Representation of gender in the music video Love the way you lie – by Eminem and Rihanna
Throughout this video gender definitions and juxtapositions are conveyed at every level, predominantly one can see that status is convey through vocals, Rihanna sings which connotes femininity and Eminem raps, a very masculine dominate expression, which is echoed as he is also dictatorial with in both the video and lyrics. There is extreme resonance and motifs of violence portrayed by a combination of lyrics, narrative and combination of stills and images. The take on violence can be seen to be ambiguous as on the one hand it can represent the destructive, painful and dangerous symbolism in fire and intern an abusive relationship, show by the image of the female character ‘playing with fire’ at the start of the video which foreshadows the negative events in the narrative, Additionally fire much like violence can be addictive and empowering. However contradictory to this it can also represent sexuality and the intensity of love, which is portrayed by the oxymoronic shot in the narrative which stars Megan Fox a notoriously sexual icon, for example a shot of the male character pushing the woman against a wall and proceeding to punch it is followed by the same angle and shot but instead they kiss passionately – which intern may glamourize violence, and play on the marketing technique that sex and violence sell.
The chorus of the song ‘just gonna stand there and watch me burn, well that all right because I like the way the way it hurts’ is also very ambiguous, on the once hand it could be a sarcastic social commentary on the passive nature of women in relationships, and there tolerance of violence and abuse due to male status though out the ages ‘ that’s all right because I love the way you lie’ may echo this theme of male deception and manipulation, although alternatively this could convey the ideal that this may keep the relationship Interesting, prolong the passion and the interlinked combination of sex and violence that is conventional in 21st century media.
Eminem begins his rape with a semantic field of male testosterone and adrenaline, using vocabulary such as ‘knife’ ‘fight’ ‘drunk’ and ‘hate’ to establish his status and confrontational state of mind. Conversely in the mist of these ideas is that of love and oxymoronic phrases such as ‘wrong feels right’ portraying to the audience the complexity of love and that maybe this sexual and power authority is necessary’s to express the intensity of his love convey by the line ‘have you ever love somebody so much you can barely breath’ this line portrays the diverse way that men and women express love and poses a rhetorical question to the audience; to judge not only the actions of the characters but also those in the audiences own lives. The line ‘ I’m superman with the wind in his back, she’s Lois lane’ gives cultural context to the song expressing the desire to conform to the Hollywood, romantic ideal of love in which the man is a powerful hero but the violence and anger overcomes this and reduced them to an abusive relationship.
Sexual connotations and innuendos are seen through the provocative costume of both Rihanna and Megan fox, conforming to conventions that woman are sexual objects and possessions in the eyes of men and the media, implied by Rihanna’s small amount of lyrics and her dancing around for the pleasure of the men, reducing her to a submissive symbol in the video. However toward the end of the song the tone changes and the audience get an idea that it’s a combination of both male and female that are exuding violence, this is shown by the repetition of the inclusive pronoun ‘we’ and lines such as ‘but your tempers just as bad as mine, you’re the same as me’ and ‘maybe that’s what happens when a tornado meets a volcano’ depicting the power struggle woman in western and modern culture still face even after the feminist era.
An alternative interpretation may be that this music video portrays an unstereotypical view that the anger show in lyrics and image is merely threats and reveals male weakness, embodied by the male character. The facade of anger may express men’s incapability to express loving emotions due to the desire to conform to the strong powerful unemotional stereotypes. To compensate this they express their intense emotion through rage, which despite on the surface may be viewed as derogatory to woman, behind the egotistical male façade is an emotionally sustaining reaction as it is still a high of emotions – for example the asynchronous shot of violence followed by the giving of a teddy bear contrast in emotions so much which is overwhelming, drug like, and addictive. This narrative may represent why men and women find it hard to leave a relationship due to the fear of abandonment, or emotional neglect.
To conclude I believe that this video controversially depicts the destructive nature of men and women’s relationships in the 21st century, as their the desire to conform to conform to society values increases so does to repression, anger and violence resulting in the idealist notion of love being replace with sex, manipulation and lies.
Yasmine Sinclair Music VideoBlog
I am a Media Studies student from Westhatch high school, and in my blog I will produce a music video and demonstrate inspirations and ideas behind it. Predominately I will look into the music industry in great dept in order to understand and convey connections, symbolism and postmodern ideologies that are every present in thee 21st century.
