Alternative Representation of Women

The Hip Hop genre is predominantly dominated my male artists who create music videos that represent woman as decoration, objects for sexual gratification and are essentially subordinated. The women in these Hip Hop music videos are nameless talentless woman that are only seen as sexual objects and are mostly commodified. Their bodies are fetishized with close-ups and sometimes the face can never be seen to accompany the body at times. On the other hand, the odd majority of female hip hop artist that produce music video represent themselves alternatively to the music videos of male artists.

Eve in the music video ‘Tambourine’ is represented as a woman that is talented due to the obvious fact that she is the star if the music video. She also seems to not acknowledge the male gaze in the music video because it is not apparent that a man is lusting over her body or touching her, and she doesn’t seem to be engaging intimately with the opposite sex, which can show that she is not dependent on a man and she is powerful and successful without a man in her life. Also her body is not actually being fetishized in close-ups or medium close-ups. The only close-ups that are used are usually for her face and lips. Furthermore Eve is also being served in the music video which is the absolute opposite to what a woman would be stereotypically doing in a hip hop music video of a male artist.

However Eve is not representing herself as a feminist or post-feminist, because she seems to be taking the role of the male representation in hip hop in music videos; surrounded by beautiful women and materialistic things such as cars- as if Eve would like to be a man rather than a post-feminist. If Eve was representing herself as feminist or post-feminist she would have had good looking men dancing around her and serving her drinks, evidently showing that she is challenging gender roles in hip hop music videos, however the fact that she is being served by women and the women around her self-objectifying themselves shows that maybe women will always have their place in hip hop music videos as decoration or as a mans or even a women’s status of power and wealth.

Another example of an alternative representation of women in hip hop is Ciara’s ‘Like a Boy’ music video. In this music video the female artist is dressed as a man and the opening line of the video is ‘Ladies I think its time to switch roles’. This music video is obviously addressing gender roles in society. The female artist in the music video is playing both the male and female in the music video which suggests that men and women are equal and that women are fed up with conforming to their stereotypical perception and roles in society. Ciara is not the only woman that is alternatively represented; the female back-up dancers are also switching their roles, overtly presenting this by dressing up as men. Ciara has many looks in this video and one of them is very androgynous rather than the obvious male/female look she has. Androgynous looking women are hardly ever seen in Hip Hop music videos and this is a very alternative representation of women in Hip Hop music videos.

Also in ‘Like a Boy’ the women in the music video are not used as decoration, are not used to serve men or for the purpose of the male gaze, which are again very alternative representation of women in Hip Hop music videos. Moreover the only male in the music video who seems to be the female artists love interests seems passive, powerless and talentless, compared to the women in the video who either sing or dance, which shows that maybe Ciara is a feminist who believes that women shouldn’t be subordinated.