Riptide – Representations of Gender.

Are these representations sexualised for audience pleasure and do the support The Male Gaze?

We see sexualised representations evident in riptide when we are shown a mid shot of a woman slowly undressing from a bikini facing away from us so all we see is her body and the use of the bikini helps outline the woman body and figure which would appeal to a heterosexual male due to her being represented quite sexually. The male gaze refers to how woman are portrayed in a sexual way in media to attract the male audience n by the woman being almost naked this will help attract heterosexual males. 

Do they challenge the sexualisation of women in the music industry?

Riptide do not challenge the sexualisation of women they conform to the typical sexual representation of women by including the a mid shot of a woman undressing which appeals to the theory of  bell hooks and the struggle of femininity as this disregards the theory and sort of supports it as the woman is represented sexually which is the opposite of what feminism fights for, this also refers to Judith Butlers theory of performativity s not a singular act but a repetition and ritual and this refers to how in the media women are repeatedly sexualised. We see also in Riptide that woman are portrayed as helpless and in need of help due to to the constant showing off woman running away from something or either being dragged showing they are under attack sort of in need of help and this refers to van zoonen's theory of gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context and the venerable women refer to the historical context of women being superior to men and them needing a man in their life to have a happy life. 

In the lip sync section of riptide we see the women starting off very confident excelling to the limelight singing the correct lyrics with her makeup and beauty all on point, in the second scene of the woman we see her again singing but notice her moment becomes less confident and her facial expression is less bright  and we notice her lipstick is now smeared which doesn't conform to the norm of beauty in media as we are normally shown overly beautiful women in media with all makeup done to perfection in the third scene we see the woman now with her makeup in a worser state  and her facial expression has drastically changed is now longer smiling and looks sort of scared, in the 4th chorus we now see the woman holding her neck dripping in blood and we can infer from the previous shot that she has been shot by a male and we can see that the lyrics on screen are wrong showing the she may be confused due to abuse she receives from her relationship an we can see that change of lyric from 'wrong" to "wolf" refers to the animal which is a predator.

Representation of Men

The representation of masculinity is shown when we constantly see a mans hand on the lyric"left hand man" we are shown first a mans hand grabbing the mic then we see another hand cutting an aloe vera plant then we see a man pulling fruit and another of a man gripping a gun ready to shot and we can see from all these actions they are all sort of aggressive moments, but when we are shown a woman hand we see her self harming herself suggesting that she has gone through so much and is the victim that she has resulted in harming herself.