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

Style models:

1. young rising sons – high
2. Hammock – mono no aware

High on gender representation:

1. relates to class based behaviors (masculinity relating to poverty, intersectionality)
2. identity instituted through repetition: main character decides to just “hold on”. This later becomes a more common behavior as you see the main character try to see the light in the darkness more and more near to the end as he hangs out with his friends who are in the same situation. Lecan – main character sees friends in same desperate situation and feels a sense of identity as a group with his friends. They share this bond of desperation together and it becomes their only escape
3. this shared desperation is shown to, as a whole, represent their gender identity: desperation has led to recklessness (they have nothing to lose). In this recklessness there is a level of power associated with masculinity (being unkempt, uncaring).

Mono no Aware on gender representation:

1. mono no aware relates to isolation: the video shows a woman alone in nature throughout the entire video. This theme of isolation could relate to themes of modern day society such as isolation from the female identity and vital women’s history left forgotten
2. A form of identity disassociation (Lecan) – a lack of representation causes a lack of identity as there is a lack of people to relate to. A lack of representation leads to a lack of learned behavior from the other (repeated performance) – leading to fractured identity

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?

Judith Butler’s statement on identity can be applied to many different music videos in order to understand gender representation. For example, in High, the identity of the main character can be explained through Lecan’s Mirror theory, where the self is explored through the ‘other’. This can be seen where the main character is seen through two sets of shots: a series of colour shots where the main character is alone and a series of shots where the main character is surrounded by others. In the colour shots, the main character can be observed to be deeply upset about their situation. In the shots where he is surrounded by friends, however, he can be observed seeing them in the same situation as him with the same sadness that he has. Lecan’s mirror theory can be used as the main character, with his friends, identifies with their situation – seeing them as the ‘other’ and proceeding to copy their behavior as the main character has a shared solidarity with the others. This links to Judith Butler’s statement on gender identity as the main character copies the behavior of the others the more they are exposed to the behavior the others exhibit.

It should also be mentioned that the behavior and ultimately their shared identities copied is situational – The characters appear to be in a desperate situation, showing utter recklessness as they have little to lose. This recklessness can be associated with masculine identity as masculinity as seen as a more active identity rather than passive. This repetition of masculinity through the main character and their friends leads to a more solid identity of masculinity forming. On the other side of that, Mono no Aware focuses on the opposite. Mono no Aware focuses on the theme of isolation, with the main character alone in a cold country. Mono no Aware explores the idea of fractured identity, with the main character left unrepresented (there is a lack of the ‘other’). This lack of representation leads to a lack of behavior to learn and ultimately a lack of solid gender identity. The song (Mono no Aware) does not have any lyrics, relating to the idea of passivity which can be linked to femininity. This can be linked to gender stereotypes as the main character is a woman and therefore would fall under that stereotype.

In conclusion, Judith Butler’s statement on how gender is “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts” Is partially true as gender identity ultimately relies on representation within media. Stereotypes are forged which create solid ‘rules’ for how gender is represented. Gender is represented through media through these rules. These acts are then repeated through the media, creating a concrete set of ‘rules’ for gender identity.

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

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

NOT FINAL ESSAY

TO WHAT EXTENT DOES AN ANALYSIS OF THE CLOSE STUDY PRODUCTS GHOST TOWN AND LETTER TO THE FREE SUPPORT THIS VIEW?

POSSIBLE ESSAY STRUCTURE

(note don’t forget to support all of your ideas with details, examples and illustrations from the 2 CSP’s)

1. What is the link between society and media (ie McDougall/ Fenton)
2. How best to link 2 music videos and society? Postcolonialism
3. Postcolonial theory – Gilroy & WEB du Bois (double consciousness, hybridisation)
4. Postcolonialism is a way of understanding ‘the other’ Lacan – mirror theory / Edward Said Orientialism
5. How can music videos change ideas? Culture as a site of struggle – Althusser ISA / Gramsci Hegemony
6. Conclusion

Lecan: Mirror Theory

• seeing yourself in the other
• we use “the other” as a way of exploring ourselves
• for example, if you were black in the 1970s, you would have no appearance of identity due to a lack of representation

Edward Said and The “Orient”

• The orient could not represent itself
• media is the lens at which identity is formed

Hegemonic Struggle (Althusser)

