Music Videos and Gender Music videos imagery and setting tends to influence the attitudes and characters of its youthful viewers. Most of these videos are gender-stereotyped and they expose some sexual attitudes that influence its viewers. Content analyses of music videos display gender roles besides stereotyping, particularly for women who are under- represented (Boosalis, & Golombisky 23). You belong with me is popular culture music video by Taylor swift (Taylor). It topped the charts in 2009 with its perfect exposure of gender-stereotyping theme.
In the video, Swift who represents the female gender plays as a high school outcast who is a nerd besides being in love with her next-door neighbor. Her neighbor represents the male gender and he is a popular football quarterback in the video (Taylor). According to the video, despite the girl being smart and talented, she has managed to acquire high academic achievements but not happy for her joy depends on earning the boy’s love. This is evident in the way she constantly tries to capture the boy’s attention but he does not seem to notice her. Just as Karloff said, cultural images enforce the notion that women depend on romance for happiness. In the minds of the youthful viewers, the will then learn from the video that the only way to be happy is to get involved in a heterosexual relationship (Boosalis, & Golombisky 25).
This videos tends to bring out the perception than men are powerful and women whereas the female gender inferior. In addition, the cultural images of the video portray that women are subordinate to men in the society since Swift in the video relies on the relationship between her and the boy for happiness (Boosalis, & Golombisky 23). The consumers of these images who mostly may be adolescents and most especially girls need guidance and should be critical when deciding how they conduct their normal life experiences with cultural representation from the video images (Taylor).
Work Cited
Boosalis, E. & Golombisky, K. Women’s Interpretations of Music Videos Featuring Women Artists. Journal of Research on Women and Gender March 1, 2010. University of South Florida
Taylor Swift. You belong with me. You Tube. You Tube Inc. 16Th January 2009.
