Example: Nelly - 'Tip Drill'

Feminist analysis on the music video
There are women wearing chains that have the ‘Derrty entertainment’ pendants. ‘Derrty entertainment’ is a record label owned by Nelly. This therefore could show that Nelly has ‘’branded’’ the women with the ‘Derrty entertainment’’ pendant to show that the women he possesses the women, like the way he posses the record label. This could send the message that it is acceptable for men to stake a claim to a woman as if they own them like property. This could make men believe they can try to own women. And could also make women believe that it is acceptable to be seen as another man’s ‘’property’’.

Near the end of the video Nelly slides a credit card between a woman’s buttocks. The credit card sliding between the woman’s buttocks could represent a cash transaction, such as those that occur in shops. This could show that Nelly believes that you can ‘’buy’’ a woman with money or material possessions. This therefore shows women to be passive as it shows they are willing to be controlled by any man who is able to offer them enough material wealth. It can therefore make men believe that is acceptable to try and ‘’buy’’ a woman using money.

In the video the male rappers throw money around and at women. This therefore shows that the male rappers are willing to pay money for the women to keep dancing and performing. This shows that the rappers can ‘’buy’’ the women and make them perform for their pleasure. This therefore may make men think that they can ‘’buy’’ women. And it may also make women think that all they need to do to become financially successful is appeal to a male libido. This therefore discourages women from using other skills such as intelligence to become financial successful.

There are rapid cuts between many different close ups of different women’s bodies. However the camera shot of the rappers faces do not cut as rapidly. This is means the male audience can only see the women’s bodies and cannot see their faces; therefore they can’t emote with the women. This encourages the male audience to objectify the women in the video as the inability to emote with the women dehumanises the women in the video. Also the fast cut rate between close ups of women’s bodies means we cannot see each woman properly. This means the women are not valued for their attributes but rather are valued for quick glimpses of their beauty. This dehumanises the women and portrays them as objects to be looked at. Also as the camera shots of the rappers faces are longer than the camera shots on the women’s bodies. It means the men are more important than the women, as we can emote and see the rappers as individuals. Whereas we can’t emote with the women or see them as individuals, as the close ups are impersonal and do not allow us to see each woman as an individual as we just see quick close ups of various women’s body parts but not see individual women.

Post-feminist analysis on the music video

The women use the men’s sexual desires to their advantage. The women perform for the men in order to appeal to the male’s libido and get the male rappers money. This could empower women and show them that they can use male’s sexual desires against them in order to take advantage of men.

The video is so fantastical and unrealistic that there is no risk of male audience members being able to narcissistically identify with the rappers. This is because the video is so unrealistic that no male will be able to believe they could behave like the rappers in the video. However male audience members could aspire to be like the rappers as the male audience members could want to be as sexually successful as the rappers.

Should the video be regulated?

I believe the video should be regulated. This is because the video is extremely explicit and so would not be appropriate for an audience under the age of 18. I do not think that the video should be censored but rather it should be only played on television after the watershed, as then all children should be asleep and so would not be able to view this explicit video.