Riptide Music Video Analysis - Representation of Women

Riptide Music Video Analysis

• complex - do we need to understand it?
• are we a passive audience?

Riptide: Representation of Women

• most prevalent group represented in Riptide are women, who are represented as
• victims
• exploited
• sexualised
• objectified
• scared and vulnerable
• hegemonically attractive

Objectification - a process of making a person into an object

The Male Gaze assumes all male audiences are heterosexual.

Women are often made to want to look like women in the media

Voyeurism - taking pleasure in watching someone (in a sexual manner) when they don't know they are being watched

Scopophilia - sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity (similar to voyeurism)

In Riptide, the audience are positioned in the highly problematic position of a stalker and a threat to women. This is reinforced through highly voyeuristic cinematography, that frequently positions women with their backs to the audience, forcing the audience to view these women in an often highly sexual manner.

In the video to Riptide, women are consistently and repeatedly represented as objects to be looked at by the target audience. In effect, it is the audience who are objectifying women, which positions them in an uncomfortable mode of address.

In the swimsuit shot, a slow zoom constructs a highly voyeuristic mode of address. This is reinforced through her apparently deductive performance of slowly removing her swimsuit. However, a clear contradiction is constructed through the fact that she clearly has no one to seduce. This reinforces the voyeuristic elements of the video.

The model's physique, tanned skin and blonde hair are all highly and stereotypically hegemonically attractive, much like every other woman in the music video. This clearly reflects the hegemonic ideology of the producer.

A later shot of another hegemonically attractive woman wearing revealing clothing as she struggles to remove ropes is framed through a mid-shot. The shaking camera connotes several things. It functions as a symbolic code, anchoring the anxiety of the model. It also positions the audience as the aggressor and the abuser as it is clearly handheld cinematography. It is clearly shot with a telephoto lens and places the audience in a highly creepy and terrifying mode of address.

The shot of the woman running constructs a highly contradictory and problematic mode of address where the model is simultaneously victimised, and yet also sexually objectified.

An unconventional use of close up on the model singing into the microphone is utilised on the master shot of the woman performing. We are positioned right next to her. The use of high key lighting shines a powerful and painful spotlight in her face. Her lack of direct address with the audience constructs her as being distant, which heightens the voyeuristic and problematic mode of address. Initially, the model's makeup is very precise and put together. The model has very well defined cheekbones, which connotes confidence and power. However, as the narrative progresses, the model's makeup becomes smudged and wounds appear and disappear. As her expression becomes ever more blank and tortured, the audience are forced to acknowledge that events beyond the narrative are happening out of shot, suggesting attacks, abuse and torture. This highly fragmenting and confusing montage completely disrupts the audiences' desire for a satisfactory narrative. There is no narrative conclusion or resolution