Feminism in ‘Telephone Video’

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Table of Contents

Analysis
Conclusion
References

When applying feminist theory in communication to analyze popular music, one ought to examine the extent to which individuals can forge their meanings and how social ideology is depicted through music. Feminists agree that culture is not static and that music can be a process of creating new feminist identities in culture rather than just portraying conventional notions of women. To demonstrate how feminist theory in communication is relevant to music, the paper will analyze the depiction of females, the vocal arrangements, representation of female roles and their visual appearance in Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” music video where it will be argued that the video is a mix of conventional notions of gender and non-feminist ideologies.

Analysis

Patriarchal society

The collaboration of Beyonce Knowles and Lady Gaga in their ‘telephone video’ is not just a narration of a story about an irritating telephone call; it is a reflection of male domination hence patriarchy. A glance at most of the scenes in the video reveals half-dressed females who are designed at appealing to male viewers. Lady Gaga is herself quite scantily dressed; in one scene where she takes on the role of a waitress, Gaga can be seen wearing a see-through dress with nothing more than pastries to cover her upper body ‘essentials’. In another scene, she can be seen wearing innerwear designed after the American flag. This video actually illustrates how women have become over-sexualized in music videos and are often regarded as male property. This only serves to increase male domination since images that please males are given precedence over those that do not. Feminist theory often argues that various cultural elements are used as objects to propagate the views of those in high positions. In this case, the over-sexualization of Lady Gaga and Beyonce shows how music is a tool for reinforcing the views of males who dominate their female counterparts and hence demonstrate a patriarchal society. (Dibben, 331)

Hegemony

Cultural hegemony is proliferated by various elements including music. In this way, dominant conceptions held by males are sometimes reinforced through music. The sexual explicitness of the telephone video is a representation of how male objectification is reinforced hence illustrating male hegemony. For instance, at the start of the video, Gaga wears a leather dress and then gets stripped nude. There are several other scenes where the actors exemplify sexual objectification. Although these actions seem somewhat personal, adherents to Antonio Gramsci’s hegemony argue that rules are not just a creation of the government since social processes are also characterized by domination. To this end, feminists argue that the personal translates to the political and that power relations are reinforced by common day-to-day occurrences. Gaga’s telephone therefore illustrates society’s definition of race, gender and class as defined in music. Sheppard (54) asserts that males feel naturally sidelined because they are not central to the biological process during reproduction. To compensate for this, they opt to dominate women so that they can feel that they are in control of the world. To do this, men seek to objectify and isolate them from social relations. Here female musicians are pushed to two major roles as nurturers or as sex objects. Although lady Gaga and Beyonce have attempted to modify the latter roles, one cannot ignore the fact that these women are packaging themselves as objects vulnerable to male suppression. Nonetheless, the concept of hegemony leaves room for renegotiation of power relations especially when repressed groups are dominated for so long. Most other pop videos often depict sexualized and weak women. In lady Gaga’s case, women have been depicted as sexualized but aggressive. She is therefore pushing the limits of hegemonic relationships.

Male gaze

Lady Gaga’s telephone brings out the concept of the male gaze as well. The phenomenon of the male gaze holds that a person who has control of the camera or who is responsible for the gaze then can make the person on the other side of the lens a victim or fetish. Here two major issues emerge concerning the male gaze and they include the use of the female body for viewing the pleasure of men and fragmentation of the female body in music. The kind of visualization present in the Telephone video is such that it attempts to present women as individuals that can be consumed. In the prison yard, Lady Gaga would have chosen to wear usual prison attire (blue overall) but she is instead depicted wearing a leather outfit that barely covers her torso. Furthermore, in the diner scene, she could have worn a simple McDonalds’ outfit but instead wore a see-through garment with nothing inside. After fleeing the crime scene, lady Gaga wears a leopard suit synonymous with sex kitten programming. At one point, she is wearing nothing but police tape. Gaga epitomizes fragmentation of women’s bodies as most of the portions emphasized are those that feed the male gaze. Through this gaze, power and gender relations can be depicted. (Humm 14) Some of the dance routines in the telephone video are also designed to appeal to the male gaze as movements are quite similar to those in sexual encounters. This is primarily for the male mind and symptomatic of how the male gaze determines how pop music videos are created.

Double standard

In the music video, there are various depictions of double standards. First, the visual depictions of Gaga, Knowles and other women in the video are quite explicit yet their male counterparts are covered up. In addition to influences of pornography in the music world and gender inequality, these double standards in women’s dressing can be explained by the economic state of the music industry. Most record labels require female performers to ascribe to certain typecasts because they know that sex sells. They often engage in debates with their artists on what kind of creative content should be allowed in music videos. To this end, it then becomes necessary for female artists to strike a compromise with record label owners who require them to be sexualized in exchange for exhibiting some creativity. This illustrates how women find it much harder to make it in such an industry. (Lavende, 295)

The issue of double standards also crops up in the telephone video during analysis of roles. Feminist theory often brings out the fact that in situations where women take on leading roles in films or songs, it is common to find they somehow get punished for it by death or something else. In this case, the leading role played by Gaga demonstrates a powerful woman; however, this situation is immediately neutralized when one sees how evil she is; since she poisons her boyfriend as well as some people in the diner.

Gender

Gender roles in feminist movement often discuss common representations of women. In music, this is usually treated in a negative light because most encounters between females and males are unequal. However, there have been certain instances when women opt to take charge of how they are perceived. To this end, Gaga epitomizes a redefinition of what women can be in music; she is the one who determines when to talk to her boyfriend, she can get away from law enforcers and eliminates whoever comes in her way. Although it can be argued that the latter artist took female empowerment to the extreme by acting as a villain; she is still a likable villain and challenges gender stereotypes in pop music videos that women can think for themselves or choose to carry out their actions.

Dissent rhetoric

Indeed feminists agree that most pop music videos represent patriarchy. However, there can be certain circumstances in which such situations are contested. Dissent rhetoric, therefore, demonstrates the disillusionment of women with the status quo and the representation of another more assertive type of woman. Throughout the telephone video, one can see how females are taking charge of their sexuality and how they command their circumstances. For instance Lady Gaga kisses an inmate at a female prison cell upon entry. She also kills several people at the diner and gets away with it even after a police chase. This illustrates how women are not just accepting roles as helpless victims. Gaga and Beyonce are trying to demonstrate empowered females in the video since it is Beyonce who bails out Gaga from jail and is not a male figure. Additionally, Gaga chooses to ignore the telephone call from her male caller claiming that she is too busy dancing. (Itunes, 5) This kind of woman can decide what she can do with her life and is using both her sexuality and her strong will to get what she wants. The video therefore illustrates that music can be a fertile ground for challenging the conventional or illustrating dissent amongst women.

Conclusion

To some extent, the telephone video reinforces gender stereotypes of hyper-sexualized females who depict pornographic elements in their work. This indicates a patriarchal society that appeals to the male viewer. Nonetheless, certain portrayals challenge the objectification of women as Lady Gaga represents an aggressive woman who gets what she wants. She, therefore, uses music as a platform for challenging the norm without necessarily stepping out of general female-male relationships.

References

Itunes (UK). 2010. Telephone single by Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce. Apple. Web. 2010

Dibben, Nicola. “Representations of femininity in popular music.” Popular music journal 18.3(1999), 331. Print.

Lavende, Margaret. “Pop music, women and pornography.” Journal of feminism, trans nationalism and race 8.1(2008), 295. Print.

Sheppard, John. “Male hegemony and music.” Journal of music and society 23.4(1999), 54. Print.

Humm, Magie. Modernist women & visual cultures. NY: Routledge, 2003. Print.

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