Social, historical and cultural contexts are important to be aware of throughout society , as it not only connects to the media and understanding of the build to certain world events, but it also allows society to grasp a better understanding of postcolonialism, and understand how races are constructed as different, opposite or other – in history and current day. Looking at Commons Letter to the Free, a song written as a soundtrack to the Netflix documentary, the 13^th, its lyrics relate to the 13^th amendment, which was the law for the abolition of slavery in 1865. The song tells of how racism can be seen through the imprisonment schemes in America, as well as how racism can still be seen towards black people who are often seen differently in society. This is evident through his lyrics, “we aint seen as humans”, suggesting that society see Black people as ‘something’ different, not even as human beings. Furthermore, the lyric “will the U.S ever be with us” constructs an ideology of America seeing them as an opposition as though they are choosing to stand against them. 

Ghost Town by The Specials and Letter to the Free by Common represent society in very contrasting ways, however. This is shown mainly through the narratives of the music videos because Letter to the Free is about ending modern slavery and giving more freedom with equal rights for everyone. However, Ghost Town is about the economic depression and the increase of employment rates in London which had become staggering. Also, the music videos themselves have different genres, as Letter to the Free is a rap style song and Ghost Town includes two very different music genres, ska and reggae. Both of these music videos are also seen as quite radical. In the Letter to the Free Common is outwardly proposing from society for equality for black people, which has earlier this year been a hugely pushed issue through the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. In addition, it’s clear to see that the two case studies have ideas pointing towards postcolonialism theorist Paul Gilroy & WEB du Bois. As WEB du Bois first explained the term and idea of an audience having a “double consciousness”- With Paul Gilroy using the term, and concept again, in his book “The Black Atlantic”. Double consciousness defines itself as the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society. This idea is clearly pushed in “letter to the free” with the subject matter being racism against the black community in America. 

Theorist Edward Said draws on the idea from Jacques Lacan about the “Mirror stage”. The term defines the first-time children see themselves in a mirror as the first time they must confront the fact that this “Mirror image” represents themselves and is how everyone in society views them. This links to media because due to colonialist and orientalist ideas, as the orient has often been portrayed as the “other” to the west, as Said points out, leading to under-representation of minorities in Western media and therefore there is a sense of dehumanisation against other cultures; this is recognised by easterners as the mirror image of their cultures and people in western media. Ghost Town and Letter to the Free are both music videos about racial tensions and protesting or a fear of racist institutions. As such, minorities are represented in these videos as ordinary people which again shows the hegemonic struggle by these artists to change the ideas in society. Here though it also done to combat the orientalist ideas of the eastern world in Western society. 

In conclusion, Letter to the Free and Ghost Town can be applied to the concept of post colonialism. Furthermore, they both challenge world ideologies with their more radical views, and it is understandable that in media, such as music videos can influence and be influenced by society and culture. This is evident through Letter to the free, as they talk about how hegemony is a struggle, as there’s a lack of equality. Also, Ghost town aims to bring awareness of the employment rates and violence that occurred through the UK, specifically East London. Overall, music videos can change cultures and show the struggles they are facing/have faced, and this can be enforced with the understanding of postcolanial context. 

According to Butler’s theory, gender is essentially a performative repetition of acts associated with male or female. Currently, the actions appropriate for men and women have been transmitted to produce a social atmosphere that both maintains and legitimizes a seemingly natural gender binary.This essentially shows how gender is a social construct. Her work was influenced by Jacques Lacan and Karl Marx. 

Oh is part of a development in Lifestyle and environmental movements. It mainly looked at female empowerment and how they wanted to change the ‘normal’ standard of what women ‘should’ look like which is published by Pirates Ahoy! Contrastingly, Men’s Health is a male orientated magazine and published by Hearst Communications, which is a conglomerate media corporation in America. We can apply Stuart Halls theory of representation as the absence of men, it creates an identity for the brand as they are doing something different and showing how women can have different representations and aren’t just objects, as you would see in various magazines and music videos for example “Blurred Lines”.

