Plan Tutorial just before Christmas

Essay plan

 Intro: This is very close to a thumpingly good introduction… However, there are a few edits required. The first sentence is the right kind of sentence but doesn’t make sense in its current form. Check your use of language – accumulation is used twice and I’m not sure it’s the right word. Introduce quotes properly and check the grammar/written English. 250 words.

 Section 1: Focus on primary text – texual analysis of Blurred Lines incorporating media theory and analysis. 500 words.

 Section 2: Effect on audience – rape culture, impact on young men/women, examples from wider media/society etc. 500 words.

 Section 3: Historical text – Shania Twain. This will need an excellent topic sentence to continue from the last section and contextualise this section within your question. Textual analysis of the Shania Twain video, any research that alludes to the changing culture (is rape culture getting worse for example?) Might want to add elements of institution and male bias within music industry (Twain hit written by a man). 300 words.

 Section 4: Media theory and feminism. Most of your research will go in this section, discussing different theories and debates within Media and feminism. You’ll want to refer to wider examples and the texts you’ve already analysed in the essay to make sure you are applying the theory. 500 words.

 Section 5: The future of this debate – where will feminism go in the next 5-10 years? Perhaps discuss new/digital media here – blogs, social media and new technology being used to launch potential ‘fourth wave’ of feminism. 400 words.

 Conclusion: Sum up your argument, get in the passion you’ve got in the introduction and come up with a killer final line/quote. 150 words.

 Next steps… update/finish your plan based on this tutorial. You don’t need to stick to the above by any means but hopefully it has at least clarified your thinking and provided a potential structure that will be easy to follow.

2100+400Q's=2500

introduction

How are women represented in music videos like Robin Thicke’s 

Blurred Lines and what impact might this have on a wider 

audience?

Misogyny is undoubtedly one of the most repulsive downfalls in some parts of the music industry today. Some of the public may argue that the accumulation of sexualisation is a form of liberation; however others may regard it as regression. 'Media creates consciousness' which is why music video ‘blurred lines’ is the epitome of the sexualisation and degradation of women, this is displayed through the explicit nudity, roles and representations of females, who simply display their bodies for public consumption and have no other significant part in the course of the video. A journalist for The Guardian quoted 'to my children, singers stripping off is the norm this undeniably accentuating the desensitisation of viewer, which shapes our society. Through the justifications of theorists and academic philosophers it can be argued that there are significant damaging impacts on young male and female viewers. I will be discussing the highly controversial aspects and links of sexualised music videos and the accumulating influences to rape culture. The essay will also address and evaluate the contrast  of a historical music video ‘man it feels good to be a woman’ by Shania Twain, and how the institutional factors of the music video is substantial in the overall portrayal of women.

plan

How are women represented in music videos like Robin Thicke’s 

Blurred Lines and what impact might this have on a wider 

audience?

intro  - 

quote: 'To my children, singers stripping off is the norm'

 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/miley-cyrus-music-business-women-sinead-oconnor

primary text :blurred lines
media issue or debate : rep of women and regression

address angle :(sexualisation) explore accumulating negativity and influences on audiences

models underfed petition

demographics : B-D

physcoghraphics Aspires seek status in terms of what they own and tend to be very materialistic
                                Main-streamers- conformists (don't question the trend) 
misogynistic representation 

Representation of women in contemporary  music videos' (contexual analysis) (x2 para's)

// (UK's best selling song 2013)

In this paragrapgh I will be focusing on the representation of the women in the unrated explicit version and how they are being degraded rather than liberated through their, and how this makes them look animalistic, objectified and second class citizens.
( limiting dis-acknowledging their abilities) OR SEXUAL INDEPENCE ?

