The video starts by showing Lil Wayne in typical hip hop scene jewellery and clothes.
Around him there are four women, of different ethnicities, wearing all black suits and high heels. The dance moves in this scene only have impact because the women are sexually provocative. The female dancers are being the decorative sex objects in this scene. Slightly before this, we get a close up of Lil Wayne - he is really not that attractive, compared to the dancers.
His teeth look rather unhygienic, the tattoos on his neck make him look like he has some kind of problem with his veins, or like the neck of an 80-year old. His dread locks are not in good shape and look very ragged, good dread locks look different. This shows that this man, who doesn't have to try to look attractive, yet he can get these four attractive women because of who he is. This scene also shows that women have to be sex objects, but men don't, in order to find a sexual partner.
I don't think there's a lot I can really add to this screencap.. the dancers are now walking backwards on their hands and feet while bouncing their bums in the air. This makes the dancers look ridiculous, reducing them to animals who walk on all fours. The fact that the dancers are facing away from the camera also removes any confrontation, and the viewer is free to look at their uniform bodies without even knowing who they are.
This reminds me of the "Full Body Gaze" Experiment (pp.184) that McGrane and Gunderson talk about in the book "Watching TV is not required". Students were asked to pair up, and take turns to observe the other for two minutes, both front and back. All students reported a great feeling of discomfort when looking at the other person's front, because the person they were looking at could observe them looking. When the observed person had to turn their back, the observing students found it a lot easier to just observe and "enjoy" looking at the other persons body. The male students in this experiment related this exercise back to their experience with pornography and looking at naked women, while the female students just observed a "body", with "imperfections and perfections", and wondered whether they felt as "awkward or embarrassed or violated as [they] had" (the male students did).
Looking back at the above screenshot, we now know that the dancers are shown from behind so that the male audience can comfortably look at their butts, while the dance moves make the dancers look both ridiculous and animalistic at the same time. All the while Lil Wayne just moves slightly with the beat acting like he is on top of the world.
Chris Brown now gets his first solo shoot - he is shown walking down a street, seeing a small group of young women in tight clothing, which causes him to turn around, stare at them and arch back slightly. We barely see the women's faces, only seeing them from the side or back, which again is a less confrontational view of a woman. Chris Brown's body language clearly shows that he finds these women very sexually attractive, and that it is okay to show this in an obvious and graphic way in the middle of the street. This kind of behaviour is otherwise known as street harassment, if you want further examples, look at the twitter account of @EverydaySexism. Since this is a carefully shot video, we can also analyse the people in the background of this shot. The women's bodies are facing the camera, with their heads tilted towards the men, while the men's bodies are facing more sideways towards the women. Both men are wearing baggy clothing, which is not revealing at all. The women however are wearing shorts, a tight skirt and a cropped top, all items of clothing which are revealing and very tight fitting. The slight exception to this is the jacket of the woman on the right, which isn't figure hugging. All the women in this shot are revealing their bodies, even though we can tell from what the men are wearing that it is not necessarily that warm. The subtext of this shot is clearly that the women have to show their bodies, and be sexual, while the men can dress in more baggy clothes. This shot also shows Chris Brown doing casual street harassment, but it is made to look okay and make him seem like a "lad".
Chris Brown then takes the hand of a random woman walking down the street with her boyfriend, she welcomes the gesture and leaves her boyfriend, who gets angry but is constrained by the men in the background. The lyrics explain that he just "took a broke nigga bitch". This suggests that the reason that this woman leaves her boyfriend within a second, is because she is offered the attention of Chris Brown, who has more money and a better status than her current boyfriend. The fact that the boyfriend in this scene is white and Chris Brown black follows the usual text in hip hop culture about skin colours. It also shows Chris Brown as part of an ethical minority asserting his dominance over the ethical majority in America. The boyfriend is also clearly not part of the hip hop scene, as we can tell through his clothes, which makes him less appealing to the girlfriend when compared to Chris Brown. This shows that being part of the hip hop scene also makes you "better" than the rest (which is also a common text found in hip hop culture).
I'm also slightly confused why the face of the guy to the left is covered up with a cartoon teddy bear, you can just see him behind Chris Brown in the above screenshot. If anyone reading this has any ideas, let me know.
