Representation

Within music videos there are several different representations of women, most of which involve women displaying their sexuality and their bodies purely to sell the song. There are many theories about female representation that have developed over the years, these include:

Voyeurism: Sigmund Freud concluded that erotic pleasure can be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware it is being watched)
Male Gaze: Laura Mulvey proposed that because filmmakers are often male, the presence of women is often for the purposes of display rather than narrative. This is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a make gaze (regardless of the spectator's gender) one that is or may feel like a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display who is effectively objectified and passive. In male performance videos the voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent, with the use of dancers as adornments to the male star ego.
Exhibitionism: Female performers being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of and inviting sexualised gaze in what could be termed as the opposite of voyeurism.
Raunch Culture: In her book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Andrea Levy attacks the increasing sexualised culture that objectifies women. She argues that women are encouraged to see themselves as objects and to see sex as their only source of power.






Male Gaze is something that is present in the majority of music videos that have come out in the last few years. This may be because someone figured out that the combination of scantily-clad women and shirtless men equals a winning, money-making combination. This however does not bode well for young women and new female artists in particular.

Artists like Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears are all for feminism on the outside but when it comes down to it they, like the majority of the music industry, have learnt through experience that there is a specific formula that equals success. This formula can be seen in practice in the above two music videos, both by Jennifer Lopez, one of the most popular and established artists in the music industry.

I Luh Ya Papi- on the surface this music video seems to be promoting female inhibitions and the female gaze but when looked at further it is clear that although men are being objectified...so are the women. The point of the video is to emulate a male rap video with half naked extras and expensive boats however, in all of these classic male rap videos, never is the man inappropriately dressed. This shows the double standard for men and women in the industry as a man can happily sell his music by being surrounded by naked women but a women cannot do the same and if she tries she must be inappropriately dressed so that she and her music can appeal to men. Thus supporting Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory.
In its critical reception, Lily Rothman of Time magazine put it perfectly by raising the question "If she and her girlfriends are upset enough about women being objectified in music videos to make a whole video skewering that tradition, why respond by objectifying other people?"

Videos that do not fit the traditional stereotypes for women: