In Kanye West’s music video ‘Monster’, the representations of gender and race characterise the text, and makes the audience consider the ways in which ethnicity and sex are conventionally conveyed. Men are shown to be tough, staunch and independent, while the women are represented by body parts scattered around the set.. Similarly, blacks are shown to be the dominant, powerful race, while Caucasians are represented largely by dead bodies and parts thereof. This causes viewers to contemplate the gender roles and racial stereotypes inherent in today’s society and how they are illustrated through media, judging for themselves whether this is a realistic portrayal of society.
The two predominant identities represented in the music video are those of race and gender. Gill Branston states that ‘some media re-present, ever and over again, certain images, stories, situations. This can make them seem natural or familiar’ (Branston et al, 25). This is extremely prevalent in this video, not only due to the racial stereotypes and gender roles, but because of a well-publicised media event centred on Kanye West’s actions at the Grammys. West received an unprecedented amount of bad press after interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech after winning the award for ‘best female video’, jumping on stage and announcing that Beyonce was a more deserving candidate. The media continued to show clips of the event and write about it, and it has now become somewhat of a running joke in gossip magazines. They ‘re-present[ed], over and over again’ this incident, and now, in many cases, when Kanye West is mentioned, it is accompanied by a reference to the event. This makes it easy to assume the worst in the singer, something consciously referred to in both the style of the video and the lyrics of the song. The video therefore can be seen almost as a counter-text to this event, as it expands on the original source and illustrates the public’s perception of him. Representation is not accountable for one true, solid meaning, but rather presents a ‘refracted’ view on the world and events by the ‘conventions and demands’ of the type of media it is (Branston et al, 26). West has been painted as a monster of sorts through various media, which guides us to the assumption that he is not a good person. However, I argue that these assumptions were helped along by the fact that West is a black man and because of the ‘process of categorization or framing’ (Branston et al, 28) done by the media, he is seen as predisposed to crime and violence. People reacted so badly towards the event because a black man in a sense attacked a white woman, to defend a black woman. The music video takes full advantage of this, using the ‘buck’ stereotype of the strong, over-sexed, violent black man in an ironic way to attempt to shoot down this theory.
Racism is not the only predominant theme in this text; gender is also a major theme inherent. As Jackson Katz notes on his YouTube video Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity, men are brought up with the belief that ‘to be a real man; to be tough, strong, independent [and] respected’ like those depicted in the ‘pervasive media system which provides a steady stream of images which define manhood as connected with dominance, power and control’, they must assert their dominance through violence and attitude. He then goes on to add that it is ‘even more pronounced among men of colour because there are little diversities of images of them in the media’. Byron Hurt found that for many black men, respect is gained through ‘how many guns they had, how fast they could pull the trigger, how much drugs they sold, what kind of car they drive, how many girls they was with. It was never about intellect’. Kanye West, Jay-Z and [insert name of other back guy here] all encompass the tough, strong, independent values of what it means to be a man. Each is solitary- we never see the artists together- indicating their independence. They stand tall and present themselves as staunchin an ‘I couldn’t care less what you think of me’ way. It is through this presentation of themselves that they believe they will gain respect from the viewers. However, in reality it is feeding the idea further into the ideologies of young men that this is the way they will gain respect and be seen as a ‘real man’.
Females are also involved in the video, and through observation of other hip-hop videos, it is evident that they play a somewhat typical role. In many music videos, the body is separated from the woman’s face through camera shots and angles, so she either appears as a sex-object (close-ups of her scantily-clad body) or a person (her face), never both. This identifies woman as sex-object, and she is often treated in a degrading manner. This is exemplified to extremes in ‘Monster’, as shots of female body parts lie littered all over the house. However, it is interesting to note that each body part (a hand, a head etc) has white skin. This is possibly a reference to the Taylor Swift incident mentioned before- the way the media went on about it was as if he had ‘torn her to pieces’ so to speak. Dead white women lay in a bed with West, the contrast of the skin colour highlighted through the use of lighting. This is another reference to the ‘buck’ stereotype of the black man who lusts after the white woman. Nicki Minaj, who also collaborated on the song, is the only female shown in this video alive and powerful. We see part of women who are alive, but they are only hands grabbing at West, asserting his typical hip-hop video role as pimp. Minaj takes the role of strong, independent woman as the only black female in the video.
