Objectification - The process of treating someone like an object
Male Gaze - How men look at women, making an assumption that the audience are all men; links to Lisbet Van-Zoonen's theory of feminism.
Sexualisation - Using someone's physical appearance to sell a product with the only thing we know about them being that they're attractive.
Voyeurism - Looking into someone's life without them knowing illegal in the UK.
Scopophilia - Getting pleasure from watching someone's life.
In riptide we're placed as the voyeur with us looking into the character's lives with sexualisation being used as well; watching the woman take her swimsuit off.
We also see the women in the video being consistently represented as inferior and vulnerable. The lyrics throughout the video are anchoring the audience into believing that the woman being tortured is at the dentist. The women in the video are all stereotypically attractive with them being blonde, white and tall women.
The big close up of the woman's face in the 'dentist' shows a creepy sexualisation because of how the producer is inferring it is attractive seeing the woman being bound and tortured. It's an intertextual link to a mental asylum in which we have seen in films before, the idea that women are more prone to going crazy.
The primary target audience would be heterosexual men because of how the sexualisation of women throughout the video is consistently shown; Women are shown to be mentally unstable and vulnerable.
We're positioned in a voyeuristic way to watch the woman strip, with her taking off her swimsuit which would bring the preferred response of pleasure watching her take the straps from off her shoulders. However the emphasis of the shot is on the woman's behind which reinforces the idea that the audience is heterosexual male; also the shot of the woman running away in fear infers the audience is meant to enjoy watching that too.
The constant close ups of the women's hands, bodies and faces is deliberately constructing an image of a woman, objectifying her.
The master shot is subversive in the way that the singer isn't in it, instead it uses a woman who we know nothing about. We have a close up of her face which reinforces her importance to the video. Her makeup is natural and understated which connotes she is naturally beautiful. Her performance in the master shots could be described as unmoving and nervy; as if she had been drugged and forced to do it. The shot makes a hegemonic assumption to what you need to look like to be beautiful, with her being older than the typical mainstream pop star.
bell hookes:
Her theory is that feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women. Feminism isn't about getting women on top being superior, it's about equality; Doesn't just include gender however, can be linked to sexuality, race, etc.
The video uses ironic imagery to criticise the representations of women in society; we're pretty much saying the video is feminist. The voyeuristic shot of the woman removing her swimsuit makes the audience feel uncomfortable, as we know it's morally wrong.
The big close up of the woman in the dentist chair encourages us to save and release her, usually we see the woman who's tied up and being tortured be saved in the end acting as a proairetic code however this time she doesn't get out of it makes us feel uncomfortable.
The shot of the woman getting out from the ropes after being tied up shows her struggling to get out however she does get out in the end which could be seen as empowering for woman as most of the time in films and music videos the female figure is always saved by the heroic man. When the visuals and the sound don't match up it makes it contrapuntal, going against the norm.
In the end, the music video looks like a horror film, making an intertextual link to the film genre. Specifically 70's Italian horror. Suspiria (1979) can be linked the the riptide video through elements of horror. 1970's Italian horror is a niche genre.
Male Gaze - How men look at women, making an assumption that the audience are all men; links to Lisbet Van-Zoonen's theory of feminism.
Sexualisation - Using someone's physical appearance to sell a product with the only thing we know about them being that they're attractive.
Voyeurism - Looking into someone's life without them knowing illegal in the UK.
Scopophilia - Getting pleasure from watching someone's life.
In riptide we're placed as the voyeur with us looking into the character's lives with sexualisation being used as well; watching the woman take her swimsuit off.
We also see the women in the video being consistently represented as inferior and vulnerable. The lyrics throughout the video are anchoring the audience into believing that the woman being tortured is at the dentist. The women in the video are all stereotypically attractive with them being blonde, white and tall women.
The big close up of the woman's face in the 'dentist' shows a creepy sexualisation because of how the producer is inferring it is attractive seeing the woman being bound and tortured. It's an intertextual link to a mental asylum in which we have seen in films before, the idea that women are more prone to going crazy.The primary target audience would be heterosexual men because of how the sexualisation of women throughout the video is consistently shown; Women are shown to be mentally unstable and vulnerable.
We're positioned in a voyeuristic way to watch the woman strip, with her taking off her swimsuit which would bring the preferred response of pleasure watching her take the straps from off her shoulders. However the emphasis of the shot is on the woman's behind which reinforces the idea that the audience is heterosexual male; also the shot of the woman running away in fear infers the audience is meant to enjoy watching that too.The constant close ups of the women's hands, bodies and faces is deliberately constructing an image of a woman, objectifying her.
The master shot is subversive in the way that the singer isn't in it, instead it uses a woman who we know nothing about. We have a close up of her face which reinforces her importance to the video. Her makeup is natural and understated which connotes she is naturally beautiful. Her performance in the master shots could be described as unmoving and nervy; as if she had been drugged and forced to do it. The shot makes a hegemonic assumption to what you need to look like to be beautiful, with her being older than the typical mainstream pop star.bell hookes:
Her theory is that feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women. Feminism isn't about getting women on top being superior, it's about equality; Doesn't just include gender however, can be linked to sexuality, race, etc.
The video uses ironic imagery to criticise the representations of women in society; we're pretty much saying the video is feminist. The voyeuristic shot of the woman removing her swimsuit makes the audience feel uncomfortable, as we know it's morally wrong.
The big close up of the woman in the dentist chair encourages us to save and release her, usually we see the woman who's tied up and being tortured be saved in the end acting as a proairetic code however this time she doesn't get out of it makes us feel uncomfortable.
The shot of the woman getting out from the ropes after being tied up shows her struggling to get out however she does get out in the end which could be seen as empowering for woman as most of the time in films and music videos the female figure is always saved by the heroic man. When the visuals and the sound don't match up it makes it contrapuntal, going against the norm.
In the end, the music video looks like a horror film, making an intertextual link to the film genre. Specifically 70's Italian horror. Suspiria (1979) can be linked the the riptide video through elements of horror. 1970's Italian horror is a niche genre.
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