Male Gaze This theory was created by Laura Mulvey, a British Feminist Film Theorist who believes that media is often created with a male audience in mind. Presenting women for the pleasure of a male gaze. As a Post Feminist, Gaga would most likely disagree with the theory, as she believes that what she creates and the way she dresses is to empower her and actually gives her a sense of freedom. The costumes in this music video are very revealing which, from a traditional feminist point of view, this would arguably be to attract a male audience. The men in the video are watching her and the rest of the women, which further accentuates this point and the arguable aspects of the male gaze within the video.
Feminist/ Post-Feminist Gaga uses long standing and traditional feminist arguments to call out and comment on the double standard that is placed on female performers (they are expected to be sexual, but only up to a certain point) Whereas male performers/rock stars are given free license. However, she insist that she is not a feminist, and opens up the image of an empowered and liberated woman. Normativity There are some cases in this video which provides us with some things that have become normative to us. (stereotypes that have been repeated over and over, until we see them as normative). russians - vodka men watching women- arguably objectifying them, representation of the audience? strip club set up. There are multiple ways to read this, again going back to the contrast between feminism and post feminism.
Product Placement Product placement has become much more common, due to the fact that there is much less money being brought in from album/record sales. There is product placement in this videothrough the bottle of vodka. Intertextuality Her underwearis an intertextual reference toMadonna's iconic bra. look of decay- could be interpreted as "the queen is dead" and gaga is new queen.
Mise en scene makeup and hair, skin tone is like a doll, dolls are seen as an object. she is exaggerating the stereotype that women are seen as objects.
Wrecking Ball is a song by American singer, Miley Cyrus. This song was released on August 25, 2013 by RCA Records. It is a pop ballad which's topic describes a relationship deteriorating.
The song received positive reviews from critics and debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100at number fifty. As of January 2014, "Wrecking Ball" has sold three million copies in the United States. An interesting article I found whilst researching the song discusses whether or not the song is actually a 'hit'. This can be found on The Record. The music video to this song was released on September 9th 2013, which has inspiration/ is reminiscent of Sinead O'Connor's song 'Nothing Compares 2 U' there is a high level of intertextuality of O'Connor's video in the Wrecking Ball video. (Baudrillard and his theory of Simulacra can be applied to this)
The critic opinion on this video was largely divided as many considered it to be provocative /inappropriate.
Miley Cyrus considers herself to be a post-feminist. Wikipedia definition: "the ideology of postfeminism is often recognised by its contrast with a prevailing or preceding feminism. Postfeminism strives towards the next stage in gender-related societal progress, and as such is often conceived as in favor of a society that is no longer defined bigender binary and gender role." She believes that feminism assumes male control. She breaks free from this, especially in this video, as although a traditional feminist may see 'Wrecking Ball' as a video where Cyrus is exploited and seen as a sexual object, perhaps even exploited by the director (Terry Richardson, who is involved with a lot of controversy surrounding his exploitation of women) They may also claim that this video is representative of the patriarchal world that we live in. However, as a post-feminist, Cyrus believes that instead, she is presenting the idea that she is not trapped at all, and is free, creating art. As a post-feminist, she would also state that the patriarchy is an out-dated term, and does not agree with it. Through her hair, Cyrus is breaking gender stereotypes as the repeated stereotype that men should have short hair, and women should have long hair, has become normative in society, therefore making it difficult to break free from this societal construct. Through her hair, Miley Cyrus is being Counter hegemonic, as she decides to ignore the restrictions of society, and break gender stereotypes.
Another singer who had similar thoughts/beliefs as Cyrus is Annie Lennox, who shocked many people in the 80s due to her short, ginger hair hegemony, gramsi, annie lennox, The white tank top that she is wearing, which exposes her strong arms this typically is seen as a male stereotype, and as she is a female wearing this top, with her arms shown as muscular, many would assume her sexuality, and believes she looks like a lesbian. Again, this is a societal construct and very stereotypical. However, the top which is cropped, which also has feminine connotations, so she is mixing up the stereotypes and going against them. sigmund freud, the sledgehammer is seen as a phallic object. caroline vernallis, musicologist would disagree with the choices in the video, she uses direct mode of address, when swinging on the ball which can have both sexual, and non sexual connotations (engaging with the audience).
