How are female artists such as Lil Kim represented in Hip Hop music videos and why?
For my critical investigation I invested on how female artists such as Lil Kim are represented in music videos and why? The reason I wanted to invest in that particular type of area because now that we live in a modern world and music has become one of the most important priority in people life and has influenced them in a particular way for the society to think a certain way which creates stereotypes. ‘’it gets past the stereotypes and people hating each other because of those stereotypes’’ (1). Therefore by investing my critical investigation on how females are represented in music videos that controls the human mind off what to expect from females and how they should be like Brian McNair calls this ‘’the sexualisation of culture ‘strip tease culture’’(2), this means that nowadays the sexualisation of women in music videos are a tease to the males but this also means that women in music videos are sexualised therefore women are more recognised with being sexually active and are in favour of the male. I will be reinforcing stereotype facts from female music videos by analysing females in music videos and how they are represented which are two of Lil Kim videos called ‘’How many licks’’ and ‘’No matter what they say’’ and one historical text which is music video of Queen Latifah called ‘’U.N.I.T.Y’’ to see a comparison and a change between the 1970’s and the 21st century and how the generation has changed based on the developments of music and music videos.
The first music video of Lil Kim I will be analysing is ‘’How many licks’’. First of all you can tell from the songs name ‘’How many licks?’’ that it is a sexual song therefore the music video will also be expected to be sexual to express the title. The opening of the music video is a machine producing Lil Kim and copies of her which looks like Barbie’s and at the bottom of the page it is says made in USA, ''The black female body has stood as a marker for excessive exotic and sexuality in western society for centuries''(3) this opening connotes females being represented as objects and it is easy to produce and are not much thought off as the machine keeps on producing more and more Barbie’s, it also describes how the body should look like as it says ‘’first start off with the thighs and how it should like and then the upper body part then on the screen it appears ‘’fully edible’’ which is specifically pointed out so that it attracts the males therefore females are seen as sex objects and the to please the males, also connoting sexy and edible to feed the men to fill up the males like its food.
The clothing of Lil Kim is a corset, tights and high heels shoes and very feminine colours such as pink, the clothes are tight and bright to show the body but also to stand out in the crowd which connotes how females should be like in order to get males attention and be confident as Lil Kim. The camera shots of the video are mainly long shots, high angle shot and side shot. ‘’In terms of music video, negative images and misrepresentations are often those that are identified as sexually exploitative- images in which women are depicted simply as bodies or body parts to be observed and desired rather than social agents who have complex and drives of their own.’’(4) This is usually the male gaze camera which means it is shot by males in order to please the males that view the video. The reason they are using long angle shot is to show the whole image of Lil Kim and her figure. The high angle shot is used to look down on her this shows even though she is a rapper and has power but she is still a female and therefore by looking down on her she is still not stronger than males, the other reason they are using high angle shot is because she is wearing a corset and her cleavage is low so that the viewers are able to see her breasts which connotes pleasure. They also use side shots of Lil Kim is to show off her figure and how big and proportion the body of females should be such as big ass, skinny waist and big breasts. It has shots of zooming into Lil Kim and other girls sexual dancing in her bra and underwear this identifies that females are just for sex.
It has other shots of a male sleeping while thinking about Lil Kim describing sex positions and the male is sweating and moving around. ‘’'It is possession of a 'sexy body' that is presented as women's key (if not sole) source of identity.’’(5) To show that females are good for sex and turning on males easily. Having sex sound in the music and the high angle shot looking down on Lil Kim shows she is still weak but able to give pleasure to the male. Showing a bunch of guys fighting over Lil Kim means that males are hungry for females and just want females just to please themselves even though they are weak and emotional and are only used for their own pleasure and satisfaction. However towards the end there is a shot where Lil Kim is wearing black and driving a car this shows that she is powerful but also connoting that females are able to ‘’drive’’ or control males and are as strong but also mysterious because of the dark colour which is the alternative representation of females.
The second video I analyzed for my critical investigation is a historical text to compare it with music videos from nowadays which is Queen Latifah a female rapper from the 70s back then and even now their ideologies were ‘’It is a multibillion-dollar industry based on debauchery, disrespect and self-destruction.’’(6)dicing and cussing each other or their haters, even though she was a female rapper her behavior and the way she spoke, walk or dress was mainly because rappers were mainly identified with males and not females therefore in order for a female to fit in was to act like a female and be strong and be disrespectful. ‘’It ain’t about security. It ain’t about bling bling. It ain’t about how much your gun can shoot. It ain’t about $200 sneakers. It ain’t about me being better than you or you being better than me. It’s about you and me connecting one to one. That’s why it has a universal appeal’’ (7). Back then the female rappers were not showing off their body all they cared about was the rap and were more masculine to fit in with the rest. ‘‘A woman attired as a man may be seen as ‘power dressing’ or as adapting the mannerism of lesbianism’’ (8) These are reflected in media such as newspapers, TV, magazine etc., because nowadays the female rappers have to be explicit and attractive too to be successful and attract a wider audience, whereas back then in the 70s it was just about the voice the rap which made you cool and got more successful.
