave masters, overseers, and slaves) that desired her. Black women were sometimes used as breeding instruments to produce more human property” is a description of what the use of black female slaves were at that time. However, it is still unclear how this has resulted in a heavily sexualized representation of black women. There are two possible approaches to this debate, one of which is the idea that the dominant black males in the industry represent their fellow African-American females in this way in order for them re-assert their dominance over the white man after numerous years of racial oppression or it may be that the black woman is boasting her freedom of sexuality in a provocative manner after being freed from the grasp of sexual slavery. Either way, this argument suggests that the hip-hop industry has created a statement through African-American women against the oppression that they experienced in countless years during the slave trade. Therefore it is unclear if it is a macho statement by black males who wish to assert sexual dominance over their ex-oppressors or is it a statement of the black female, who wants to be recognized for her freedom. However, both approaches have lead to the black female being looked at by the male spectatorship both voyeuristically and fetishistically. Therefore the affirmation of Mulvey’s theory via the hip-hop music industry is further strengthened.
Although seldom, there have and continue to be female artists in the hip-hop music industry, which are highly regarded and been recognized as pioneers of the industries development. However, this must also mean that as well as creating originality within their music and sound that they also contribute to the morals and values being communicated to the audience. Without considering the new wave of female singers within the industry, which have only recently come under the classification of hip-hop artists, popular female artists in the industry have all had very sexualized representations and are the vast majority of the time shown to willingly fulfill the male sexual fantasy. Lil Kim amongst many other names in the industry has all claimed popularity through affiliations to larger male dominate forces in the industry. The subordinate and sexualized representation being inflicted upon themselves creates the illusion that these women are in control and secure with their representations, however, in a sense a false consciousness is created as the women are still conforming to the male expectations of women and are aiding men in satisfying their “controlling gaze”. Therefore, instead of breaking away from inferiority, the females of the industry are conforming to what men expect of them in order to succeed, therefore hip-hop once again exemplifies that Mulvey’s theory is highly relevant still.
In conclusion to this analysis, it is evident that women in hip-hop are very much still being exploited in both ways that Mulvey defines in her theory of the male gaze. Historical influences have helped to create a false consciousness amongst black females about their sexualized representation and thus reinforce the idea that women are subordinate to men. It is evident that factors such as race and oppressive forces in the past may have been factors, which have lead to this representation being protected and allowed to exist. Hip-hop due to the consistency of its artists and diversity of culture is a very protected genre and politically exempt from the rules set by the aristocrats. Therefore, hip-hop will continue to communicate women to its audience in a certain way and remain ignorant to any forwardly moving culture for female empowerment.
Word count: 2217
To what extent does the sexualised representation of women in hip hop videos reaffirm Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze”?
Since the birth of the media the ideologies and messages has been very parallel with the spirit of the time, for many years this has meant that the media was focused very much on addressing a male spectatorship and catered more so to fulfil the needs of a male dominant society. Men have always assumed dominant roles and females have always been featured in a subordinate light. Gunter (1995) provided a guide too many content analyses carried out in the early 1970s on television, which revealed the inequalities and stereotypes of a passive and traditional woman are still very much alive and showed that it is indeed factual that women have always been underrepresented. However, due to the second wave of feminism that occurred during the 1970s, it is possible to suggest that females have taken positive steps towards equality. A study carried out by Cumberbatch in 1995 on the content of advertisements present in the 1990s revealed that advertisers on television were becoming increasingly wary of representing women in a traditional domestic role, which led to men instead being shown in these typically feminine roles. Recent texts such as “Kill Bill” and “Eastenders” also both reinforce this new representation of a stronger woman taking central roles in an active manner. Therefore, it would seem that due to the second wave of feminism that women have been empowered and allowed to progress towards a state of more equality. However, the subordination of women is not only present in the sense that they typically conformed to the passive and traditionally domestic roles, according to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze” women have been further held back as far as positive representation is concerned, as Mulvey argued that women appearing in the media, specifically on screen, are merely objects to satisfy the male spectatorship. Mulvey argued that on screen texts were created primarily to satisfy the male audience and its sexual needs. The male spectatorship is the idea that the man is the bearer of ‘the look’, which is the way in which the male audience receives what appears on screen. Mulvey went on to differentiate between the two ways that the male spectatorship saw women; these were defined as either voyeuristic or fetishistic. Voyeuristic or voyeurism has been said to be associated with the idea of sadism, where the male audience gains pleasure over punishing and ascertaining forgiveness over the guilty. Fetishistic looking, in contrast, involves ‘the substitutions of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. The erotic instinct is focused on the look alone’. In more recent years, this theory has come under criticism and is believed to be less relevant to today’s media, however, some industries continue to explicitly sexualise representations of women and seem to be regressing rather than progressing in its representation of women. The hip hop music industry in particular has always been famous for its controversial messages and ideologies about political correctness and as far as it being misogynistic by nature is concerned. With an industry where women are commonly referred to as “bitches” and “Hoes” ,it is evident that both the verbal and non verbal constructs created by this industry has to some extent dehumanized women and transformed them into mere inferior devices for the males within the industry to exert their power over. One must look in to why these ideologies are allowed to exist so overtly in the hip-hop industry and to what extent does this reaffirm the relevance of Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze”.