The Frankfurt school considered popular culture a tool ‘to be used by those in power to reproduce the unequal social relations that are the hallmark of capitalism’, and ‘works its ideological magic’ through giving the viewer or listener a feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment (Schirato et al, 94). In this particular text, I would have to argue that this statement is simultaneously true and untrue. As with many rap songs, the lyrics are very much centred on how good the rapper believes himself to be, and serves as self-gratification to the artist. Lyrically, it is an ago-fest, each trying to out-do the other in their achievements, exemplified by the lines ‘all I see is niggers I made millionaires’ and ‘my presence is a present kiss my ass’. This massages the ego of the artist, rather than that of the consumer. However, the style of the video does give the viewer a sense of pleasure, as it takes the conventions usually reserved for horror movies and places them in new territory. Because in the culture industry music videos are ‘produced on such a scale that they beg[in] to resemble one another’ (Schirato et al, 94) we are all familiar with the usual conventions of a rap music video, so this mixing of expectations is exciting for us.
The uses and gratifications model and the media effects argument come up with opposing viewpoints about what the viewer does with the texts they consume. The media effects argument says that people adjust their behaviour according to what they see in the media- it suggests people simply ‘take in’ an unmediated view of what’s around them, believing whatever they see to be wholly truthful and acceptable. Conversely, the uses and gratifications model states that rather than simply being fed the media, people use it to fulfil different needs (Schirato et al, 95). ‘Monster’ is obviously meant to be thought about, deciphered and used for the purpose of escapism and entertainment. Thought is required to realize the rappers are sarcastic in their manner, and wish us to understand that. They suggest they are seen as monsters because of their skin colour. They play up to this in fact, by acting out the part of the buck, in such a way that viewers are encouraged to think about what they are saying. The preferred reading of the text is ‘these guys are not monsters’, however the negated reading is ‘but Kanye West was very rude to Taylor Swift’. The negotiated reading, therefore, is ‘although Kanye West was nasty to Taylor Swift, it is unfair that we are still portraying him in a beastly manner’. In saying this, however, it is difficult to say exactly what a viewer will read into the text, as the meaning of a text to an individual is produced through their own personal experiences; this is called reception theory, and is explained by Stuart Hall as the ‘decoding’ part of a media text (Schirato et al, 98). Hall theorises that ‘meaning is not simply contained in the text itself’, but rather attained through ‘literacies’, and so factors such as age, race, class, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation affect our reading of a text (Schirato et al, 99).
Many mainstream artists, especially rap artists, harmfully manipulate the way we perceive and treat women through their music videos. Similarly, men in the videos represent power and dominance, playing the pimp and giving the impression that to be a man you must treat women as inferior sex-objects. It is through mediums such as this that women have learnt to see themselves as being ‘looked at’ (Berger et al, 36), and leads women to think the liberation of the feminist movement has turned into ‘retro-sexism’ (Branston et al, 37). Race is also a huge factor in videos, as many dark-skinned people have tried to dispel the common stereotypes of their race through overly-positive images of themselves. West et al ironically use the ‘buck’ stereotype to demonstrate how ridiculous it is to think people are predisposed to certain behaviours simply because of their colour. As Branston notes, ‘[t]here are many examples of the media systematically narrowing imagery of particular groups’, and this has a negative impact on those exposed to it.
Works Cited:
Branston, Gill and Roy Stafford. “Representations” Course Reader (2011):25-48. Print.
Schirato, Tony, Anji Buettner, Thierry Jutel and Geoff Stahl. “Media Audiences” Understanding Media Studies. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, (2010):92-110. Print.
Hurt, Byron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQZqCGHctE&feature=related
Katz, Jackson. “Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xzMPT4nGI