• ideological state apparatus (ISAs) used to describe the ideologies tht are displayed to children through media that forms an identity
• interpolation – all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject
• a ‘tug of war’ – forced to look and think but you can reject ideology to create a struggle within society

ghost town was a song by the Specials, which was written as a commentary about inner-city violence, mainly inner-city postcolonial violence. Letter to the free, by Common, also discusses racial justice, with the main discussion being the unjust incarceration of black people. Ghost town and letter to the free therefore somewhat support the view that media should be challenged. Furthermore, this is seen in Letter to the Free where

• media concentration/congolmerates/globalisation (in terms of media ownership)

a single corporation owning multiple worldwide companies

• vertical integration & horizontal integration

vertical integration – when a media company owns all of the steps of production, eg, the distribution, production etc

horizontal integration –

• gatekeepers

a group of people who force others through a set of their own concrete rules

• regulation/deregulation

regulation – every area of a corporation is overseen by the government to ensure they are following the law

deregulation – a lack of regulation from the government allowing corporations to break laws without consequence

murdoch media empire

he distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out’ – david hesmondhalgh

those organisations have an impact on how people work

there must be serious concerns about the extent to which this business-driven, economic agenda is compatible with the quality of working life and of human well-being in the creative industries.

the individualising discourses of ‘talent’ and ‘celebrity’ and the promise of future fame or consecration, have special purchase in creative work, and are often instrumental in ensuring compliance with the sometimes invidious demands of managers, organisations and the industry (Banks & Hesmondhalgh, p. 420).

media ownership and structure

• Murdoch Dynasty
• monopolies: media conglomerates
• corporations may purchase overseas companies (horizontal integration) in order to ensure a spread of ideology
• this can be related to chomsky (manufacturing consent)/cultivation theory. Different media forms are bought as a monopoly by the same conglomerate which allows the media conglomerate to spread its ideas onto working class citizens
• althusser with the ruling class using ideological state apparatus (through media conglomerates) to enforce ideologies and as a result identity of the working class

Letter to The Free is a music video that was created by the artist Common for the Netflix Documentary 13th, a documentary on Black Incarceration within the United States. The music video addresses themes of racial violence and slavery. Ghost town is a song by The Specials, released during the Margaret Thatcher era. It addresses themes such as urban decay, deindustrialisation and violence within inner cities. This violence was spurred by racism and led to racist attacks.

narrative theory is useful in varying areas for music videos. For example, you can apply Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions in Common’s Letter to The Free. During the music video, themes of “black and white” are shown, with the whole music video being shot in greyscale. This is used to highlight racial opposites, as black cannot be white and vice versa. This is shown further when common refers to an “us” and a “them”, creating a divide between the characters within the narrative helping to visualise the gap in power between the two groups. Ghost Town also uses binary oppositions, with scenes of flashbacks remembering the “good times”. This is used to emphasise the bleakness of the situation the characters are in and the severity of the situation.

Furthermore, narrative theory is useful at assessing how culture is perceived. For example, Jacques Lecan’s theory of ‘the other’ discusses how the dominant ideological character is represented next to an ‘other’. For example, a straight white man seen as a ‘hero’ while the ‘other’ – e.g. black minority groups are usually represented as ‘crooked’ or ‘deranged’ – the villain of the story. This is discussed in Common’s Letter to the Free when Common states “pride of the pilgrims affect lives of millions”. In US history, pilgrims are seen as ‘noble’ and ‘brave’ for trying to spread ‘the greater good’, while in reality, pilgrims slaughtered and raped millions of people of colour during pilgrimages. This is an example of how, through history, a narrative of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ has been constructed to justify racial violence and slavery. Furthermore, this has disallowed people of colour healthy representation, causing a lack of proper identity formation within the black consciousness.

Furthermore, Louis Althusser’s theory of interpolation can be used to discuss systematic racism. In Letter to the Free, Common states:”Institution ain’t just a building
But a method, of having black and brown bodies fill them
We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings”. Common discusses the 13th Amendment, that slavery is illegal unless the slave in question is a criminal. Furthermore, with the unjust proportion of black people being incarcerated, Common is explaining how enslavement of people of colour is still prevalent today. This can be linked to Althusser’s theory of interpolation as the 13th Amendment was implemented by the ruling class, making it a ruling ideology that black people are seen as ‘criminals’, enforcing the working class belief that black people should be imprisoned. This can be seen in the Reagan era, where Ronald Reagan began a ‘war on drugs’, a policy designed to weed out and unjustly imprison people of colour while normalising this with the working class under a policy enforcing the belief that people of colour are ‘criminals’ and are right to be imprisoned without reason.

