Representation

As music videos are relatively cheap in comparison to TV and film, a much larger portion of creators
can access the tools necessary to make a successful music video, which also means a much more
diverse range of content creators to make the music videos. This allows for a wide range of
representations based on both stereotypes and from personal experiences of certain communities.

Swish Swish Katy Perry

Katy Perry has been criticised for her representations and appropriation of certain cultures, and
some of her more recent music videos have featured a wide array of diverse representations of
certain ethnicities and communities, although her music video for Swish Swish makes use of
stereotypes in terms of gender, size and ethnicity. The music video itself is themed around
basketball and follows the narrative of an extremely unpopular team going up against a successful
team.

Each character is introduced through a player card, listing facts that are generally stereotypical or
presenting each character in an exaggerated way that plays into negative stereotypes. The First
female character introduced is Jenna, a short Asian character who plays into the stereotype of
nerdy eastern Asians due to her both being on the worst team shown in the video as well as
appearing generally unfit and sweating profusely. Christine is introduced while shes eating tacos,
with one of her main stats being
able to eat 5.7 tacos per minute. This
plays into the stereotype of a fat
person being obsessed with food and
uses Christines size as a punchline in
a sports team. The only black
character, Dexter is introduced as a
character with messy hair and a savage-like manner in his player
card, and this sentiment is repeated throughout the video, adding
onto the stereotype of black characters being uneducated or rude in
general. This stereotype is quickly subverted, however, as the
coaches are introduced. Coach Terry is in charge of the Sheep, the
opposing team, and is shown as a physically fit black man, lifting a
dumbbell and clearly focused on his team, confident in his own
leadership. The coach of the Tigers, however, is introduced as a
panicky woman who has no idea what shes doing, which leads into the
conventional roles of men and women and how women arent good at
sports or leading. This is further emphasised by her writing Help in her
notebook and pointing it to the camera, with her inadequacy acting as a
joke.
 This leads into Judith Butlers theory of gender performativity and how
gender is performed through several repetitions and rituals, and this is
seen in the character of Coach Molly in several different aspects. Coach
Mollys costuming is more suited to that of a PTA meeting, with white
suit pants, a frilly pastel pink shirt and a bright blazer. This isnt suited to
the general outfits worn by coaches, who wear more practical outfits,
especially in other representations of coaches in TV, and the use of the
handbag prop adds to the idea of Molly being entirely unprepared and
unsuited to her role, playing into the idea of femininity and having to be fashionable at all points in
time without regard for practicality. The clear confusion the character is shown to have also plays
into the unsuitability of the character in the role and makes use of this as a joke, which may be
regarded as satire but actually plays more into the conventional stereotype due to the outdated
form of humour that it is part of. As well as this, her feminity is her entire character in this music
video, and without it her identity as a character would be near non-existent. In this way, the idea of
gender roles is reinforced in this music video and through using the three factors of costuming,
props and the body language of the character, the idea of
femininity not belonging in a masculine area such as sports is
reinforced.

The difference between the genders and masculinity and

femininity is reinforced throughout the video, and although the
Sheep arent introduced in as clear a format as the Tigers, it can
be seen that a majority of the team is comprised of men, all of
which are seen as hyper-masculine due to their sheer size and
muscle mass. The costuming for the Sheep is also revealing to emphasise the muscle mass of the
characters, and this is replicated with Coach Terry although through the use of tighter clothing as
opposed to little clothing. This hyper-masculinity is the basis for
the concept behind the entire Sheep team, and only one woman
is on the team, although she can be hard to spot if the audience
isnt looking out for her. She is visible in the mid-shot of both
teams facing off against each other, being placed at the front of
the shot to show that there is a woman on the team. She is,
however, shown to be a more masculine woman, which goes
against Butlers theory and progresses into her as to how to
change the gender binary, as a female character is shown being
masculine and succeeding in a stereotypically masculine area. This allows for the audience to read
into the character, leading into Butlers queer theory, although the short span in which the character
is visible and the lack of screen-time for her means that the representation is minimal and more just
an effort to include diversity than to genuinely represent diverse characters fully.
The character Christine is played a popular Youtube vlogger, Christine Sydelko, who has an
extremely large fanbase. She herself is a comedian, but her size is never the subject of her jokes as
she understands those types of jokes as too easy and crude, and she herself commented on the
video and the representation of her. Katy Perry was harshly criticised for her use of a talented
comedian for a fat joke, and Sydelko herself commented on it. This slight controversy has highlighted
how although recent media has had few larger characters, the stereotype still exists and is still
extremely damaging. The audience response plays into the uses and gratifications theory, as a large
amount of viewers watched the video just for Christine. Their
criticisms of the video and the use of Christine shows how the
audience took part in addressing the issues in the media they were
consuming, as they took the time to analyse the video and relate it to
a trope that has been seen in all types of visual media for decades,
becoming extremely popular in the last decade and a half.
How Daughter

Daughters music video for How is centred around one female

character who is only introduced after a long string of establishing
shots. These wide-shots show empty streets and roads in what
would otherwise likely be a highly populated coastal city. From the
beginning the place looks isolated and this links in to Baudrillards

theory of hyperreality and how media can construct a reality that

isnt necessarily true. In this case, it is used in a fictional sense to
create a sense of isolation which parallels the main characters
lifestyle. Through showing a mixture of landscapes and areas, the
emptiness of the setting is reinforced in all aspects and this leads to

the audience believing the world in the music video is genuinely

empty. After this, a main character is introduced, a woman who is
checking all of the locks on her door. Through showing this paranoid
woman checking locks, the representation of the character plays into
the concept of female hysteria and the over-emotional stereotype of
women, as well as the concept of women hating men. Zoonens
feminist theory states that in western patriarchal culture, women are
objectified and men are represented differently to women. In
showing this female character in basic clothing, the idea of making
the character attractive is quickly deflected as little focus is put on
what she looks like and the focus is on her actions and her mental
state. This is furthered by the repeated use of high angle shots to
make the character seem even weaker, emphasising the characters
supposed fears as opposed to her body. An argument can be made
against this, however, as a long shot is used to show the silhouette of
the character while shes changing. Through showing the womans
body, a straight male audience is appealed to, to an extent, as
although its not explicit sexualisation, it can still be seen as objectification as the character herself is
shown as someone who is skinny enough to fit western beauty standards.