EXPLORE REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN RIPTIDE (2013)

EXPLORE REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN RIPTIDE (2013)

In the music video the director portrays women as being constantly sexualised and objectified. This idea is clearly demonstrated through the shots whereby the woman character was being ‘dragged to the darkness’, emphasising the fact that women are often isolated and are trapped to a place where they suffer loneliness or worse depression. Furthermore, the smearing of the woman’s make up symbolised the bloods and the wounds from the abuse that she has experienced due to the unfortunate downfall of her relationship with the male character, hence the result of the bad decisions and the dangerous lifestyle she chose. As a result the audience may feel utterly sympathetic towards the female character since women in society as seen as less powerful than men physically, therefore she lacks control to fight for herself and to escape this nightmare. The director uses mise-en-scene by including the shot of the ocean which is referred to as the ‘riptide’ which symbolised that the woman is running away/ trying to escape the violence and threat that is behind her. Thus, the back shot perspective of her running supports this idea as well. The director also uses parallel editing whereby the images matches the lyrics to drive the focus on the narration and the message of the video, rather than the performer. This highlights that the both the director and the artist are campaigning against violence with women, especially domestic violence due to the increased number of sexual violence between couples in this generation.


In addition, the music video starts with a shot where a women was undressing and her face was not seen shows how women are appreciated for their body rather than their personality and that men only used women to fulfill their lust. Also, the scene where the woman was singing in the stage suggests that she is being controlled in a way as the words/lyrics coming out of her mouth are quite rehearsed as if someone was demanding her to ‘perform’ even when she is abused. With these scenes the audience may be confused because the video consists of many shots. However, the audience may later understand the narration as the video transforms from being all lively to distressing. The genre is a combination of pop and modern jazz as it seems upbeat which contrasts the message behind the video which mirrors how relationships can be sometimes, we often think that people are in happy relationships regarding on what they put up on social media but we are unaware on what happens behind closed doors such as violence and abuse.