Subversion or Reinforcement? A Tale of Two Videos
Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” video, released in 1986, depicts Palmer surrounded by five women all dressed in short, tight, black dresses and heels made-up in red lipstick and smokey eyeshadow (IMDB). The women in this video do nothing more than sway to the music against the red stormy background, feigning playing various instruments with sultry gazes on their faces. Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman”, released in 1999, appears to be a role reversal of this scene, with Twain beginning the music video in front of the same red background dressed in androgenous clothing, with five men in tight shirts and pants surrounding her (IMDB). However, as the video progresses, Twain gradually removes clothing, revealing a short black dress emblematic of stereotypically feminine fashion. While at first seeming to produce two different messages, both videos ultimately share similarities, both in background aesthetics and messaging.
Both Palmer and Twain’s videos are similar in terms of scenery; both videos depict a highly-gendered environment surrounded by a red stormy background. The contrast between the male and the female in both videos highlights the binaries of opposition within heteronormative gender ideals. Stuart Hall highlights this idea of binary oppositions in describing the male ideal formed in contrast to that of the female (Hall, 235). He claims that while these differences help signify meaning, they are also “rather crude and reductionist” (Hall, 235). Palmer makes no attempt to refute these binaries, instead epitomizing the difference between male and female, placing the emphasis of power on the masculine identity. His video displays a singular representation of feminineness by choosing to represent only thin, white women, reinforcing stereotypes of how women should look and reducing them to only a few characteristics (Hall, 249). In this, he fails to depict a nuanced understanding of the complexity of gendered identities, taking instead an essentialist approach and normalizing over-simplified gender distinctions. At the beginning of Twain’s video, it seems that she is subverting this oversimplification of gender by wearing androgenous clothing and having her male-presenting background actors wear smokey eyeshadow. According to Hall, these can be seen as the “marking of ‘difference’”, where conventional identifications of male and female are undermined by these role-reversals (Hall, 233). However, as the video continues, Twain gradually removes her clothing to reveal a short black dress, while the men in the music video remain in their original outfits. The original refutation of the binary opposition is removed as the gendered norms are reestablished. This is reinforced by the lyrics of Twain’s song, in which she associates “short skirts” and letting “it all hang out” with the idea of femininity as displayed by her clothing choices (Twain). This “insinuates that to feel truly female, women need to wear as little clothing as possible” (Kosit, 247). While the song originally has the potential to be a powerful anthem about reclaiming female sexuaity, it ultimately misses the mark when the fully clothed men watch Twain continually remove articles of clothing, reinforcing the idea of binaries of opposition as described by Hall. Thus, both videos ultimately end up reinforcing stereotypical notions of gender identities and fail to be inclusive of marginalized groups.
While seeming to differ in messaging at the beginning, both videos ultimately embrace heternormaive ideals. Palmer’s messaging is more immediately apparent; at the beginning of the video, the camera pans over the women in short dresses and sultry makeup, embodying the ideal of a woman as an object of pleasure. This is consistent with Andi Zeisler’s perception of the male gaze, in which she critiques the depiction of the female body in the media as “nothing more than objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable” (Zeisler, 8). In the “Addicted to Love” video, the role of the women in the background is negligible, with the focus being on Palmer singing in front of these hypersexualized mannequin-like women. The womens’ tight dresses and traditionally seductive-looking makeup, coupled with their lack of substantive contribution to the video, affirms their role as an object to be sexualized by the viewer. The role of women in this video epitomizes the “split between active/male and passive/female”, where the women sway calmly wearing blank expressions while Palmer sings actively (Mulvey as cited in Ziesler, 8). Their lack of activity further demonstrates their role as part of the background, as inanimate objects to be enjoyed solely for their aesthetic purposes. At the beginning of Twain’s “Man! I feel like a Woman'' video, the gender roles seem to be reversed, with Twain dressed in androgenous clothing standing in front of five men in extremely tight clothing. While an equally problematic trope of hypersexualization of men of a certain body type still exists, the plot seems to have the potential for commentary on the issues of heternormative depictions in the media. However, as the video progresses, Twain removes articles of clothing, revealing a short black dress while the men remain fully dressed in their, albeit tight, clothing. By the end of the video, the tone of the video seems to be consistent with the idea of the male gaze, where the woman is hypersexualized in relation to the male figures. These two examples are illustrative of the larger trend in the media for women to be hypersexualized in accordance with the male gaze. Even when videos appear to be a symbol of sexual liberation, they often end up portraying tropes consistent with that of the male viewpoint, leading to the degradation of the image of the female body.
Despite their differences, both videos ultimately end up reinforcing stereotypical gender roles that embody the idea of the male gaze. While Twain’s video initially seems like a spoof of Palmer’s version and an attempt to comment on the stereotypical norms his visual embodies, it ultimately ends up portraying similarly problematic themes. Thus, these videos display a theme of stereotypical representation in the media in terms of gender with subtler themes of lacking diverse representation.
Works Cited
Encyclopedia of Gender in Media, edited by Mary E. Kosut, SAGE Publications, Incorporated, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=996572.
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. The Open University.
IMDb.com. (1999, March 3). Shania Twain: Man! I feel like a woman. IMDb. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301834/
IMDb.com. (n.d.). Robert Palmer: Addicted to Love. IMDb. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4645566/.
ShaniaTwainVEVO. (2009, October 8). Shania Twain - Man! I feel like a woman (official music video).
YouTube. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg
Commenter: Annabel Sumardi
ReplyDeleteMadison analyzes the male gaze and stereotypical binaries of opposition in the two music videos: Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love”, and Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”. While the latter video appears to transcend the binary opposition stereotypes in the start, Madison states how the eventual clothing change from a masculine trench coat to a small black dress plays back into the male gaze. This video plays into ideas of popular feminism presented by Sarah Banet-Weiser, specifically the commodification of feminism. Banet-Weiser’s ideas of popular feminism, the waves of feminism, and commodity feminism are important for understanding the music video which Madison analyzes. Twain’s lyrics and clothing work towards the goal of circulating feminism through popular culture, and the dress which Madison notes may play into the male gaze might also be considered a form of feminism. In the third wave of feminism, women (re)embrace feminine identity. This wave is more abstract and less militant, but women retain a sense of empowerment by embracing sexuality. Twain may be embracing femininity in order to reclaim agency over female sexuality, as opposed to playing into male gaze. Her place in popular culture does cause this embrace of femininity to play into commodity feminism, where her music video not only embraces feminine identity, but also mobilizes feminism through consumption. The feminism becomes the product, as women are inspired to listen to the song or play the music video to support the femininity. This popular feminism is productive in its raising awareness of feminism, but it does not necessarily challenge the patriarchy, as other forms of feminism do. Still, its success does have benefits to the feminist movement just by increasing the audience who might hear the motto “I feel like a woman!” in a positive context.