• vladimir propp- seven spheres of action
• princess/villian in one (evidence- analysis of lyrics)
• This interlinks with the Male gaze, Mulvey who suggests that visual arts of women are structured to entertain men. 
• Low brow

mise en scene
angles: dominance/powerful males
long shot/zooming
body lang

Affect on audience : (x2paras)

I will also discuss the affects of sexualised women in music video's on the female audience particularly the younger women, and the indirect message they are being taught (Zeitgeist)
link to impact on young females:
insecurities, confidence, modelling, fat shaming,

Theories:

• hypodermic needle
• direct/indirect affect theories
• 'men act women appear'
• hyperreality- inability to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality.

• Two Step Flow Theory
• Active Audiences

Quotes: 

'Media creates consciousness' Jane Fonda academy award winning Actor and Activist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2UZZV3xU6Q


'media can be an instrument of change it can awaken people and change minds it depends on who's piloting the plane' Katie Couric anchor CBS evening news 
the media is the message and the messenger' Pat Mitchel, former president and CEO of PBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2UZZV3xU6Q

'As a culture women are brought up to be fundamentally insecure' Lisa Ling Executive producer and Host \Owns our America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2UZZV3xU6Q

Modelling agencies defiant as parliamentary group on body image hears of girls living on just popcorn and hidden nature of eating disorders-“Every time I went into an agency, I was prodded and poked and measured with a tape measure,” she said. “I used to dread it.” 

'53% of 13 year old American girls unhappy with their bodies, this grows to 78% by the time they are 17'  (Maine 2007)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y

'I’ve never been so shocked and those quotes have stayed with me forever. Never should appearance or age be a factor and I would put money on the same conversation being very different if I was male.'http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/547787/is-music-still-a-male-dominated-industry-we-ask-the-women-working-in-it.html

'these are not pictures of me they are constructions and they are by professionals hair stylists make-up artists photographers and stylists and all their assistants and pre production and post production, and they build this, that's not me.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y

Research also links sexualisation to eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. Adolescent girls are at greater risk of unhealthy sexuality that may lead to sexual problems in adulthood.

Girls who are exposed to sexualised content are more likely to endorse gender stereotypes and place attractiveness as central to a woman’s value. Boys who are exposed to this content are more likely to sexually harass females, and have inappropriate expectations of them.
Dr Justin Coulson is a parenting researcher, speaker, author and a father of six

Thicke has not always denied accusations that his Blurred Lines video is misogynistic. "What a pleasure it is to [finally] degrade a woman," he told GQ before the scandal erupted. "I've never gotten to do that before."http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/10/robin-thicke-advert-banned-too-sexual

Girls accept that if they’re to be valuable to someone, they’d better be “sexy”.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/sexualised-music-videos-only teach-women-how-to-sell-out/story-fni0cwl5-1227070613498

'there is no appreciation for women intellectuals, its about the body not bout the brain' high school student https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2UZZV3xU6Q

Girls accept that if they’re to be valuable to someone, they’d better be “sexy”.

Girls who are exposed to sexualised content are more likely to endorse gender stereotypes and place attractiveness as central to a woman’s value. Boys who are exposed to this content are more likely to sexually harass females, and have inappropriate expectations of them.

these female artists are selling the message that women are nothing more than accessories. Women are only of value as sexual objects. My daughters and your daughters are taught to conform to this narrow sexualised, unhealthy norm.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/sexualised-music-videos-only-teach-women-how-to-sell-out/story-fni0cwl5-1227070613498

representation of women in historical music video's

In this paragraph I will be scrutinising the music video by Shania Twain 'man it feels good to be a woman' released in the 90's, this will include explore how the protagonists is being presented through facial expressions, props, costume, back up dancers, camera work and overall display in music video's, this will conclude to how Shania challenges stereotypes and the Zeitgeist. I will also be exploring media institutions and explore the significance of a male producer in a female empowering music video. 


Theories:

Subculture – Representation of Groups – Dick Hebdidge
said that a subculture is a group of like minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and who develop a sense of identity which differs to the dominant on to which they belong. 
high brow


Quotes:

feminist theories -

the music business is a capitalist patriarchy- 

Alex Macpherson is a music critic

Writer(s)	Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Shania Twain
Producer(s)	Robert John "Mutt" Lange

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

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

Rape Myth 

In this paragraph I will be exploring the links and accusations of the portrayal of undeniable rape culture presented in the music video. As a wider debate I will talk about the increase of rape culture amongst the same demographics as the audience viewer-ship. I will also argue how this contributes to gender inequality and how women may not be as sexually experimental as they wish to be. analyse lyrics 'now he was close, tried to domesticate you'. 

