Research - Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey said .... From this quote we learn that Mulvey believes that in the media, the music industry in particular, women are objectified and are there for the purposes of pleasuring men. Whereas men are portrayed as powerful and dominant. Mulvey claims that there is an unequal portrayal between men and women in the media. Hip hop is a genre that is very male dominated and 98% of the time portrays women as sex symbols and nothing more than that. Lyrics in hip hop are usually degrading and devaluing to women, often referring to them as ‘bitches’ and ‘hoes’. Audiences will expect to see women wearing near to nothing but extremely made up with hair and makeup whereas males will usually be fully dressed in expensive designer clothes and expensive jewelry .

This is the video for popular rapper, French Montana’s – Pop That song. It is set at a pool party where most of the guests are women dressed in tiny bikinis and where the few men there are, (mostly the rappers that feature on the track) are fully dressed and wearing big chains and jewelry. The men are drinking expensive alcohol while the women throw themselves at the men, sending their audience the message that when you are wealthy you become powerful, have fun and can get what you want. The women in the video are dismembered and there are no focuses on the women as a whole but focus on the parts of the women’s bodies. There are many shots and tilts that focus on the women’s breasts, bum and leg area which almost forces the audience to look at their bodies. This says to their viewers ‘look at the bodies of these women, this is what they are here for’ Hip hop is a very male dominated industry therefore for female rappers to be noticed they often degrade themselves and rap about sexually explicit things.


However up and coming female rapper Honey Cocaine challenges this representation with the video for her remix to Trinidad James’ ‘All Gold Everything’. Honey Cocaine shows that women can be the same as men in regards to their power and wealth without degrading themselves. She is dressed completely appropriately without any flesh on show but she still looks current and fashionable. She is also wearing a lot of expensive looking gold jewelry, which shares the same representation as it does in male rappers videos but is not something we would typically expect from a woman. There is a wide shot of Honey sitting on stairs with two males in front of her. The two males are not looking at her or objectifying her but are sat in front of her which may be a symbol of protection and respect. There are no subliminal or symbols of sex and all other women are dressed modestly and appear powerful.