Representation in Riptide

Riptide and Representation

Un Chein Andalou - This film represented gender in the treatment of the women in it, as they get assaulted and cornered and treated as objects during the short film and who should just be willing to be under the control of men. It could be interpreted that the film advocates violence against women due to the amount of violence which is shown and the amount of sexual assault which was committed by the man in the film towards women. This can compare to Riptide as in both media texts, there are similar themes of violence towards women  both in horror scenarios that cause fear, and even though in riptide there is no evidence of men being the abuser or mistreated towards women, that is the impression that is perceived by the audience. 

I think Riptide reinforces a patriarchal world view due to the video relating more to how men view women and that they are in control. This can be seen during the scene when the women is being filmed on the sea. The people looking through the lens are men, showing that men look at women through lenses so they are aesthetically pleasing and shows that women are objectified as they are often the ones that get pushed in front of the camera. Another shot which is included in Riptide which could represent this theme is that in the repeated shot that the women is singing to song, her makeup gradually gets worse to give them impression she is being abused or assaulted for getting the words wrong. In the last scene you can see the women look across in fear almost as if to check that the words are right or to know whether a punishment is coming. This can be seen as the patriarchal world thoughts or the objectification of women throughout the music video. 

In these stills, women are represented as messy, as the women's makeup gets more and more messy as the song goes on. This shown as the mise-en-scene of the makeup and lipstick that the women was wearing in the first still has almost been completely removed at the end of the last still. She is also presented as expected to be beautiful all the time, especially in terms of when performing such as singing, this means when the makeup is messy, she becomes victimised and her beauty standards decrease the further the video develops. She starts off with perfect makeup and lighting to show her control. Her overall persona gets affected throughout the stills as she appears very confident at the start and becomes very timid, nervous and in fear which is shown through her holding her throat and using visual emotions to show feelings.