1. FIND OUT MORE ON SPECIFICALLY BLURRED LINES
2. rape culture ,figs
3. daily telegraph- male expectations through vid's-sexualised women
4. abusive relationships-sky news 

Theories:

• polysemic(mpre than one meaning) 
• uses and gratification blumer and katz 1974---personal relationships-with the models and young males might put them selves in that situation
• pluralist approach
• moral panic
•  dyer- lines of appeal -glamorous ladies
• argue medhurst
• argue levi  liberation?

• ideologies
• Claude Levi-Strauss suggested that all narratives had to be driven forward by conflict that was cause by a series of opposing forces. he called this the theory ofBinary Opposition

uses and gratification blumer and katz 1974

• personal identities (subconsciously /models)
• diversion- 

(connotation so well established in society we dont consider other meanings)
hypodermic-influences

argue reception+

Quotes:

Lulu 16 UK

'alot of boys will be like 'oh are you a virgin?' and if a girl said yes they'd be like 'but your 15 or your 16 like is it not time?'

'theres alot of pressure on girls definitely in this country '

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayj9EVc2ZLI

• The message is incessant. Our boys grow up believing girls are really only here to be a boy’s “new thang”.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/sexualised-music-videos-only teach-women-how-to-sell-out/story-fni0cwl5-1227070613498

• quotes from song- 'i know you want it'...
• campaigns to tackle abusive relationships 

Chief executive of Womens’ Aid Polly Neet said: "Given the other cultural factors that are bombarding young people, which give very different messages about relationships, and given the power behind those factors, this investment is a bit of a drop in the ocean."

Girls who are exposed to sexualised content are more likely to endorse gender stereotypes and place attractiveness as central to a woman’s value. Boys who are exposed to this content are more likely to sexually harass females, and have inappropriate expectations of them.

• ‘I was sexually assaulted by a fellow student – but my university did nothing’ 
• one in three female students experience sexual assault.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11340661/I-was-sexually-assaulted-by-a-fellow-student-but-my-university-did-nothing.html

''We're too busy telling them what they can or can't do with their bodies.'' http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/29/pharrell-sexually-suggestive-blurred-lines-the-new-black-hillary-clinton

''We just wanted it to be as silly as possible. That way, the nudity isn’t taken seriously.'' (desenzitizng and normalising)http://www.gq.com/story/robin-thicke-interview-blurred-lines-music-video-collaborating-with-2-chainz-and-kendrick-lamar-mercy

• sterotype, who's fault? audience/

conclusion

Historical text analysis and research

"Man! I Feel Like A Woman"- Shania Twain

Costume

Lighting

Actors

Make-up

Props

Setting/sound dietgetic 

props+protagonist

The protagonist in the music video is a female, she is the one singing and expressing her talent, in contrast to the women in blurred lines who are used for public consumption. Shania challenges Berger's observation which suggests that 'men act and women appear'. Instead of having female back up dancers, Shania Twain further subverts gender stereotypes by having men wearing skin tight shirts and make up. This amplifies their facial features and makes them look more attractive for the 'female gaze' ultimately making them look like the object of sexualisation. Additionally, unlike a typical female in contemporary music video's she is not half naked and objectifying her self through wearing very revealing clothing rather, she chooses to wear a long coat and knee high boots, this way the audience concentrates less on her superficial appearance such as her facial features, bosoms or body figure and more on her her vocal expertise. She also wears official clothing, usually affiliated with the male gender, Shania clearly challenges the Zeitgeist for women in the of the 90's through incompatibly opposing the expectation of dressing. In comparison to contemporary texts this inevitably depicts regression, as females in music videos were able to break out of being second class citizens.