Through analysing various texts it has become more apparent that the hip-hop music industry has in fact experienced a somewhat regressive movement, when looking at how women are represented. When one compares this industry against another, such as the Hollywood film industry, a more clear contrast is created. With titles such as “Charlie’s Angels”, with all its displays of “ass-kicking female empowerment”, the dynamic female protagonists and villains presented in “Kill Bill” and Tomb Raider’s very own Lara Croft all being successful due to their atypical characteristics as a female on screen, it was evident that females were becoming successful for their attributes rather than their sexual uses of the male audience. However, since then it has seemed that the hip-hop music industry has remained ignorant to these changes occurring in other areas of the media and continues to further degrade women and represent them as purely sex objects. The leading male figures of the industry are notorious for their use of women in their videos in order to appeal to a vastly male populated audience. Music videos such as Fat Joe’s “Make it Rain on these Hoes” and 50 Cents “P.I.M.P” are both shown to conform to Mulvey’s theory and appeal to both aspects of the male spectatorship. Where in the “P.I.M.P” video, there are compositions which include scarcely dressed females on dog leashes and in the “Make it rain on these hoes” video, there are numerous shots of women in very vulnerable positions. These examples exemplify the relevance of Mulvey’s theory in today’s media, as men are shown exerting their strength and dominance over females. It can also be argued that the extremity of female degradation in the industry has worsened, which in some respects can prove that Mulvey’s theory is most relevant to media today.
Furthermore,when looking into why misogynistic values in hip-hop are allowed to exist, it is important to consider historical trends. It has been suggested that historically speaking, whenever progressive feminist movement has occurred, there has been an uprising and backlash from males in order to regain and assume the dominance that they had prior to any feminist movement. This idea was first recognised through the female role in the Great War. Women were essential in providing and upholding the services required for the British war effort to continue, as well as keeping the economy from collapsing. Women were most noted for their work in the munitions factories as well as filling other typically non-feminine positions of that zeitgeist. Some propaganda of that time really reflected the extent of change that was undergoing as far as the role of women were concerned, an example of this being a famous poster which stated "If you've used an electric mixer in your kitchen, you can learn to run a drill press". Therefore, it was evident that the traditional roles for women were being broken and women embraced the empowerment and the new conjugal roles that society had allowed them to create. However, when the war was finished and the men returned to resume their normal life, it became evident that women wanted to be valued as they were during the war. However, oppressive forces, ideologies and values created by the rich aristocrats were strongly indoctrinated into society and therefore a backlash effect was present, where women were morally forced into resuming passive and nurturing roles in society. A study carried out in 2001 revealed that of the 17.5 million women of a working age, 70% of women are in work. Although, this number was still lower then the proportion of men in work, which was 80%, this is still a drastic increase in the amount of women in employment. If one extrapolates the trend which these statistics reveal, this statistic is likely to be even more equal now. Therefore, it can be suggested that the male dominated hip-hop music industry is threatened by this new idea of an active and independent woman and therefore depicts females in a derogatory manner. By releasing records and synonymously releasing equally degrading videos to accompany them, hip-hop is attempting to preserve its male dominance that society initially based itself upon. Titles such as Akon’s “Smack That” and 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology” are abundant with examples of women in roles such as erotic dancers. Thus creating the idea that women must rely on the way they look in order for them to be recognised in society and that their main value lies within the sexual pleasure they can inflict on the male audience. Therefore, by the hip-hop music industry fetishising and degrading women it can be said that they are rebelling against the positive change in the media’s representation of women. By increasingly representing women in an undermining and sexualised way, hip-hop as an industry is very much reaffirming Mulvey’s theory of the “controlling male gaze”.