The Fourth wave of feminism is a phase of feminism which began around 2012 and focuses on the empowerment of women. Bell hook also introduces the idea of intersectionality, the theory that feminism is not homogenous or universal and that feminism links to other factors like age, sexuality, class, education religion, etc. The rose of 4th wave feminism gave Oh a platform and audience for their content. 

Overall, Judith Butler’s idea that gender is an identity instituted through a stylised repetition of acts is useful for analysing the representation of gender in music videos and other media forms, such as magazines like Men’s Health and Oh, because it helps to understand the representation of gender and identity in media.

The Key, theorist Judith Butler in question explores ideas of how gender is socially constructed and argues that this is through common speech and nonverbal communication in society that are performative to pre-constructed connotations of gender, and the repetition of this.

Media institutions are the large global corporations, such as broadcasting or film productions companies. They usually in include conglomerates (companies that own large numbers of other companies in various mass media). These conglomerates often use Vertical integration; a strategy where a company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors or retails outlets in order to control the value or supply chain and therefore benefits them financially by allowing them to control the process, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Horizontal integration is all used in media institutions; where companies increase production of their goods or services at the same part of the supply chain through an internal expansion or merge of companies which can lead to a monopoly if a company captures the large majority of the market in which produces that product or service. 

In terms of my style model music video “Guys” by The 1975, released on may 13^th 2020 as part of their latest album Notes on a conditional form is owned by independent label Dirty hit, owned by Jamie Osbourn and created in 2009 in which the band are part of the creative team. The 1975 is distributed by Polydor records a daughter company of conglomerate Universal Music Group which acquired a 7.1 million revenue in 2018. The video features montage style clips of the all-male band beginning in 2009 at the start of the bands journey, up to 2020 during their world tour and latest album production. To link it to Judith Butlers theory of how we are performative to pre constructed connotations in the media. The video radicalised the stereotypical or pre constructed connotations of straight males being unaffectionate towards their friends, showing the band hugging and including lyrics describing the other band members as “the best thing that ever happened”, something rarely explored in the media. The video and song was  released during a more liberal time in terms of gender restrictions and fluidity, which the band clearly wanted to explore and present. Being realised on various new media outlets such as Spotify and YouTube and being owned by an independent label gave the band more freedom to reach their more niche audience;  in which they describe as ‘Young, open minded and creative” of a generation widely more liberal. This majorly contrasts to  “Men’s health’s” approach representing men. This provided evidence of Judith butlers theory considering a ‘a repetition of an act” meaning something is learnt through repeated action. The magazine is published by Hearst, one of the largest publishers of magazine media across all platforms owning magazines such as, Elle, Maire Claire, Clevver and cosmopolitan with men’s health being one of the world’s largest men’s magazine brand. The magazine example shows Vin Diesel a popular actor in the ‘fast and furious” film franchise; in which is marketed largely towards male. It includes various subheadings describing the contents, all of which surrounds the topic of fitness and body image such as “Blast Body Fat”. From looking at various other issues of the magazine, they all include a physically fit male often shirtless. This reinforces the idea we have pre constructed ideas these men are the example of a healthy man, particularly when taking in consideration the title of the magazine. The repetition of this presented in the media and in ‘men’s health’ leads to the societal norms or dominate ideologies of these men being the pinnacle of health and masculinity which men then strive to be. 

