I have decided that for my project this semester I will produce a music video. Inspired by Buck’s photo series, I want to centre it not around racial stereotypes but gender stereotypes. This comes from reading an article by Cara Wallis (2011) where she discusses the ways in which men and women are typically represented in music videos, and how this hasn’t really changed since their blow up in the early 80’s with the release of MTV (Wallis, 2011).
Typically, women are presented as sexual objects (usually for the enjoyment of men in the video, or men in the audience, however this is not found in all cases by any measure), and men are surrounded by themes of violence and of a dominant nature (particularly towards women), and these results were still coming through in force throughout the 90’s. Since this has, allegedly, been defined as the stereotypical representations of either gender when appearing in a music video, and the interest sparked within from Buck’s photo series, I thought about maybe reversing the gender roles within a music video of my own creation.
I’m thinking something along the lines of these images:
These images are all taken from modern music videos by leading female artists (Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Shakira), but instead of having women recreate these scenes I’d like men to be the subjects of these shots. I want them to be scantily clad, with mesh or faux fur (still an environmentalist even if I’m directing a music video!!) and dancing with/around each other. I want themes of sex, lust and seduction pulled through from the boys by lots of eye contact with the camera and intimacy shown with other subjects on camera. This will be portrayed, hopefully, through a lot of close ups or long shots, to get the intimacy value such as the third image with Shakira and Rihanna, or to get the whole body and the dancing featured such as with Ariana’s shot, power displays through the image of Beyonce and Serena and finally, another power stance through the eye contact made in the last image.
Secondly, I’d like girls in the music video to represent men, by being featured in a style such as this:
This is an image taken from a video by American rap trio Migos, in their song with Katy Perry, ‘Bon Appetit‘. There is no other scene they are featured in other than this sofa, they’re always sat down and the whole vibe is a lot more subtly powerful than the scenes of women. They represent affluence and power, and the sunglasses they’re all wearing shroud them in a subtle cloud of mystery. I want the girls in my music to represent this as well, dressing in a similar sense and always having moving camera shots – all handheld and a lot of zooms in and out.
Wallis (2011) Performing Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender Display in Music Videos. Sex Roles [online]. 64 (3-4), pp. 160 – 172. [Accessed 11 February 2019].
Intensive Production 