RUNNING THE WORLD
When doing our song analyses, we made sure to make references to the following feminist critics and writers. This allowed us to make interpretations that were better geared towards feminism and the portrayal of women. In the event that we saw potential gray areas (such as pole dancers or scantily-clad women), we could refer to these theories, in this case the one on raunch culture, to make a final verdict.
THE MALE GAZE
(Laura Mulvey)
The Male Gaze was a term coined by Laura Mulvey. Mulvey suggests that all recent cinema practices the Male Gaze, where a woman is dissected into different body parts by the camera, rather than being filmed as a full human body (Mulvey, 1989). An example of this would be the way Megan Fox was filmed in the car scene of the 2007 Transformers movie.
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We applied this theory to music videos as well. While we will not be taking Mulvey’s extreme view, since we did not believe that ALL music video practice the male gaze, we did actively look for examples of the male gaze in our music video analysis. (such as in My House and Needed Me)
RAUNCH CULTURE
(Ariel Levy)
According to the Collins Dictionary, "raunch culture" refers to a culture where women are encouraged to be ‘overtly’ sexual, especially when this is encouraged by other women.
While some women argue that they are being overtly sexual to rebel against the constraints of feminism, Levy cites examples of teens acting sexually as evidence against it. She argues that since teens have not been around long enough to experience feminism, they have nothing to rebel against. Hence, she believes raunch culture is bad (Levy, 2005).
We looked out for women who are acting very sexually in our music video analysis. (such as in Work)
RADICAL FEMINISM
(Laura Mulvey)
Kate Millett is an American feminist writer and activist. Millett coined the idea of the “patriarchy”, which she described as “a society dominated not just by masculinity but also by men whose primary purpose is to construct and maintain a certain power relationship over women”. (Tobias, 1997)
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Millett brought in the idea of “Sexual Politics”. In this case, politics is described as “power-structured relationships” (Millett, 1970). She states that sexual relations have a power-structure to them. She cites author Henry Miller’s book Sexus. She argues that that book portrays sex in a ‘patriarchal and sexist’ way, where the ‘protagonist is sexually irresistible and potent to an almost mystical degree’. The book involves the seduction of Ida, a woman in the story. She posits that this shows how sexual relations have a power structure, where the man is in power and the woman is submissive.
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Millett has also stated that, while men may not realise it, they display unintentional sexism regardless towards women. Millett stated that men and women were “traditionally differentiated on three dimensions [...] temperament, role, and status.” (Tobias, 1997)
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Radical feminism theorises that men are systematically oppressing women through the patriarchy. Radical feminism intends to completely abolish this patriarchy.