Laura
Obernesser- Whitesnake: “Is this Love”: An Analysis
Introduction
In the Whitesnake video, “Is this love”, there are many sexual acts,
sexualized gazes, and acts of male dominance. According to Kellner, there are
three crucial parts that are used to take a cultural
studies approach when analyzing the media.
Production and Political Economy
“Production
and political economy” involves the production companies and the music industry
using marketing strategies to appeal to the audience based on the conventions
of the time. This is how the production companies can best make money. Kellner
said that the reason song recordings are just below four minutes is because
that is the conventional amount of time for a song to be, based on the “norm.”
During the 1980’s, glam rock was a conventional music genre. Many bands other
than Whitesnake used very similar marketing strategies, and made very similar
videos. Bands such as Aerosmith and Van Halen also use this marketing strategy.
In rock and roll, sex sells and has sold for a very long time. To describe the
marketing strategy of the glam rock era, I would start by saying that it
involves a lot of dancing around in a much sexualized way. Women always have
big hair, wear very skimpy clothing (often dressed from head to toe in leather
or wearing lingerie), and are shown dancing on top of cars, and in front of
beds with their hair blowing in the wind.
Textual Analysis
The second part to taking a cultural
studies approach to analyzing “Is this Love” by Whitesnake is doing a
“textual analysis” of the video. According to Kellner, you can quantitatively
study the media example by counting how many times you see something. For
example, I could count how many times a woman is doing something sexual in the
video. The first time I watched “Is this Love” by Whitesnake, I counted thirty
two times the woman was doing something sexual (but this included sexual
gazes). Virtually every time the woman was shown in the video, she was doing
something sexual. According to Kellner, you can do a qualitative study of the
media example by simply observing the way that women or whichever minority
group we are looking at (in this case, women) and how they are being
represented. In this particular video by Whitesnake, the woman is highly
sexualized. She is often dancing on stair rails as if it were a stripper pole,
dancing in front of a bed for the entertainment and sexual gratification of the
male, or spinning so that the audience can see her behind. She bends over while
wearing nothing but a white slip. I also noticed that the men in the band are
all wearing black, while she is usually shown in white. There is one scene
where she is wearing a black slip. She is shown in the video trying to get away
from the male, packing her suit case, and leaving. It shows her sitting on the
suit case with her legs and high heels fully exposed looking very sad and
helpless because she is without “her man.” There is even a scene at the end
where she is leaving, but the man comes over to her, grabs her, shakes her and
throws her onto the car and looks like he is going to rape her, but she submits
and lets him, which gives the impression that women want to be raped. There is
a scene where she is wearing the man’s coat, which is implying that women need
to be cared for and protected, but she dances around in it sexually.
Audience Reception and Use of
Media Culture
According
to Kellner, “how people actually interact with cultural texts” is important.
The part of Kellner’s three-part approach that looks at this is called
“audience.” Different people may perceive the same text in a different way. One
thing to keep in mind when looking at this Whitesnake video, is that it seems
to be directed at men, but the song is a “Monster Ballad”, which means it is a
song by a band that is listened to by both men and women, but the song is
supposed to appeal to women. “Is this Love” is a love song, that is meant to
appeal to women, but the video is highly erotic in nature, and the eroticism is
mostly done with the woman dancing for the man.
This is puzzling, but the video may appeal to women as well because the
main singer of the band has a much sexualized gaze as well and is often shown
with his shirt unbuttoned or wearing clothing that makes him appear more sexual
in nature.
Representation of Women
According to Mayne, representations require a
medium, a form of expression (which could be anything). In this case, the medium is the music video.
According to Mayne, male characters are offered a range of possibilities, while
women are not. Women either are depicted as “perfect angels” or “evil whores.”
Both categories seem to be polar opposites, and impossible to aspire to. Like
Taylor Swift, the woman in the video is almost always wearing white, but also
contradicts the “innocent, angel” persona when she is dancing around the man’s
bed in a sexual way.
References:
- Kellner, D. (2011). Cultural studies,
multiculturalism, and media culture. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Eds.),Gender,
Race, And Class In Media (pp. 7-23). Thousand Oaks, California:
Sage Publications, Inc
- Mayne, J. (2011). Women, representation, and culture.
InReading Women's Lives (pp. 161-165). Pearlson Education
i think that this video connects very well with the mayne article in which she states that women are depicted as whores or angels because the woman that is featured in this video is there specifically for the men in the band, especially the lead singer. the rock genre seems to often portray women in this way, with big hair and short skirts and dresses with alot of makeup. this type of sexualized gaze can further the stereotype of how women are portrayed in the media. i found it ironic that in the beginning of the song the woman is wearing all white, however, towards the second verse she is suddenly in a black dress, equally as short, as if at some point during the first verse her innocence was taken.
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