Representation of women in music videos.

In this modern day era of music videos women are frequently presented as sex objects as they are wearing provocative clothing or erotic dancing is shown. This is also shown by the clothes they are wearing .An example of a music video that shows this is 'He like that' Fifth Harmony as they were wearing leotards and there dancing was sexualised . however they are represented as what would be considered an ideal body type by the media ,this puts the message across that this is how we should look.The media uses the stereotype of the way you dress determines how sexually available you are. The reason this is done is to attract a male target audience, as stereotypically men like to see women being sexy ,which could be classified as entertaining as part of the Uses and Gratification Theory. The “male gaze” theory suggests that women are represented as passive objects of male desire, therefore when women appear on music videos they are sometimes portrayed as sexual objects.Due to it appealing to the male audience. Moreover this allows the popularity and views of this video to increase; hence the song that the video is for, makes more money. However this can portray women as powerful because showing off their body could show that they are confident and proud of whom they are.

Furthermore females are presented as inferior to men in music videos due to only one perspective being shown, for example if the female is only being shown for her body parts it may suggest that is her only importance as it's the thing we see as an audience. Additionally the camera angles that females are oftenly shot in may represent them as weak ,these are camera angles such as a high angle shots encode a message that females are looked down upon in society by men and that they are inferior . This highlights how the media spreads a concept of female appearance.A third way females are represented as weak and inferior to men in music videos is the way the video has been constructed , in Fifth Harmonies video they have been positioned next to a muscular male , it causes a contrast in their physical appearance and differences. In the same way it represents the female as weak due to how her appearance has been presented.

A large majority of females are represented as glamorous in music videos , this may link to the idea of being portrayed as sex objects. However the media creates an idea that you're only pretty if you wear makeup ,consequently we get this idea because we only see females in music videos with makeup ,so it narrows the audience's viewpoint to this one perspective . Yet again it could be done to attract a male audience .This associated with Germaine Greer's theory “The Glamorous ideal” claims that the media creates the idea that females who don't wear makeup are not beautiful or successful .Mainly because we only see one image of women in music videos, thence why the audience may develop the perception of the female artist shown in the music video, as only successful because the way she looks.