Women in Riptide

How are women represented in this video?

• The women in this video are all represented as wanting to be free. The video itself (as discussed in my previous blogpost) is all about unhealthy relationships and the woman wanting to escape the relationship to join this 'dark side', as explored via the lexis of the lyrics. The mise-en-scene of the women's makeup progressively becoming more smudged, could reflect the idea that the women is the fault of this relationship, as she is ruining her appearance and therefore herself via her actions. This presents women as irresponsible.
• Women are presented as objects. There is singular focus on women's body parts, such as the camera-shot which only includes a woman taking off her swimming costume, feminine hands being dragged out of the shot and feet running across the screen. This suggests the producer wanted to present a voyeuristic approach towards women.

In what ways are we positioned as an audience?

• The close-up shots of the woman's face makes us feel uncomfortable as an audience, as we are positioned within incredibly close proximity to someone we are not aquainted with. The unconventional aspects of this video - ie; including a person who is not the 'celebrity'/star of the video, further makes us feel more uncomfortable during these shots.
• She also appears to be not hegemonically attractive, because her makeup is smudged and her appearance is ruined. This makes her unappealing to look at.

What links all the women in this video?

• All of the women have the same colour hair, blonde/light brown
• They all become progressively worse as the video goes on. They all begin perfect, but towards the end their appearance and actions change
• They all use the colours red within the mise-en-scene of their costume, towards the end of the video. Such as the white nails becoming red, the blood appearing on the woman's neck etc. This could be symbolic coding for blood, therefore death and signifying the overall ending to something. Following the narrative of this video, this can be to symbolise the ending of the life of their relationship.

What message about women is constructed in this video, and what hegemonic expectations does this reinforce?

• Women are only attractive when they look good to a hegemonic standard. The only time we feel comfortable with the close-up shot, is when the woman singing looks moderately attractive to a hegemonic standard due to her makeup being intact. When this makeup begins to get smudged, we feel uncomfortable as she does not fit the hegemonic conventions.
• Women are objects. The inclusion of the rope and dental brace being used to torture a woman, reinforces the idea that women have nothing more to offer than their bodies. Their dislike with this activity is shown through the mise-en-scene of facial expressions and body language; yet the way the woman in the dental brace does nothing, and the woman in the rope flimsily throws it off of her, suggests that they are weak. This helps to channel the producer's ideological perspective that women are used for their bodies, and this is doable because they are weak enough not to fight back.
• Women are also objects, due to the shot of the woman taking off her swimming costume. The exposure of her body arguably has no impact regarding the story or message of the music video, yet it is included to suit the patriarchal, hegemonic society which this is aimed at. This helps to construct women for the heterosexual male.