contextual analysis

unrated version- Blurred Lines  SHEP AND MISE EN SCENE AND REP THEORY,AUDIENCE TEHRIES, MEDIA LANGUAGE, PROPSS CHARCTER, EQUIBLIBERUM
CINEMATOBTHER TRANSITION

How are women represented in music videos like Robin Theicke’s Blurred Lines and what impact might this have on the wider audience

Mise-en-scene

The fact that they are naked in the original unrated version suggests that something as simple as what they were born with ie. Their body figure is the only thing they have to be proud about and therefore display, undermining their autonomy or intellectual ability. They’re nakedness shown in the long shot also irrefutably advocates the notion of dehumanising them to an animalistic and demeaning level. Furthermore the limited clothing on females compared to men suggesting dominance, making females look disrespected and unprofessional.

Red lipstick may indicate danger, but also draw attention towards the females as they have no other eye catching colour on them except their red biting lips. The males Facial expression towards the woman, are zoom into displaying them in an evocative and suggestive way, almost like a predator. The fact that the women have to look up at the camera shows it’s been shot from a high angle, this portrays this depicts that they are powerless reinforcing their frailty. Their body language also follows slow movements exhibiting the notion that they are trapped and oppression is inevitable. In light of objectification, the women in the clip are passively allowing the men to touch them, expressing the view that women liked being touched by various men, further insulting them through derision. Another critical depiction from a particular part of the clip conveys the women in a submissive and meek way, as they often look timid and shy. This inarguably questions the individuality and deviancy of the women in the music video. 

This interlinks with the Male gaze, Mulvey who suggests that visual arts of women are structured to entertain men. 

The tracking shot follows their naked bodies, highlighting their body figure which reinforces their body's significance again rather than the females other more vibrant attributes, conveying misogynistic values by limiting their qualities. Close ups on the dominant protagonist, in this case the male emphasises his superiority and underscores his ability to sing and preform with passion in comparison to the female who just waves her body around in a futile, valueless and unproductive manner again representing her and women in society as candy to the eye. Therefore, in a critical view point women are being degraded to an object of pleasure to amuse the audience. The camera shots zooming in at girls face when she poses sensually, accentuates sexual behaviour, this is significant as it may be highlighting what society thinks women are for.

Editing

During post production they shot reverse shot has been utilised to accentuate continuity and engaging the audience with the female models on set.

Sound:

The diegetic music in the music video is

tutorial update 11/11/15

Notes & Quotes document 2,100; Media Mag research around 500 so on target and deadline met but remember to copy over the MM research into your N&Q document.

Title/question still needs work… try – How are woman represented in music videos like Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines and what impact might this have on wider society?

Textual analysis not in N&Q doc currently – Task #1 will address this. Writing notes on paper then typing up into paragraphs is a great way of doing it. Pick a short extract from Blurred Lines (and possibly the x-rated version of the video too) and rip it to pieces using all the media language you have learned. Do this for two extracts from Blurred Lines (that will cover Task #1). You may also want additional textual analysis from similar videos to further support the points you’ll be making. It sounds like you already have these in mind so now do the analysis and add it to your N&Q doc.

Academic books/journals – you’ve made a good start but we want a LOT more here. Keep looking and check the BFI catalogues too in case they have anything relevant. Look at the pdf journal articles in our archive – already plenty there linking to the music industry. See what you can find. Use Google Scholar and try a few different search terms – even if you can’t find Blurred Lines related stuff, there will be plenty on waves of feminism etc.

I’d look for more internet-based research – this needs to be more like 20+ by the end of the process. The Guardian is a great starting point – search for Blurred Lines and then more generally, feminism etc.

Task #1 – textual analysis discussed above so plenty to get on with there.

Copy this into a new blog post and write below your next three steps in your research.

• Add to academic books and journal
• More internet links through the Guardian 
• Textual analysis 

research media magazine PUT INTO WORD

MM32:

'represented. If, on the other
hand, one believes that representations are
constructed in order to fit in with mainstream
hegemonic values, then we could assume that
ideological messages around fat being bad, or fat
being associated with laziness, gluttony or even
poverty and lack of education,'
page 22

seeing celebrities slim or fat
They support the Effects model, where we,
the passive audience, absorb the messages of
media, unable to think for ourselves.
page 23

Such debates are similar to the size zero
debate – the idea that the prevalence of skinny
models encourages anorexia and extreme
dieting among young girls.
page 23

most celebrities have
unrealistic and extreme body shapes? Models
are unnaturally thin, sport stars are unnaturally
toned, Madonna requires constant input from
a personal trainer and a personal chef and,
aged 50, spends half her life in the gym to keep
her figure.
page 24

Allen’s representation of
the young, modern female will resonate with many
members of her audience,
page 47

I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
Coz everyone knows that’s how you get famous.
-LILLY ALLEN
page 47

MM34

In the early 1970s the cultural critic John
Berger summarised the way in which gender was
represented in the media through visual images:
Men act and women appear. Men look at
women. Women watch themselves being
looked at.
Berger 1972
page 65

the ‘men active: women passive’

1975 Laura Mulvi
In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,
pleasure in looking has been split between
active/male and passive/female.
age 65

{To what extent do you think Berger’s and
Mulvey’s statements from nearly 40 years ago
hold true today? At the time they were writing,
women were undoubtedly second-class citizens.}

HISTORICAL

that although women may be
constructed as more dynamic characters on film
than in the 1960s, they are only represented as
being independent of men a minority of the time.
page 66

Where have all the interesting women gone?
If the contemporary portrayal of womankind
were to be believed, contemporary female
achievement would culminate in the
ownership of expensive handbags, a vibrator,
a job, a flat and a man – probably in that
order.
page 67

Occasionally
the media does represent women as powerful
and independent characters, and yet they still
almost invariably require a man to tell them
what to do. The ideologies of male dominance
and patriarchal values have not diminished; and
the belief that they have offers a classic example
of ‘hegemony’: a state where the oppressed
consent to, and accept, their situation because
they are not conscious of being exploited.
page 67

MM40

A post-feminist reading of this might
be that since Beyoncé is openly allowing herself
to be objectified, indeed encouraging it by
looking down the camera playfully and winking
at the audience, she is controlling ‘the gaze’ and
is thus empowered. However, like so many other
post-feminist texts which openly acknowledge
‘the gaze’ in this playful postmodern ‘knowing’
way, we also see a simultaneous reassuring of
patriarchal anxieties.
page 67