Representation

Today in lesson we learnt different representations and how each are used in different music videos.  As after all, the artist is perceived by how they are represented as in their music videos.  We also learnt about different theory's by some famous theorists.

Three different stereotypes of girls in music videos:

1. Burlesque
2. Stripper
3. Gangsta Hoe

1.  The 'Burlesque' girl has characteristics such as; wearing corsets, feather boas, fishnet stockings, top hats, elbow length gloves and accessories like canes.  This is an old fashion stereotype which was and still is known as 'sexy' since the 1840's.  A fine example of a music video containing burlesque in it is Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and P!nk.  You can see from the video all the women are wearing stockings,  feather boas, top hats and are holding a cane.  They are also dancing in an erotic nature which adds to the sexual image of women gaining attention by using their bodies.

2.  The 'Stripper' girl characteristic's are;  the 'open crouch', using poles or using walls as a pole, bra's and g-strings, the 'wiggle' bum shit, stripper shoes and glitter on the costume as well as having strobe lights.  The 'stripper' stereotype has gotten worse over the years as there a now artists naked in some of their videos.  An example of this is Nicki Minaj's song Anaconda.  There are a number of shots of the 'wiggle' and she often has an 'open crouch'.



3.  The 'Gangsta Hoe' characteristics are; Afro-american women and girls, bikini tops and torn shorts with 95% of their skin exposed, the backward cap, the 'krumping' moves, stimulated sexual positions, the use of water/oil on their bodies, the 'bling', tattoos and blatant body piercings.  An example of this would be No Matter What They Say by Lil' Kim.  This is because their costumes are revealing in the video and they have huge gold 'gangsta' earrings, their dancing is erotic and they have a lot of wild hand and arm movements which are almost in the audience face.