Representation of Women

Analyse the representation of women in Rihanna's, stay video and Jessie J's, Wild video. 

In both of the videos there is a strong representation of women. But they are both represented in different ways I believe it is too complex to say the representation of women is positive. In this essay, I will discuss the camera angles, Mise en scene, sound and camera shots. 


In Jessie J's video, wild, she is shown to be a strong, proud, and independent woman. But this can be criticised by, saying the clothes she wears could connotation a sexual objects. The clothes she wears are plain black and very short. Although they look like under wear it has a masculine twist to it. In Jessie J's video, she is also dancing with other men which again support the idea that she is a sexual object to men. At one part of the video, Jessie J is wearing a skin coloured, skin tight suit. This again can portray the image that Jessie j is a sexual object. 


On the other hand, in Rihannas video she is also shown to be a sex object. But in a different way. In this video, she is laying naked in the bath. Within the video there are particular shots what could be seen as only being there for the "male gaze" theory. In this video Rihanna is shown to be more femine than Jessie j. Another representation is the "innocent" view. Rihanna is laying in the bath completely exposed which shows the inn innocent view, additionally Rihannas make up is very little which again shows the bare face which could relate to the childlike/innocent connotations. 


Again looking back to Jessie J's video, the director has used camera angles and shots to emphasize how they want the representation to be like. Throughout the video there are lots of close ups used towards stereotypical female places like; lips, chest, hips. When these shots are being displayed Jessie j herself is in a very sexual pose. This can be linked to Rihanna video because in the same way as the director from Jessie js video, rihannas director also uses close ups on these body parts which again relates to the sexual image. 


To conclude, I believe the representation of women to be a negative one because, of the exploitation of women. In most pop music video, women are shown to be sexual crazes. The thing what could criticize this is the fact that these women chose to do it and this means they have authority.