Blog 2
Prompt 1: I chose the Music video for Mamacita by Travis
Scott for this blog. The actual song itself doesn’t start till about 1:27 and it
involves the main artist Travis along with two other artists in the Video and
the other cast in the video involve women. The reason I chose this video was
because it fit into the male gaze and how they use women and their bodies as
props.
Prompt 2:
Authorship- Rap
culture created this text. It’s typical for them to use half naked women in
music videos and this has been happening for years it is now seen as normal. Consumers
also created this video considering the music video itself has 45 million views,
they buy into it and it gives artist like Travis Scott the idea that this is
what his audience likes to see. The typical answer for who created the message
of course would be the artist themselves, they had a choice to not add half
naked women and have them dancing in the background yet they went against it.
Format- The women
in the video are portrayed in bright colors. They have Glow in the dark paint
on them, their face is painted to look like skeletons and they are given light
sticks. It’s safe to say your eyes are meant to be drawn to them. They also
appear for not reason between shots. The artist will be singing and then it
cuts to a shot of a women dancing. They also have no part in the plot they just
dance around the artist and since they are in bright attire your gaze is mainly
on them. It also does not make it better that the song is called Mamacita where
it’s talking sexually about women.
Audience- For men,
I believe this video is aesthetically pleasing. I mean the song itself is basic
but it’s catchy and as for visuals the women are portrayed very sexually. They
have no clothing covering their upper half and it’s in a sense pornographic so
it conforms to the male gaze. As for women it can be also appealing to watch
but it also can bring a sense of being uncomfortable to watch women who are
basically naked appear and move around men, it gives us an idea that this is
how we are supposed to act around men and how we are supposed to look to appeal
to them sexually.
Content- In this
video we get the message that women are basically used for their bodies and are seen as probs to be hanging
around men. From such a big artist it just further spreads this ideology that
women are needed to attract attention and that they are sexual beings.
Purpose- The purpose
was to gain views. Women in videos are known to attract more attention and it obviously
worked considering the fact he has an estimated 45 million views. Also, most of
his fans are males so this video is something he thought they would enjoy. He
also was not attempting to do anything out of the norm or controversial. This song
made him a little more known then he already was so it achieved its purpose.
I agree with your analysis on how rap culture is revolved around women exposing their bodies like props. This idea of women are sexual beings has drove the world of media to a point where the video with more half dressed women gets the most views. It’s crazy how our society have to meet up to these expectations for women to dress a slutty way in order to be considered famous for rap culture.
ReplyDeleteHey Priscilla
ReplyDeleteI really like the cultural artifact you chose because Travis Scott is one of my favorite hip-hop artists. The music video to the song "mamacita" is a great example of an artifact expressing traditional gender roles. Travis Scott isn't exactly a clean artist as he likes to rap about drugs and sexualizing women throughout his music videos. The Spanish word "mamacita" describes a women as hot. the word can be expressed as offensive depending on the context its used in. Now a days a hip-hop music video would not be a hip-hop music video without beautiful women dressed in a slutty manner. It sucks that society has gotten to the point where rap music videos are not filmed without sexualizing women.
- Justin Alcaide
Hey Priscilla, I really liked how you analyzed this music video. I agree with you that the rap culture is always objectifing women and making them seem only worthy if they have a certain type of body. I like how you interpreted that them having glow sticks meant that all the attention was for them. I agree because the women are being looked at by the guys, and it makes it seem like all eyes are on them. In my opinion this is just sexualizing them because having them like that only shows that they are there for the mens gaze. I also agree that the women are used for views because Travis Scott and his team knows that if there is women in it guys will definitely tune in to watch. Great job analyzing this video.
ReplyDelete