Here we see the three rappers from a low camera angle, which is meant to make Chris Brown and the others look superior to the viewer. In the background we can see some more dancers, dancing without an obvious choreography. Again, what a surprise, all the women wear short shorts or skirts, crop tops or ripped jeans, while the men wear baggy trousers and T-shirts which reveal next to no body shape. The men also only slightly move to the beat, while the women definitely dance for an audience to appreciate them. The video pretty much continues in this style, we see Chris Brown and a friend "checking out" some more women that they pass, on the street or on an escalator. The third rapper Tyga then begins his verse, first rapping in front of the same group of people as above. He is the man on the left wearing a blue jacket and cap. Next, he is shown as below:
Here we see the third rapper, Tyga. He stands on a pedestal, slightly raised above the camera. He wears thick golden necklaces, big boots, and slightly baggy clothing. He also has a tiger on a short leash, which he has wrapped around his hand many times (as if he had to previously constrain the tiger). The tiger looks a bit like a dog, and it is not until I paused the video that I noticed it wasn't a bulldog or a similar dog, but a tiger, which kind of looks like a stuffed animal toy. So, we get another animal symbol, but this time it is connected to a man. The tiger is positioned and made to look like a dog, shown to be a harmless pet. Well, not that harmless, Tyga has to keep him on a short leash and constrain him. The tiger and the rappers name "Tyga" also are pronounced very similar, which suggests that the animal is representing the animal side of the rapper Tyga. He keeps it on a short leash, but it is still a very dangerous animal. The tiger is shown to pace around him. I'm not entirely sure if it is an animated tiger, or whether they got a tiger baby. Either way, in my opinion even a baby tiger doesn't really make him seem dangerous, but it is still obvious that this is the desired effect. Now, if we compare this to the beginning where the female dancers were made to look animalistic by bouncing on all fours, we see that there, the women were made to look dis-empowered through looking like an animal, whereas here, the animal is meant to show the rapper as a dangerous and strong man. This clearly shows the men being empowered through being wild and like an animal, therefore sexual, whereas the women are loosing power when they look sexual, because they are being objectified.
The music video continues in the same old way, where the dance moves for the men include a lot of crotch-grabbing and the typical rapper's gesture where they stretch their arms out and point their index fingers (like this)
Chris Brown then repeats the chorus, while being joined by more and more female background dancers. That makes it seem slightly like they are also supporting what Chris Brown is singing: "These hoes ain't loyal". Do I need to point out the differences in what they are wearing in this scene again? I feel like I would just be repeating myself.
Another point of interest: All the rappers in this song are male, however a lot of the shots show females starring in them, being background dancers, but they don't get a voice. The females in this video are being spoken for, and they agree to the message that they are not trustworthy and promiscuous.
I think the only good thing about the way women are represented in this video is that none of them are obviously underweight, but all have very curvy bodies. Women are being objectified in this video, but at least the audience is not being told that they have to be extremely skinny in order to be sexy. They just have to be available.
some comments that struck me:
Oh god.. where do you even begin talking about some of these comments? The casualty with which Chris Brown's fans discuss him being in Jail, potentially having an alcohol problem, rape jokes, homophobia, racism, and sexually objectify women.... I tried to find any comments talking about how misogynistic this video is, but I didn't get very far.
A quick research into why Chris Brown is in jail showed that he was originally arrested for potentially violating the probation to stay away from Rihanna. He was then kicked out of rehab after violating the rule not to touch any women who were also in the same rehab, as well as making violent statements, and refusing a drug test. After he was kicked out by the rehab facility, a judge then arrested him, and he is to face a trial in April. Especially after his infamous case of violence against his girlfriend at the time, Rihanna, none of these offences seem to be something to laugh about, yet his fans do exactly that. If the charges are true, he should serve a time in prison for his crimes. The use of the hashtag # freebreezy seems a little inappropriate. His fans don't take his offences seriously at all.
Again, I'd be very interested to hear someone else's opinion on this music video, or Chris Brown in general, and I'd be happy to have a discussion about this.
Charlie Crxsh
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