The misgoynistic values that are represented and portrayed through the hip-hop industry can not all be rooted and traced back to be caused by the insecurities of men and their assertion of dominance. It must also be considered that a lot of what is shown to the public is with consent from the females that appear to be degraded.
The hip-hop industry is very much afrocentric and is highly dominated by the African-American male. Many more ethnics are represented in the hip-hop industry and the same can be said about the females that appear. Hip-hop has always been seen as a creative outlet for ethnic minorities in America to boast their collective consciousness of their history and uprising as people. However, when looking into the history and considering the brutal relationship that used to exist between the black female and white male in particular, other causes for the sexualised representation of females can be drawn. “During slavery the black woman was often forced to have sexual relations with any male (slave masters, overseers, and slaves) that desired her. Black women were sometimes used as breeding instruments to produce more human property” is a description of what the use of black female slaves were at that time. However, it is still unclear how this has resulted in a heavily sexualized representation of black women. There are two possible approaches to this debate, one of which is the idea that the dominant black males in the industry represent their fellow African-American females in this way in order for them re-assert their dominance over the white man after numerous years of racial oppression or it may be that the black woman is boasting her freedom of sexuality in a provocative manner after being freed from the grasp of sexual slavery. Either way, this argument suggests that the hip-hop industry has created a statement through African-American women against the oppression that they experienced in countless years during the slave trade. Therefore it is unclear if it is a macho statement by black males who wish to assert sexual dominance over their ex-oppressors or is it a statement of the black female, who wants to be recognized for her freedom. However, both approaches have lead to the black female being looked at by the male spectatorship both voyeuristically and fetishistically. Therefore the affirmation of Mulvey’s theory via the hip-hop music industry is further strengthened.
Although seldom, there have and continue to be female artists in the hip-hop music industry, which are highly regarded and been recognized as pioneers of the industries development. However, this must also mean that as well as creating originality within their music and sound that they also contribute to the morals and values being communicated to the audience. Without considering the new wave of female singers within the industry, which have only recently come under the classification of hip-hop artists, popular female artists in the industry have all had very sexualized representations and are the vast majority of the time shown to willingly fulfill the male sexual fantasy. Lil Kim amongst many other names in the industry has all claimed popularity through affiliations to larger male dominate forces in the industry. The subordinate and sexualized representation being inflicted upon themselves creates the illusion that these women are in control and secure with their representations, however, in a sense a false consciousness is created as the women are still conforming to the male expectations of women and are aiding men in satisfying their “controlling gaze”. Therefore, instead of breaking away from inferiority, the females of the industry are conforming to what men expect of them in order to succeed, therefore hip-hop once again exemplifies that Mulvey’s theory is highly relevant still.
In conclusion to this analysis, it is evident that women in hip-hop are very much still being exploited in both ways that Mulvey defines in her theory of the male gaze. Historical influences have helped to create a false consciousness amongst black females about their sexualized representation and thus reinforce the idea that women are subordinate to men. It is evident that factors such as race and oppressive forces in the past may have been factors, which have lead to this representation being protected and allowed to exist. Hip-hop due to the consistency of its artists and diversity of culture is a very protected genre and politically exempt from the rules set by the aristocrats. Therefore, hip-hop will continue to communicate women to its audience in a certain way and remain ignorant to any forwardly moving culture for female empowerment.
Word count: 2217
Monday 7 January 2008
Essay plan
Introduction
· Relevant quote
· Purpose of the industry
· Ideology of the industry
· What has been the case in the past
· Why I am going to look at videos
· Importance of historical
· Introduce basic grasp of theory
Point 1
· Women being called bitches and hoes
· Where the terms originated
· The significance
· Why they are considered in such light
· Whether it is parallel with the zeitgeist
Point 2
· Female figures in the industry
· Lil Kim, Rah Diggah, Missy Elliot, Salt N Peppa, Foxy Brown, Remy Martin
· These females all reinforce these slutty ideologies being portrayed about women
· They are extremely influential because they represent themselves and are not being represented by anyone else
· Remy Martin in the ‘Lean Back’ video is a subversion of ideas as she is shown in control of her sexuality and the dominant character as she forces the man to pleasure her in a dismissive manner
· She has to adopt male qualities such as a bassy voice
Point 3
· Make it rain video, the sexual innuendoes and how this represents the attitude of the industry
· How it is unparallel with the forward movement of women in society
· Women are seen as another object or possession of the male characters, this is parallel with the industries materialistic ideology
· Women have been ‘symbolically annihilated’, Gaye Tuchman’s theory
· This could be seen as part of a male backlash
· Due to the slightly increased success of women in the industry men felt to put women back in their place
Point 4
· Historical texts such as OPP and Ain’t no half stepping
· Women are inferior in both these videos
· It is evident that this was perhaps the birth and the trigger for the future much more explicit texts
· Maybe talk about snoop Dogg being a porn star?