Another key theorist which helps us understand the representation of gender in the media is that of Mulvey. Mulvey’s theory draws on pervious works by Lacan who look at identity and when a child first recognised themselves in the media. Mulvey looks at “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ and a controlling and subjective gaze in which she names ‘The male gaze’. This is the idea that there is a pleasure in looking, which has been projected onto the female body which is therefor styled accordingly for a profit gain in the media which are subsequently, coded for strong visual and voyeuristic impact. The magazine OH! is produced by independent company iceberg, allowing It to be free of influence from corporate interestsand with the help of new technology’s help them target more niche audiences. Unlike that of ‘Men’s Health’ owned by a large conglomerate Hearst which made a revenue of US$11.4 billion in 2019. Oh! is a female owned magazine which aims to promote the empowerment of women and strays away from sexualising women for the male gaze; catering for their niche audience of unique, creative young women. The magazine exclusively sticks representing females and doesn’t include males in their publications reiterating their feministic attitude and independence of women. An example of the magazine shows a young woman, taken from a low angel with minimal makeup and natural eyebrows; giving her a powerful stance and feel to the magazine representing women in a powerful and positive light. This majorly contrast to that of ‘Men’s Health’ which supports Mulvey’s theory in terms of “visual pleasure” and uses the stereotypically most attractive male body image in their magazine as a marketing tool to reach audiences and profit rather than voice a political position such as feminism like Oh! does, largely due to conglomerates desire in profiting. 

An example where “visual pleasure” is prevalent in the media in terms of conglomerates aiming to profit is the scandal involving fox new and Roger Ails. The scandal involved the harassment of women in order for opportunities within fox news to be given to them as well as the rules put in place to show female new anchors in a more sexualised way in order to increase ratings, showing who the female body was objectified to achieve visual pleasure. While “Men’s Health’ focuses on males it still markets of “visual pleasure’ to reach audiences for a profit gain. 

The Fourth wave of feminism is a phase of feminism which began around 2012 and focuses on the empowerment of women, using internet tools and is centred on intersectionality (interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender). The rise of the fourth wave of feminism gave OH! a niche audience and a market for their content. This is also very prevalent when understanding the representation of women in Oh! which began publication in 2010, during this wave of feministic thinking. The magazine supports these views and is able to do so through their independent company iceberg, allowing them to focus on embowing women rather than just profiting.

In conclusion, gender is represented very differently depending on the institution which own the print media or music video, largely due to the profit interest of conglomerates with independently owned media outlets gaining more freedom to voice their opinions. To link to the question, Judith Butler’s theory allows us to understand how society’s stereotypes of gender which are repeated in the media lead to or pre constructed understandings regarding gender boundaries, which corporations used in marketing and profiting. However, some media outlets usually independent stray away from this in order to voice their opinions and attempt change dominate ideologies or constructed connotations of gender. 

Judith Butler Describes Gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words it is something learnt through repeated performance. 

How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented in Music Videos? Refer in detail to your chosen style models. 

Refer in detail to your chosen music video style models, Men’s Health and Oh.. [20 marks] 

Judith Butler’s definition of gender is of an identity that is not assigned at birth, as has been the common idea of gender for centuries, but rather an identity that is instituted upon us and we define for ourselves through a stylized repetition of acts, often influenced by popular media and ideas about how people of certain genders should act. The way someone defines their gender is often influenced by the media and interests they are presented by their parents or carers, for example females are often introduced to different clothes, interests, toys, etc. that are traditionally assigned as for their gender compared to what males are usually introduced to at young ages by their parents or carers. Additionally, the media of a society can influence how someone defines their gender in a similar way to how they are introduced to different interests by their parents or carers depending on their gender. In this sense gender is described as “performative” by Judith Butler because when someone “acts” their gender that produces a series of effects that “consolidate an impression of being a man or woman” as Butler describes. Butler also describes gender as being fluid, changeable and “a set of categories to be played out and performed by individual subjects in individual moments in time and space”, meaning that a person’s gender changes based on different social settings or different people they are around, since gender is behaviour that is presented to others according to Butler. 

