Beyonce (2)

‘Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge,’ by Andrea Dworkin

When humans first showed their presence on earth, there wasn't any gap between sexes. It all started out when human beings started to settle in a place and learned how to farm; men were mostly stronger than women and most works that involved a heavy power, were done by men. In result, throughout the history, almost all high class positions were composed of men, predominantly. The quote by Dworkin well describes what feminism was like in the past; women were subjected to remain inferior under the society comprised of men. Nowadays, it’s still questionable that this trend, placing men superior compared to women, remains strong in our society. To examine how women are represented in the modern society, we need to see how they are represented in current pop culture.

First of all, what is ‘pop culture’? According to Andi Zeisler, by talking about pop culture, we mean ‘television… movies… MTV, NBC, BET, VH1… radio… fashion magazines and celebrity tabloids.’ So in general, the definition of pop culture is ‘part of our mass consciousness’ that leaves a huge impression on us. Pop culture is very broad and includes many types of media. How women are dressed, in movies, shows, TV, or other sorts of mass media, is included in pop culture as we

ll. Among many media that shows how clothing of women represents feminism in pop culture, is a music video, ‘Who run the world,’ by Beyoncé, this blog will discuss about.

Link to ‘Who run the world’ by Beyoncé : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmMU_iwe6U&ob=av2e

Just by looking at the lyrics of the song, one can easily find out what the song is implying. The beginning part of the song describes how men have ruled for decades and women have remained under men’s ‘world.’ The repeating phrase, ‘who run the world? Girls,’ emphasizes the theme, the purpose of the song. However, regardless of how well this video, or lyrics should I say, promotes superiority of women, the clothing of Beyoncé contains some ironic concepts when it comes to how women are represented in pop culture.

Image of Beyoncé in ‘Who run the world’ : http://chiconthestreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/who-run-the-world-beyonce-yellow-590ssl051911.jpg

The above image is from the music video ‘Who run the world.’ It’s clear she wears a skimpy, tight cloth in the music video. Why does her clothing matter? Skimpy clothing is one of the representative figures of ‘male gaze’. What is ‘male gaze?’ ‘Male gaze,’ according to Zeisler, is ‘the idea that when we look at images in art or on screen, we’re seeing them as a man might … because those images are constructed to be seen by men.’ Women wearing tight cloth in every genre of shows and movies are from a view of men thinking what women should wear, not from a view of women. Somehow the view of Beyoncé on tight cloth recalls the concept of ‘male gaze,’ and once again, leaves the viewers with men’s perspective. The music video itself, overall, seems to put its point on her clothing and dancing rather than emphasizing its point on the lyrics, the theme of the song. The video entirely focuses on no other subject than Beyoncé. So no matter what the viewer try to do, they are subjected to see her tight clothing and choreography along with it. It seems like ‘Who run the world’ focuses its point on marketing rather than the theme of how women can be superior.

Generally, the overall living of women has advanced and well developed through many feminism movements; women can hold a high position in politics and are capable of doing what people considered as male’s job in the past. However, women are still misrepresented in the modern pop culture in some way through their clothing, concept of viewing women on men’s perspective, and others. There still needs to be a change in order to correctly represent women in our pop culture.