Friday 4 January 2008
opening paragraph
”Life's not a bitch, life it’s a beautiful woman; you only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy. Maybe she didn't feel y'all shared any similar interests, or maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweet talk the princess”-Aesop Rock.
If one looks in to the origin of 'Hip-Hop' culture they would realise that it was in fact a constructive movement for ethnic minorities who lived in deprived areas of America, which gave them a mainstream voice to portray their views. 'Hip-Hop' has always been renowned for its controversial messages and statements. Racism, political views and gang violence have all known to be issues addressed freely by artists in the past and present. However, the relelentless degradation of women has seemed to become something that is considered part of 'Hip-Hop' and of what audiences expect from it. Females in the 'Hip-Hop' industry have been in the past and arguably more so in the present, degraded and been subjected to the powerful male gaze. Females have been fetishised to enhance the powerful status of the male figures within the industry. Through the production of music videos, the ideologies and values of the industry are communicated and are therefore able to reproduce themselves in a more explicit manner. This study will analyse, through looking at past and present examples of music videos, how the industries ideologies have evolved and whether the sexual representation is being abolished.
If one looks in to the origin of 'Hip-Hop' culture they would realise that it was in fact a constructive movement for ethnic minorities who lived in deprived areas of America, which gave them a mainstream voice to portray their views. 'Hip-Hop' has always been renowned for its controversial messages and statements. Racism, political views and gang violence have all known to be issues addressed freely by artists in the past and present. However, the relelentless degradation of women has seemed to become something that is considered part of 'Hip-Hop' and of what audiences expect from it. Females in the 'Hip-Hop' industry have been in the past and arguably more so in the present, degraded and been subjected to the powerful male gaze. Females have been fetishised to enhance the powerful status of the male figures within the industry. Through the production of music videos, the ideologies and values of the industry are communicated and are therefore able to reproduce themselves in a more explicit manner. This study will analyse, through looking at past and present examples of music videos, how the industries ideologies have evolved and whether the sexual representation is being abolished.
laura mulvey
Laura mulvey was the key theorist that suggested the argument of ‘the controlling male gaze’. She said that women are merely presented as objects of image and the man as the bearer of the look. Mulvey suggested that Hollywood movies were constructed to identify with men by using maole protagonists the vast majority of the time. She said that the male dominated movies were also for the ‘male spectator’. Men were considered the protagonist who acted as the catalyst for all events. Women were considered to be a device to amplify a male’s dominance through being feeble and weak sex symbols. Mulvey defined that the male spectatorship had two types of reading of women. She differentiated them by naming one as voyeuristic and the other as fetishistic. Voyeuristic or voyeurism involves a more sadistic edge according to mulvey. The male audience has a controlling gaze and the pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt - asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness. Fetishistic on the other hand is defined more along the lines of: looking, in contrast, involves ‘the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure it into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. The erotic instinct is focused on the look alone’. ‘the female image as a castration threat constantly endangers the unity of the diegesis and burst through the world of illusion as an intrusive, static, one-dimensional fetish. Thus the two looks materially present in time and space are obsessively subordinated to the neurotic needs of the male ego' (Mulvey, 1986). Mulvey’s work was considered an adaptation or expansion of the bass ideas of Sigmund Freud. A branch of mulvey’s theory was the idea of castration anxiety. This is the subconscious deep rooted fear that a women doesn’t have a penis as a punishment that a man fears of happening to himself.
Big Daddy Kane- Ain't no half steppin'
this text is a very good example of the evolution of hip hop music as a genre and in particular the music videos themselves. a very patriarchal ideology is being communicated to the audience in many different cases. a specific example of this is when Big Daddy is sitting in his corner of the boxing ring and numerous women are shown abrasing him all over with pleasured looks on their face. these women also happen to be below him which can be reffered to as a kind of metaphor for society and the ideology of the genre, where women are indeed subordinate. this is an example from 1988 and therefore as one would expect the content and graphic nudity levels are less apparent, however, due to positioning and non verbal constructs of the text the audience are able to withdraw the male dominant ideologies.
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