The zeitgeists of the 70s were political awareness and political and economic liberty of women that continued to grow from that decade and onwards. Therefore the rappers were back then rapping about economic factors of their income or how females started to contribute to the hip hop culture. ''The black female body has stood as a marker for excessive exotic and sexuality in western society for centuries’’ (9) Compared to music videos now that is more explicit and more sexual and prove the dominant ideology of females which is as sex objects, weak and emotional. Nowadays the music has become more personal and the problems they have personally and has become meaningless and are specifically targeted at another artist rather than rapping about what is occurring around the world at the moment therefore the music industry has become more irrelevant and only now one type of audience likes the music rather than a wider audience which would appeal to all of them. ‘’they dress as if they’re going to the playa’s pimp ball’’(10) music videos now look half naked females with sex appeal to please the males gaze, which is different from the 70s where all female rappers were covered and weren’t explicit at all. These type of music videos changes males society ideology of females it will think less of females and just females would get less respect and more seen as sex objects and not taking serious.
The third video I analysed is ‘’no matter what they say’’ by Lil Kim which is an alternative ideology of females ‘Men were much more likely to adventurous, active, and victorious, whereas women were more frequently shown as weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, or laughable or merely ‘token females.’’(11), you can tell from the name of her song that it will be about her and that is being herself and she’s in power and described as strong which is usually seen as masculine. ‘’Women should be more vocal in denouncing sexism in rap music and in our society because our livelihood and our lives depend on it’’ (12) The opening of the music video is different looks of Lil Kim in like a picture frame small size connoting she has different sides to her rather than what only the media think of her as a overall. The main opening is that is a low angle shot looking up to her with dancers around her, this connotes that she is in power and we have to look up to her. The clothing of Lil Kim is underwear and a short corset which is to show off her body and attract the male audience.
Throughout the music video there have been only two types of camera shots being used which is a low angle shot and a long shot which usually starts from the bottom and slowly goes up. ’’The music, dances and images in the video are clearly reminiscent of the era when pop culture reduced blacks to caricatures: lazy 'coons,' grinning 'pickaninnies,' sexually super-charged ‘bucks’’ (13). The reason they mainly use low angle shots is to connote that Lil Kim is in power, it’s all about her which is an alternative point of ideology of females as they are usually described as weak and emotional and rather have a high angle shot looking down on any female.
This music video is mainly focused on females and is considered to be in charge. However there is a shot of a camera shot of few females starting to show them and the camera slowly moves down which connote that male are below females and females are in control which is an alternative ideology of females. ‘’Many black women singers, irrespective of the quality of their voices, have cultivated an image which suggests they are available and licentious’’(14), on the other hand even though Lil Kim is trying to prove a point of females being in charge in some of the scenes she does act masculine which is rough and her body language this connotes that even though she is in charge and has power but because she sometimes acts like a male therefore it is referred back to the dominant ideology of male whereas the strong and the powerful person, which Lil Kim is representing.
"They don't know whether to be a gun moll for a gangster or a mother and they are confused as to what role they should take."(15) Throughout the music video she is half naked with a lot of males around her which connotes a typical ideology of females being surrounded by males and getting all the attention to be used and seen as sex objects the other view of that is she is a successful rapper because she is alike like males which all goes back to do the dominant ideology of males. There is a high angle shot of Lil Kim laying down with her underwear and corset and high heels on this is a typical camera shot of females this connotes they are weak and just seen as sex objects.
Females and female rappers such as Lil Kim are represented as typical stereotypes of ‘‘the fascination with black 'butts' continues. In the sexual iconography of the traditional black pornographic imagination the protruding butt is seen as an indication of heightened sexuality’’(16) females and she reinforces these stereotypes in her music videos which is females are weak, emotional, for pleasure, sex object and not taking seriously, due to the fact that nowadays almost all music videos are tend to be similar and explicit as Lil Kim’s videos it has a negative influence on the society ‘Stereotypes survive by undergoing change and by convincing us that they’re not entirely false(17).’’ which means males think less of women, sexually active and are treated as sex objects to be pleasing themselves with ‘’Women are not straightforwardly objectified but are presented as active, desiring sexual subjects who choose to present themselves in a seemingly objectified manner because it suits their liberated interests to do so’’(18) therefore the media does influence how society thinks as the media is a gate keeper and controls the flow of information being exposed and how to attract audience which gives the society a hint of how think.
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