In conclusion, narrative theory is useful at explaining the ideology of music videos. Furthermore, narrative theory can also be used to investigate societal discrimination and systematic racism through the analysis of different forms of media including music videos.

postmodernism – a social philosophical theory of NOW.

postmodern culture is referential. “The pleasure is what’s going to find out what’s happening next”

it’s possible to understand postmodernism as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships:

• a practice of re-imagining, pastiche, bricolage and self-referentiality

postmodernism suggests that there is “nothing new” in the world, and that the world repeats itself.

postmodernism is characterised by “surface” – things that look good and “superficiality”.

the preoccupation with visual (postmodern) style neglects the idea of meta-narrative

memento discusses that there is “no metanarrative” (which is described as leonard not knowing anything)

memento uses flashbacks as a way to piece together the metanarrative

postmodernism has the ideas of ‘fragmented identities’ – different identities in different situations

memento’s characters all fall into fragmented identity – with natalie and leonard.

a key characteristic of postmodernism is the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living (precariously) in fragmented societies

postmodern culture is about consumer culture and ultimately the world in a capitalist society

Big Question:

How could ‘Memento’ be classed as a postmodern text?

• the plot of the movie is half-ambigious, it is hard to tell fact from fiction, especially at the ending.
• characters are shown with fractured identities – identities that change, identities that are different for each schenario
• the ‘facts’ leonard notes down turn out to be lies that he tells himself at the beginning that he trusts as fact later
• there are too many enigmas within the film presenting contradictory evidence to come to a solid truth

Look for evidence of these postmodern phenomena:

• Intertexuality: sampling artistic styles, plot or character conventions from other forms and genres
• The ‘writerly text’ (Roland Barthes): a text whose meaning is created by the reader/consumer rather than being fixed in the text by the writer/producer.
• There is no cohesive identity, no ‘real you’; we are different people in each individual situation, virtual and actual. Our identities are in constant flux.
• There is no ‘truth’ in history (personal or national), memory cannot be relied upon as evidence for knowledge;
• People who claim to know the ‘truth’ can’t be trusted;
• Fiction and fact depend on each other to the point that they can’t be divided – in the end they can’t be separated;
• Knowledge doesn’t ‘add up’ cohesively to ‘truth’; there are too many contradictory elements.

narrative recap:

• todorov (beginning middle end)
• vladimir propp (character types and function): stock characters, the hero, the villain, the dispatcher, operates in “spheres of action” hero goes after villain
• claude levi-strauss (binary oppositions): narratives are structured w/ oppositions
• *symour chatman: satellites and kernels (main bits and sub-bits that arent as necessary – appear around it)

time – how the progression of time works in the narrative (linear, nonlinear). Beginning, middle, end etc

space – the type of location wherein the music video is in. This usually changes. It is common for music videos to incorporate shots from a different area in space and possibly time

theme – music videos run from a solid theme which normally affects the mood of the video.

linear – the progression of time that follows a strict beginning-middle-end structure. For example, if you have a linear music video, the music video will go beginning-middle-end

sequential – the progression of a story that follows a ‘one after the other’ event sequence

story – the lowdown of what the music video is about

plot – how the story is organised

memento works using a reverse-organised (nonlinear) plot, where the ending is the beginning and the beginning is the end. this works within the story, revolving around the fact that the main character experiences short term memory loss

roland barthes:

• proairetic code: action, movement, causation
• hermenuetic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development

levi-strauss: binary oppositions: truth and lies (facts and fiction) (this is shown in the plot with the main character’s friend pretending to be supportive compared with the dramatic irony of them being the murderer as well as the main character getting defensive when someone tries to help them, assuming there is something wrong)

function of story: to provide a meta-narrative

flashback – a scene shown in an earlier part of the linear structure that is re-shown

flash-forward – a scene shown in a later part of the linear structure that is shown before it happens

parallel narrative – where two or more narratives run at the same point in the structure

enigma code: a puzzle, something to resolve

light/shade – you need humour to balance negativity within narrative

elision – joining things together

elipsis – leaving things out

THINKING ABOUT NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

• The film begins with Leonard shooting Teddy – the climax of his quest for vengeance. The main question facing Leonard is ‘Who killed his wife?’ and ‘How can he find him to take revenge?’ These questions seem to be answered in the first five minutes – so what enigmas are created for the audience as the plot moves (backwards in time)?

