Imagine an endless series of busty dancers, shaking booties, and lingerie-clad female singers in your face while a voice on the soundtrack discusses MTV's tendency to portray women as objects. Now, imagine a high school or first-year college class full of teenage males watching the program. For the wedge, will their attention be focused on the acres of flesh or the slightly droning quality of the narrator's voice? No contest, my friends. Which is unfortunate, since writer/director/producer Sut Jhally makes some telling points about the way women are depicted as male fantasy objects (not individuals) in both commercials and MTV videos. An update of an earlier 1991 version of the program, the video looks at nymphomaniacal behavior in the dreamgirls (women in MTV videos), their decidedly paltry wardrobes, and the ways that the camera pans over female bodies with unmistakably prurient intent. Jhally correctly points out that images themselves do not cause sexual assault, but that the stories we tell (including those told in music video) do influence how we think. In the final third of the program, Jhally intercuts the brutal rape scene from the feature film The Accused with MTV music videos in an extended sequence that is more pointless, confusing, and deeply annoying, than supportive of the filmmaker's case. While I don't doubt for a moment that Jhally papered his video with wall to wall female flesh to continually underscore his argument, less would have been more in this case. The other major quibble I have with this program is that the music scene has changed quite a bit over the past five years--alternative grunge bands are not nearly as drawn to the sexually degrading imagery that is common to heavy metal and power ballad videos. Aerosmith is not what's happening in music video today, and David Lee Roth is off the map entirely. Too, Jhally's comment that other versions of sexuality (other than male-dominant heterosexuality) are not represented on MTV today is also dated. Gay and lesbian artists are very much in the mainstream of music television these days. An often insightful--if not truly current--look at MTV, the program also unfortunately stereotypes MTV as much as MTV stereotypes women. An optional purchase for larger high school (though any teacher who shows the tape should be prepared for trouble) or college libraries. (R. Pitman)
Dreamworlds II: Desire, Sex, And Power In Music Video
(1995) 56 min. $125: public libraries; $195: high schools, colleges and universities. Media Education Foundation. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 11, Issue 1
Dreamworlds II: Desire, Sex, And Power In Music Video
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