Really behind at updating this blog at the moment.. But I looked at Madonna's video for her song 'Express yourself' and attempted to analyse it in some way....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsVcUzP_O_8
Madonna Express Yourself
Video opens with the light focusing on Madonna who is sat up high on a black swan, talking to the women of the world about love. Being so high this represents her as having power and importance, especially as the spotlight is on her.
The Video then moves down and focuses on a city environment, dark, with large buildings everywhere.
Men are there working in persistent rain, they are soaking; wet look has always had a sexual meaning. They are working without their tops off showing there masculine bodies creating more of a feel that they are the sexual objects.
The workers are slaving away in these conditions as Madonna is in a separate room looking glamorous whilst holding her pet cat. It seems that she is the controller of the work force, looking down and watching them. Giving across the message that this one women is in charge of all the half naked strong men
The men then start to do a synchronised dance/ workout routine whilst she looks over them.
We then realised the sound of her singing is being put out through big speakers in the factory, one of the workers takes a great interest and looks up at the speaker. A new character is then introduced, being the factory boss, looks down worryingly as the worker is looking to the speaker.
In the next scene Madonna is seen in suspender and a sexy black outfit, moving around seductively. Making the viewer think that she is now the object of desire, or she could be mocking/copying how the workers were moving.
She is then moves to a platform on the work floor in a men’s suit holding a spy glass, masculine persona, she is dancing in quite a manly fashion, at one point she grabs her crouch, this is a well known movement of Michael Jackson. She could also have been impersonating the boss figure as he wore a spy glass in one of the scenes.
Boss is in his own room listening to music, controlling musicians in a glass case.
The next scene is with the one worker, he is holding the cat, looking upwards whilst is in her bedroom chained up in and naked, moving around.
Madonna is then crawling along as a cat towards a saucer of milk, she then tips it over her shoulder and the milk falls on the worker. Although Madonna is being portrayed as a cat, this is giving of the image that she is control this worker by her sexual powers, luring him to her.
It the switches to an image of her looking masculine sitting on a sofa in a suit with a cigarette.
Man worker walks, with cat, finds her bedroom
Him and Madonna touch he is quite rough with here
Boxing match is going on the work floor with all the other workers. There could be a comparison between the two situations that are going on.
The video ends with the words ‘Without the heart, there can be no understanding between the hand and the mind’.
Overall I think Madonna displays a masculine persona throughout this video. I think it is portraying women as a controller/ in charge of the men. It is promoting feminism, as normally it would be the women running around in bikinis and men being seen as more dominating. It is a gender bending approach to the video, putting women in the stronger position.
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