Several enigmas are created during the plot. for example, it begins to be more and more obvious that the man he kills is the wrong man, furthermore other characters are questioned as the audience learns more and more about them and an enigma is created due to their actions each flashback.

• How are these enigmas answered? Are the answers stable (i.e. are the undermined by what we discover later)?

Although some enigmas can be answered, a lot also can’t

• If you had to plot this narrative – what shape would it take? Think about direction and shape ie Freytag’s pyramid. Can you draw out a schematic representation (ie a drawing) of this narrative structure?
• What are the key ‘KERNELS‘ in this narrative structure? What ‘SATELLITES‘ particularly stand out for you?

NARRATIVE, CHARACTER, TRUTH

• What is the significance of the story of Sammy Jenkins to Leonard? How ‘true’ is this story? What does this tell us about the relationship between facts, memories and fiction?

the story of sammy Jenkins mirrors Leonard’s own story, working as a ‘parallel’ to his own life. Later it is revealed in the subjective lens that it wasn’t sammy Jenkins that killed his own wife accidentally due to his condition but Leonard. This relates to facts and fiction as it is unsure if this is true or not, creating an enigma

• By the end of the film, do we feel like Leonard got the right man by shooting Teddy? List arguments for and against this view. How satisfying is the end of the film? What questions do you have left?

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

style models

– young rising sons – high

• the atlantic slave trade

Orientalism – Edward Said

The link between culture, imperial power & colonalism

• “the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, it is very important to culture and imperialism”
  • this means that the rise of dominant ideologies is ensured

• imperialism is a system based on economics

• in english literature, it creates “an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient int Western consciousness”

• the production of culture affects the view of the world of the public

The Orient as the ‘other’

• the recognition of the ‘other’ is mainly attributed to the french philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques lecan
• Lecan proposed that in infancy the first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror
• culture and literature works as a way of identifying ‘the other’
• for example the dominant ideology: white male and the ‘other’
• ‘US vs THEM’

Louis Althusser: ISA’s and the notion of ‘interpolation’

• all ideology hails or interpolates concrete individuals as concrete
• society is structured to keep you in your place
• “we are socially constructed”
• “what constructs us is the ruling ideology”
• ruling ideology is the ideology of the ruling class
• you are interpolated/hailed in that system as a certain subject
• marxism

Franz Fanon

• from martinique and went to france
• wrote about how white strangers would point out that he was black
• black man in france was constructed as “the other”
• encourages colionalised people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity:

1. find your culture – your mother country.
2. immerse yourself in your culture
3. fight for your rights: revolutionise

Gramsci – Hegemonic struggle

• culture is a ‘tug of war’ for power
• reclaiming language – slurs
• culture can change the world
• some cultural norms can overtake others
• certain ideas are more influential
• hegemony is a struggle that emerges from negotiation and consent
• in order to take control of that power, the set minority must rise up

Common: Letter to the Free

• How can you apply Orientalism to Letter to the Free?
• Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• How is the audience hailed/interpoled/etc?
• in letter to the free the imagery of a black mirror is used. this may refer to Lecan’s theory of the ‘other’

Ghost Town

• Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ambiguity,

Paul Gilroy

• double consciousness: the idea of the duality of “black” and “british”. “British” and “black British” are different.
• hybridisation: as mix of nationalities: cultural polyvalency
• cross identities
• syncretism
• identity as ‘doubled’ or ‘less clear’

Equal Justice initiative: a narrative of white supremacy

• in alabama even after the slavery ban slavery skyrocketed up from 40,000 to 435,000
• montromery biggest slave capital of america
• 13th amendment (no slavery except as a punishment)
• southerners who were angry after losing the civil war killed and murdered black people
• black person 6 times more as likely to be enprisoned as white person

Letter to the Free

• slavery is still here in ‘different forms’ – incarceration

Dubois: the “veil”

POSSIBLE ESSAY STRUCTURE

(note don’t forget to support all of your ideas with details, examples and illustrations from the 2 CSP’s)

