Representations of Gender (T.I., Jay Z)

T.I. - Whatever You Like

The authors come across this display of financial dominance in a T.I. music video entitled Whatever you Like where we find a woman working at the front counter of a fast food joint and a male customer with his group of followers giving his order. Before he walks away, he gives her his number while saying, “You are too cute to be working here.” You then find the girl daydreaming of what it would be like to be with this man.  He is depicted throughout the video as having cars, cash, and control.  At the end of the video, you find the girl is disappointed that all the man really left her was a $100 bill.  Throughout this video, the viewer may get the sense that men are the dominant character over women as they have all the luxuries while women are depicted in low wage jobs without the upper class benefits achieved on her own. What this video demonstrates is that men have the power of manipulation over women. How does this have an impact on gender in society?

Jay Z - Big Pimpin' ft. UGK

One video that presents these problems among women in the hip hop culture is in the video, Big Pimpin' by the hip-hop artist, Jay-Z. This video, among many others exhibit women being used as decoration, and being objectified by being the focus of gaze. In the video Jay-Z and his male friends are hanging out on a yacht, and at a festival with a large number of women. The number of women in this video greatly outnumbers the number of men in this video, which demonstrates their use as decoration in the video. The women in the video are dressed in a sexually suggestive manner, by wearing small dresses, tiny swimsuits. These outfits focus on their sexual body, which ultimately reduces them to their bodies. The women’s dance, and postures also signify that they are also being sexually submissive to the men’s sexual wants and desires. The women in the video are also the centre of gaze by the men. Women are encouraged to dance for men and, in the process, perform a highly sexualised femininity for a male gaze. These behaviours and actions only perpetuates the idea that women are objects to men and are only there for their pleasure. The lyrics of the song and the video as a whole exhibit the extreme misogyny that is perpetuated in the hip-hop culture and in the music videos.