AKA: To what extent can it be argued that the video to Riptide encodes feminist ideological perspectives?
Irony: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect - Google dictionary :O
While arguably the video to Riptide by Vance Joy reinforces a range of troubling patriarchal and fetishistic representations of women being tormented and attacked, it is very possible that the video is criticising the role of women within music videos, within horror films, and within society.
Stuart hall argues that representations influence the ways in which individuals are treated in society. But is it possible for a media product, in this case a music video to use stereotypical codes to CRITICISE the representation of women in society? And, by criticising hegemonically enforced patterns of inequality, can the video to Riptide be feminist in its intentions? Let's find out!
Cheers Owen for the screencaps! And thank you to this year's R and T and last year's Q and U blocks for providing these responses to a tricky question!
- Low angled shot of woman posing much like a statue, her gesture a reference to objectification. This gesture could draw reference to the use of women's bodies to sell media products
- MS of woman puling free of ropes. Dressed in small blouse and even smaller shorts
- MS of woman in a graveyard, low key natural lighting connotes death, misery, darkness and destruction
- MS slow POV shot of woman removing swimming costume is critical of the sexualisation commonplace in music videos, and highly critical of the representation of body types.
- Many shots put the audience in to an uncomfortable mode of address
- Second beach shot of woman in MS smoking, suddenly turns to the audience and directly addresses them, positioning the target audience as the 'danger' and as a threatening figure
- Master shot of woman singing, and slowly losing her makeup between shots. Deliberate lack of anchorage, and an unanswered hermeneutic code puts the audience on edge. The models lack of movement is particularly unpleasant. Model is submerged in absolute darkness, connotative of misery and depression,
- Presents a mocking parody of sexism in music videos – C/U “how to photograph girls” – connotes that women are purely present to be looked at by a heterosexual male audience
- Many shots of women in stereotypical male clothing. Low angle M/S of woman holding arms in a gesture that connotes power
- M/S of blonde woman bound in MES of tight ropes connotes the restrictions that women face in society, and is critical of the notion of women as a ‘weaker sex’ – connotative of ‘being tied down’ with maternal responsibilities etc
- Video lacks anchorage which forces audience to make own assumptions, simultaneously providing sexual gratification for male heterosexual audience, but also consistently informs the audience that scopophilia is creepy and not OK
- Ironic representation of patriarchal hegemony – M/S man standing in front of woman with torch in exaggerated pose and situation – graveyard
- Sexualised images utilised as referential codes – significant amount of film references draws attention to the negative representation of women in cinema
- C/U woman singing – connotations of rebellion and agency
- Music video lacks anchorage, forcing the audience to make own assumptions about the representations of women
- M/S gagged woman escaping from ropes lacks sexualised elements, and is presented purely as upsetting and challenging to the heterosexual male audience
- Ultimately the video is highly polysemic and most of all SUBVERSIVE of the hegemonic ideological perspectives normally seen in music videos