1. What is the link between society and media (ie McDougall/ Fenton)
2. How best to link 2 music videos and society? Postcolonialism
3. Postcolonial theory – Gilroy & WEB du Bois (double consciousness, hybridisation)
4. Postcolonialism is a way of understanding ‘the other’ Lacan – mirror theory / Edward Said Orientialism
5. How can music videos change ideas? Culture as a site of struggle – Althusser ISA / Gramsci Hegemony
6. Conclusion

Lecan: Mirror Theory

• seeing yourself in the other
• we use “the other” as a way of exploring ourselves
• for example, if you were black in the 1970s, you would have no appearance of identity due to a lack of representation

Edward Said and The “Orient”

• The orient could not represent itself
• media is the lens at which identity is formed

Hegemonic Struggle (Althusser)

• ideological state apparatus (ISAs) used to describe the ideologies tht are displayed to children through media that forms an identity
• interpolation – all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject
• a ‘tug of war’ – forced to look and think but you can reject ideology to create a struggle within society

Blackface

• historically popular stereotype that is a combination of mockery, fear and fascination from the white majority

THERE IS a difference between

• masculine: a representation of cultural traits attached to the idea of “men”, e.g. masculinity
• male: a matter of literal representation of men

and

• feminine: a representation of cultural traits attached to the idea of “women”, e.g. femininity
• female: a matter of literal representation of women

Toril Moi (1987)

Toril divided these into categories:

• feminist: a political opinion
• female: a matter of biology
• feminine: a set of culturally defined characteristics

Laura Mulvey: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

• visual pleasure, the signs of visual pleasure

• the male gaze

• women is seen as “image” and the man as “the bearer of the look”
• therefore, “looking” is a male priority, with their priority being the sexualisation of the female form
• there is a world of imbalanced power
• the pleasure in looking is split between the active male and the passive female
• there is no true female representation because female characters are designed around the male gaze
• mulvey draws on freudian psychology, the concept of scopophilia (a pleasure of looking).
• fetishism (freudian), to cut up parts and only use certain parts
• the fetishism of women is using only parts that are sexualised
• systemic sexism

*Jacques L’ecain

• there is a moment in child development where you finally understand that you are a person
• there is a moment where we see ourselves in the mirror and recognise that it is us
• L’ecain recognises that we never see ourself, only a mirror image of ourselves.

Mulvey combines L’ecain’s theory of self recognition with the media to create a theory of representation in the media. The idea of cinema for Mulvey is that you see someone on a screen and that helps you to form an idea of identity. This concretes ideas in our mind

Gender Representation

• breaking down the idea of gender

• gender roles

gender roles are the stereotypical actions assigned to gender. For example, women are “carers” and men “earn a living”

Ariel Levy: Raunch Culture

engaging with the male gaze for your own benefit for the need of your own power (reclaiming the male gaze)

• performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality
• This could be done for profit (to make a living), for example, sex workers

Third and 4th wave feminism

• 1st “we want the female vote”
• 2nd all images of female bad
• 3rd and 4th intertextuality – intersection of experience that women need to account for

Judith Butler

• gender is performed (acting that is crucial to the gender we are)
• gender is a social construct:

If male equals “having masculine traits” and female equals “having feminine traits”, what are gendered traits? if you possess feminine traits but are seen in society as male, the idea of gender breaks down. Therefore it is evident that gender is merely a social construct.

Bell Hooks: Cultural Criticism and

• popular culture has power as it serves as a popular medium for those who want to understand politics

institutional sexism

• Bombshell (accounts of women at Fox News, US News corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch, exposing Roger Ailes as a sexual harasser)

jean killbourne (TED talk)

• 1960s systematic sexism through advertising which still occurs today
• 2nd wave feminism: equality for women (in jobs for example)
• “the influence of advertising is quick, effective and subconscious”
• postcolonialism: whitewashing in women (intersectionality)
• men and women “inhabit two different worlds”: when women are objectified they are always living in a “world of danger”
• objectification of women has an add-on effect on young girls where young children are taught to sexualise at a young age
• “sex sells”, and has become more graphic today which puts more women at risk due to harmful stereotypes
• women and girls are taught to be “sexually available”, and to see themselves as “sexual objects”
• objectification leads to violence due to normalisation of dangerous attitudes
• “we must think as ourselves as consumers rather than citizens”