“Oh” (previously Oh Comely) is an independent magazine published by the small company Iceberg press. In contrast to magazines from large corporations like Men’s Health, Oh presents an alternative institutional structure, because as a  small company owned by a small group of 3 women and as a result is different to larger companies like Fox or Conde Nast – they are often owned by powerful people (usually men) with employees under them instead of the workers owning most of their own production, which is the company structure of Oh. This links to the representation of women in mass media – often presented to appeal to the male gaze, like the female presenters of Fox news who, in contrast to the men, are expected to represent and express themselves in a certain way to attract straight male audiences. Oh, on the other hand, represents a form of hegemonic struggle by presenting women in many ways. Also the lack of men in Oh presents an impression that these women are independent. This shows hegemonic struggle and links to bell hook’s theory by presenting different views of women and encouraging renegotiation of the hegemonic ideas. Althusser mentions how ISAs control how people think in society, and this is evident in how large media companies produce media that reinforces traditional gender roles through the representation of men and women. In magazines like Men’s health, produced by the conglomerate Hearst, men are represented in a way that reinforces the traditional gender roles of society, because the conglomerates act as gatekeepers of information to the public and major internal state apparatuses. However, small companies like Iceberg press are not subject to these pressures like the employees of Hearst and Men’s Health and therefore can focus on publishing the magazine Oh to push ideas that do not conform to hegemonic ideas about gender. Bell hook also introduces the idea of intersectionality, the theory that feminism is not homogenous or universal and that feminism links to other factors like age, sexuality, class, education religion, etc. This intersectionality highlights the link between postcolonial and industrial analysis and critical thinking and feminist critical thinking. While Oh, as a magazine owned by a small company can combat these hegemonic ideas and present different views about gender, race and class. For example, issues and pages of the magazine, such as page 53 of the CSP, focuses on women of different races and cultural identities. While Oh and it’s alternative institutional structure allows the creators to combat postcolonial societal ideas, the institutional capitalist structure of conglomerates like Hearst discourage creativity and encourage the conformity to hegemonic ideas since these guarantee profit and that the managers keep their positions. 

This idea is useful in understanding how gender is represented in Music videos because the theory describes gender to be an identity performed by people via a visual medium like a music video. Lisbet Van Zoonen suggests that popular culture is a site of struggle, where identities are continually being reconstructed, and since popular music videos are part of this culture that makes them useful for using ideas about gender to understand music videos as a part of the wider popular culture. The music video for Mr.Probz’s “Waves” can be understood through Butler’s gender theory by analysing the representation of gender of the characters in the video. The main character presents himself as male, and he finds himself alone, but other characters are introduced through memories the main character has, including another main character, a woman who is implied to be the girlfriend of the main character. The music video’s narrative is told from a male perspective and since only the male’s side of the story, the video may reflect how the man sees his girlfriend, who he hallucinates when alone, through the gender that is presented to him. In other words, the events shown in the music video are slanted because of how they are only shown from the man’s perspective which could affect how the female main character is portrayed compared to what could have happened, since in the video they are shown to have relationship problems and the protagonist is clearly heavily affected by this. In terms of Judith Butler’s theory, the representations of the characters genders are generally conventional as how the genders of female and male are usually represented. In this music video, the main character is mainly shown as vulnerable and he is presented as a victim of his circumstances and vices, evidenced by how he is shown washing up on a desert island and how he heavily drinks alcohol to deal with his problems. Meanwhile, the other main character, represented as a female is shown in a relationship with the male main character and she is represented as female through the repetition of acts traditionally thought of as female, for example, she wears dresses and has long hair, which are part of the acts that present her as female. This reinforces how gender is represented as being constituted as the repetition of stylised acts – the male protagonist is presented as a male and the other character is represented as female because this piece of media has recorded the typical performances of gender in the specific historical context of the time this video was produced. 

Overall, Judith Butler’s idea that gender is an identity instituted through a stylised repetition of acts is useful for analysing the representation of gender in music videos and other media forms, such as magazines like Men’s Health and Oh, because it helps to understand the representation of gender and identity in media. Also, the intersectional ideas linked to Judith Butler’s theory aid in the understanding of media industries and how they work to control and reinforce hegemonic ideas about gender and race in society. 

• front cover featuring the artist/band promoted in your music video

• two page interview with artist/band
• single page advert for artist/band tour