sexism in pop videos

Laura Mulvey's theory states that women are seen through the male gaze, this denies women human identity. The male gaze also ensure that women are seen through the perspective of men, as Laura Mulvey also stated the camera is another form of the male gaze. This then shows that women are treated as objects of erotic desire. In addition to this women have no agency in films, but are only used to represent the dominance in male characters. For example most women in films only show to have a sexual relationship with the lead male character.

Robin Thicke - 'Blurred Lines'

This was the infamous video that was banned from 20 University Student Unions for promoting the devious act of rape, with lyrics such as 'I know you want it...' and even the title of the song symbolizes the act of drugging women into sexual intercourse. The explicit video involves 3 female models completely topless, causing viewers to only focus on their bodies and portraying women to be cheap, amplifying the meaning of the song 'force women into sex even if they say no, they're only objects.' This was what created an uproar and made women of the public protest against the songs in certain universities.

Lily Allen - 'Hard Out Here'

This song was released as a direct response to the 'Blurred Lines' video by Robin Thicke. 

While the song's lyrics are completely feminist and against exposing women inappropriately, the actual video features multiple of the features the song is against. While this could be seen as an ironic view of the style and is making fun of it, this is not clear to the audience and therefore could be seen as more hypocritical. Despite the main message of the song is about how women trying to be thin to look good is wrong, she amplifies the message by adding examples of the good looking women.

Another song that is well known for degrading women is 'Booty' by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea. This video represents women as objects and focuses mostly on their faces. Unlike "Hard Out Here" the song is not giving a message about women's inequality and injustice, but it is supporting it. The choreography in the music video and the cinematography of the video work in correlation as the features of the women are highlighted throughout the whole music video. Even though the video relegates women it is understandable. The lyrics of the song match with the type of music video that it is. It talks about sexy women and their features. It encourages women to feel good about how they look and their appearance. 

In conclusion, Laura Mulvey's theory still exists in modern day music videos.