A brief analysis of the representation of Women in the 'Blurred Lines' Music Video from an A-Level Media student's perspective.

1. Robin Thicke, Blurred
Lines- The Representation
of Women in Music Videos

2. The Video
On first glance the song appears to be a generic catchy pop song,
within the Video. Their representation, which is on the whole nega

3. • As different to men- This can be seen in terms of costume as the
men are all dressed in black, and the women in white, creating a
divide between the two sexes. Establishing this divide at the Video’s
beginning, between male and female allows for the idea that women
are inferior to men to be set up later on within the Video.
• As Innocent- This is something that the costume use also indicates
as the colour white, which they wear, is often associated with
innocence and purity. However, dressing the female characters in
white juxtaposes their explicitly sexual (and so not innocent)
behaviour, presenting them thus as deceptive and corrupt.
• As Childish- The women are often seen to ‘play’ with toys in the
video in a way that children might. Use of these props allows makes
them comparable to children and thus demeans them.
How are Women Represented?

4. This screenshot encapsulates the misogny of this video
perfectly- showing its voyeuristic nature. Here, Pharrell
objectifies the female character by focusing only on her
physical attributes- he is gazing directly at her bottom. Women playing with Toy’s- shows that they’re childish (a demeaning idea)
As Objects- In the video women are physically manipulated by men as
if they were objects, with little respect, (for example at 0.48, the
camera zooms in to Robin Thicke who is pulling at one girl by her
pony tail). They are also objectified in the sense that they are viewed
by the men as objects and as being only physically valuable. Use of
Camera-work allows for close ups on certain areas of the female body
in demonstration of this. Often such shots last for a lengthy amount of
time too (thanks to editing), allowing more time for objectification to
take place. -In this sense the Music Video adheres directly to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory,
which places emphasis on the dominance of men and the misogynistic objectification of women.

5. As Silent and submissive- Digetic Sound in the form of this song’s
lyrics instantly takes away the voice from the women in the video.
Lyrics such as ‘Not many women can refuse this pimping’ present the
entire female sex as voiceless and passive to their male counterparts,
whom they cannot ‘refuse’. The fact that they are sung by male artists
to unresponsive women, who merely accept what is said with a smile
and a hair flip, only serves to emphasise this point.
As not as important as Men- Besides the fact that men dominate the
sound of this video, editing is also used to show their importance over
and above women. The superimposition of the hashtag- #THICKE
(which is dominates the screen and is seen several times throughout
the video) acts as a constant reminder of his importance and thus the
importance of men within the video.

6. y is the representation of women in ‘Blurred Lines’ a problem
women are, of course equal to their male counterparts. Not only is their p
Despite this the Director of the Video (who was ironically female) has defended it
by saying: “It forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators. I directed
the girls to look into the camera. This is very intentional and they do it most of the
time; they are in the power position. I don't think the video is sexist. The lyrics are
ridiculous, the guys are silly as fuck."

7. misogynistic nature of this video; by making my video in anyway sexist wo
ype or to cause the type of offence which would make people unlikely to w