For this week's assignment, I chose to analyze Jason Derulo's "Swalla" video.
What roles do the men in the music video play? What roles do the women play? Well Jason and the other rapper featured are the only men in the video, and they are basically soaking in all the attention of the woman that appear to be falling all over them.
Does the music video--as Sut Jhally insists all music videos do--tell a story about male and female sexuality? If so, what story about sexuality does it tell? The story this music video tells is that women are men's sexual play things. The women are dancing sexually and eating candy provocatively. The video is definitely derived from a male's fantasy. Moreover, It promotes the idea that a woman's only desire is to get a man's attention by using their sexuality. Continually, most women in the video have on the same (or very similar) outfits which adds to the fact that they are not treated or dressed like individuals.
What story (besides sexuality) does the visual music video tell? If you had to watch the music video without sound, what story are you told and/or what message does the music video offer? It honestly has no story except "dance and act sexual". It was pretty difficult to watch because to me it's not even clever or creative. The video is so focussed on the sexuality of women that it cheapens the value of the song (which is already at a low value in my opinion).
Does the music video reinforce harmful stereotypes or does it challenge them? Provide examples from the video. It reinforces the male stereotype that men must surround themselves with loads of women, and only use them for sexual pleasure (a male stereotype that is present in many music videos). Nicki Minaj's part in the video doesn't help the female portrayal of a sexual object either. She crawls around on all fours wearing an extremely scandalous outfit.
Given that music videos' target audience is adolescents (13-18 years old), what do you think adolescents learn about men, women, and relationships from this music video? I would think that adolescents boys will learn it's okay to treat women like they have little or no value. Adolescent girls may learn that the only way to receive attention from men is to dress scandalously and perform sexually for them.
I really like how you said, "most women in the video have on the same (or very similar) outfits which adds to the fact that they are not treated or dressed like individuals." That was something I hadn't thought about while watching the video, but after you pointed it out I realized how true it is! I feel like that often happens in music videos.
ReplyDeleteI think that is what I found in most of these videos, men surrounded by women. And not just any women, but women who are either well dressed or barely dressed and of course are attractive. I guess it is not enough to be materialistic in the sense of accessories anymore, but also in the amount of beautiful women you have around you at all times.
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