Contemporary music videos have become a powerful medium for exploring the relationship between gender and the body. In particular, the depiction of the female body is often central to perpetuating and challenging the male gaze. Using artists such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and FKA twigs as examples, this article explores how music videos critique the objectification of women by subverting traditional visual tropes. Utilizing scholarly research and online resources, the article argues that the female body in music videos has become a site of feminist critique, challenging patriarchal norms and offering new modes of representation.

Theoretical Foundations: The Male Gaze and Subversion

Diane Railton and Paul Watson (2011) argue that music videos have historically perpetuated the male gaze, framing women as objects of desire for heterosexual male viewers. However, contemporary music videos have increasingly resisted this tradition by positioning women as active agents of their expression. Drawing on Laura Mulvey’s notion of the “male gaze,” these videos subvert traditional power dynamics by reconfiguring the ways in which the female body is viewed and contextualized. This is represented by Taylor Swift’s ‘The man’ which breaks down the boundaries between men and women through gender reversal and shows the reality of inequality through satire, a subversive image that is rare to find.

Feminist spectacle and digital aesthetics

Lady Gaga’s music videos, such as “Bad Romance,” exemplify feminist critique. Caetlin Benson-Allott (2013) describes the ways in which Lady Gaga uses ‘digital failure’ and mutant aesthetics to subvert traditional images of femininity.Gaga’s combination of fragmented visuals and incoherent narratives disrupts the coherence and control usually associated with the male gaze, presenting the female body as a spectacle that defies categorization.

Similarly, Beyoncé’s Lemonade challenges conventional representations of black women and sexuality. In particular, the video for “Formation” juxtaposes images of vulnerability and strength by presenting the black female body as a site of empowerment. Steven Shaviro (2017) highlights how the aesthetics of glitch in digital music videos add multiple layers of ambiguity that complicate traditional readings of the female body as merely passive or commodified.

Critique of Incarnation: Dance, Movement and the Female Body

FKA twigs provides another example of feminist critique through her music videos. In works such as Cellophane, her use of pole dancing – a traditionally objectified performance medium – translates into an intimate exploration of vulnerability, strength and resilience. The combination of choreography and surreal visuals emphasizes the complexity of her physical performance, turning the gaze inward rather than outward. As Shaviro (2017) points out, these types of videos align with the “cinematic turn” of music videos, borrowing cinematic techniques to create richer, more layered embodiments.

Race, femininity, and representation

The intersection of race and gender is also crucial when examining how music videos address the politics of representation.Railton and Watson (2011) point out that the hyper-visibility of black female bodies in music videos tends to reproduce stereotypes. However, artists such as Beyoncé challenge this by recasting this visibility as a form of resistance, celebrating cultural heritage while critiquing systemic oppression.

Contemporary music videos have evolved into a medium that not only entertains viewers, but also critiques social norms. Artists such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga and FKA twigs have challenged the male gaze through innovative aesthetics and empowering depictions, providing a feminist perspective on the relationship between gender and the body. By utilizing the visual and narrative potential of music videos, they oppose objectification and create space for new, empowering modes of representation.

References

Railton, D., & Watson, P. (2011). Music Video and the Politics of Representation. Edinburgh University Press.
Shaviro, S. (2017). “Glitch Aesthetics.” in Digital Music Video.
Benson-Allott, C. (2013). “Going Gaga for Glitch: Digital Failure and Feminist Spectacle in Twenty-First-Century Music Videos”. in The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, eds. Vernallis, Herzog, & Richardson. oup usa.
Vernallis, C. (2013). Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Videos, and the New Digital Cinema. Oxford University Press.
Beyoncé. lemonade.(2016). The Visual Album.

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Writer by Zike Ding

Student ID: 33841744