- How are women represented in this video?
Women are represented as a spectacle in this music video- the audience is consistently positioned as a voyeur (particularly when the women are in danger and the audience should help). Instead, they're watching them in moments of distress for extended amounts of time due to the use of editing. There are many mid-shots of their body and medium shots of their face to represent them as something to be valued by looks. This use of cinematography positions the audience as directly behind/in front of them, they're on the same level as them most of the time and it's very 'casual'- like the audience is there. This represents them as fairly ordinary- they're not placed on a pedastool.
As previously mentioned the women are often in moments of distress- conveyed by mise-en-scene of low-key lighting, horror genre iconography and performance. This represents them as the stereotypical 'damsel in distress.' However, the woman can be seen to break free from the rope tying her to the tree- whilst this is the only example of the woman helping herself it does break the stereotype.
Furthermore, this video can be seen as challenging gender representation. The video begins with the women conforming to social norms of beauty and glamour- that is associated with women in the mainstream media. However, as the video progresses and you return to the character, her appearance alters as her make-up has smudged and her expressions become more and more vacant.
bell hooks would argue that this video is sending contradictory messages about gender. She would question whether the video is objectifying women or is it rejecting the social norms that women face.
- What is the symbolism of the mise en scene of the rope and the dental brace?
The rope and dental brace represent breaking free, the cu shot of the woman with the dental brace reflects how she feels trapped, the metal covering all her face connoting this further but also conveying how uncomfortable she must be. The shot focuses on the brace and her eyes, her gaze lands away from the camera connoting she is looking at the dentist (anchored by the lyrics). The uncomfortableness and sense of being trapped set up by the mise-en-scene tells the audience she wants to escape and break free.
“Is sung paralleled with the imagery of a girl escaping from a tree she had been tied to and her then running towards the sea away from the camera. It is almost as if she has escaped the relationship and is running towards the riptide which will carry her towards the dark side away from the singer. This idea of a fading relationship becomes more prominent as the video progresses with the light become lower as the song progresses, with the beginning shots being bathed in golden sunlight and the final shots a dull evening light. That light being the personification of the relationship which it is going out. This is what drew me to the video and was what I found so interesting about it, that it bares a fairly serious message, about inevitability not only in the context of a relationship, but in life in general. However the video attempts to contradict this and fool the audience into thinking that everything is random and the images are merely literal translations of the more ambiguous lyrics. The way in which it forces you to rewatch in order to find out what is going on is very powerful and achieves the ultimate goal of a music video to create interest in the song.”
- In what ways are we positioned as an audience?
Positioned as a voyeur (see above), this is highlighted particularly by the shots of people turning to look at the audience connoting they've been staring, most of the time their expressions are blank creating an uneasy atmosphere and making the audience want to stare more rather than look away as they 'should.'
The music video is practically formed of pov shots, reinforcing this voyeuristic positioning but also giving the audience personal access to all these women- representing them all as too desirable to pick one but also enforcing the hegemonic value that it's okay for men to be 'womanizers' but not for women to be 'sluts.'
The audience have a very limited point of view, they're not aligned to any one character and whilst they see recurring shots of characters they don't really know anyone- only being presented with abstract scenarios. This is effective as they become dependent on the lyrics for anchorage, thus the mv acts as an ideal advert for the song as the audience become attached.
- What links all the women in this video?
They're almost all blonde, they're all hegemonically attractive. Although a lot of them are in situations that distort their attractiveness (e.g- braces, horror iconography) they're all fundamentally ideal. This supports Van Zoonen's male gaze theory
- What message about women is constructed in this video, and what hegemonic expectations does this reinforce?
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