Introduction Written Task

Representation of gender and ethnicity are shown in different types of media. Firstly, Robin Thicke's music video Blurred Lines is a great example of showing gender stereotypes. Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have women all around them to make them look good in front of their audience, the video never shows women look responsible near men or by themselves, instead they are dominated by men and they are there for the male gaze so the video is pleasing for men and is financially better for Thicke himself as more views equals more money. The representation of men in the music video also makes them look smart as their wearing suits and they have power and independence and that they have wealth and a good status. Also, the women don’t sing or has no agency in the video at all obviously they want the attention on the men as its their video but also because they don't want to give much power to them as they only want them to be a sexual object. Aswell, they dress the women provocatively to add to the sexual object theme and they look to the camera/men either blankly or indicating sexual availability. The lyrics sung by the men aren’t respecting the women either as they talk about them like their nothing but something nice to look at and be with like “You the hottest bitch in this place” and they talk only sexual towards them “The way you grab me/Must wanna get nasty”. This shows how that in 2012-13 many other music videos probably have similar uses of women to make men look better than other men. However, in the music video, the girls don’t do much but dance and sexual pose near men but also the girls aren’t only white, there are different colour skin girls showing a positive message that no matter the colour of your skin, you are beautiful.

Asda also has a good representation of gender and ethnicity. Another good representation of stereotypical women and men is in the Asda Christmas Advert 2012. They show the housewife/mother side of women which is opposite of Robin Thicke’s music video as he represents them as sexual objects. Asda represents the mum as a busy individual who does all the work in the house and the man is busy outside of the house, this is following the stereotype of women staying indoors doing all the domestic work and men work for the money. The mum’s own desires secondary to family and is the decision maker and organiser in all domestic matters, as everyone thanks her at the Christmas dinner and Asda shows that the mum done all the hard work to see the family happy and cheerful of her work at the end. Through the video she looks exhausted and completely warn out and hardly gets any help, the only time she gets help is at the beginning where they are selecting a Christmas tree and also when he is home from work and he is moving the tree, this particular scene shows the stereotype of women being fussy and boss the men about and shows the stereotype of men looking exhausted after work. Asda try to make out that they are on the side of women as at the end it says “Behind mum there’s Asda showing that they help mum do the domestic jobs however they are still supporting the stereotype of housewives/mum’s and instead they could change it by changing the popular stereotype of men and women by swapping them but in 2012, there are so many adverts that support these stereotypes that its now a normal thing to use. A good scene that represents gender equality is the scene where all the family is at the dinner table eating Christmas dinner and even though she has done all the hard work she is not sitting on a normal chair instead she’s sitting on the bean bag lower than everyone else and that the dad didn’t really do anything to support the mum however he can sit on the chair at the end of the table showing hierarchy that man have more domination and power over women.

Lastly, the men’s magazine ‘Men’s Health’ has Cristiano Ronaldo on the front page topless with tips on staying fit. This shows the stereotypical view on men that they should be fit. Using Ronaldo makes men feels like they need to be like him to be masculine and have sexual attractiveness with the body image and physique. The tips around Cristiano shows how you can be like him and has men’s interests like sex and looking good and being stronger. Using a famous footballer not only helps the magazine company financially for more people to buy the magazine but also inspires men to be like him so they can be successful like him. This magazine was published in September 2014 and at this time there might have been a trend of men trying to be more fit so this magazine at the time fit with the context.