The 'We Found Love' music video portrays women in several ways:
1) At the beginning, Rihanna's character is depicted as weak and passive through her facial expressions and being in a bathtub, aiming to make her character relatable to the target audience.
2) Throughout the video, Rihanna engages in stereotypical behaviors like stripping, drinking, gambling, and doing drugs, representing women as followers incapable of making their own decisions.
3) The video also uses old stereotypes from shows of the 1920s depicting Rihanna as a stripper or commodity to be watched, focusing only on her body and limiting her identity.
4) However, towards
2. Rihanna in we found love music video
The ‘we found love’ music video was directed by Melina
Matsoukas who stated that the videos main focus was to alert
the audience with the dangerous of being a drug addict or an
alcoholic. The video was about a toxic relationship that
portrayed Rihanna as a edgy teenager who’s careless about
her life.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/1672957/rihanna-we-found-love-melina-
matsoukas/
Matsoukas was inspired by films such as Attack the Block,”
“Kids,” “Trainspotting” and “Requiem for a Dream,” to
capture all that darkness in the video.
He used intertextuality by filming scenes which were seen
similar in the movie ‘‘ill manors’’ .
3. At the beginning of ‘ we found love video’ Rihanna
represents women as being weak and passive. This is
evident through her facial expressions, the expression of
looking down suggests that her character is overthinking.
Parted lips in this close up indicates that she’s heavily
breathing which denotes that she’s been crying, this is
supported by her smudged make up. The idea of her
being in a bath tub is ironic as this is stereotypically
where people express their feelings and cry. In this
sense, this is effective as many of Rihanna’s target
audience (age between 16-24) will be able to identify
with her character, which is successful as it will
encourage the audience to continue watching the music
video. Furthermore, the analysis of her messy could be
made by connoting that she’s carless which
subconsciously could link to the reason behind why
she’s hurt. This all creates a sympathetically atmosphere
towards her character from the audience.
4. The director, uses flashback to show the
narrative of what happened in the story. This
is a screenshot of a fast-paced pan, which
follows the couple around the circle. This is
significant as it illustrates to the audience
how quickly young teenage love can be over.
The editor, used voiceover over the narrative
; “ and once it’s over, its almost like you want
everything back so you can have the good”.
This represents women as being too
attached to people/objects, which arguably
could link to her real-life relationship with
Chris Brown. This is important as the video
had gone viral due to the fact that people
mistaken Dudley O'Shaughnessy (who was
cast as her love interest) with Chris Brown.
5. The Male Gaze theory
Laura Mulvey coined the term the Male Gaze in 1975. The theory is based on 3 feminist
perspectives : how men see women, how women see themselves and how women see other
women.
We can adapt the Male Gaze theory to the ‘ we found love’ video by Rihanna as the director
had used close ups that focuses on Rihanna’s body being touched . This makes Rihanna
appeal as a status of object and in control of the men, that needs to be watched for.
This represent the male gaze as we
have a long shot of her love interest
looking at her while she’s running
away- naked.
6. The following images denote gambling, drinking
alcohol and taking drugs. This represents women
as being weak and passive to the trends, thus
presenting them as a follower and incapable of
making decisions for themselves. This is because
the ‘we found love’ star, follows the addictions such
as; taking drugs that are perform by subcultures
groups that dropped out of school. This from a third
point of view perspective this gives a negative
example for her younger audience. However, we
can argue that Rihanna is just showing how older
teenagers/young adults in 21st century are
spending their time. This is effective as it enables
her target audience to identify with the music video
because they had experienced it all.
7. Stereotypes
Producers borrow the old stereotype from shows such as; showgirl of the silent film era in
1920s and burlesque girls. In certain parts of ‘ we found love’ music video Rihanna
represents the stereo type of a stripper. The characteristics of a stripper she uses is, bra’s
and g’stings and etc. This makes her look cheap and easy, which represents that women are
commodities . This is significant as it ascribes that women are their bodies, which in a way
limits females by ignoring their intellectual characteristic and only placing the focus upon their
bodies( this links to the male gaze theory). This can have a negative impact on the audience
as it may make some women insecure of their bodies.
8. This long shot represents a modern view of women due to status level. Rihanna is standing on the
bike which represents her as being more powerful than her male partner as well as more free and
being about to take care of herself. This links to the feminist revolution and the development of the
discrimination act where women have as much power as man. However, this analogy is contradicting
as although Rihanna is standing up, she is still standing behind her love , while he is being in charge
of the bike . This contributes to the feminist view of women being oppressed by men.
Furthermore, the use of red smoke colour represents women as dangerous and adds a more edgy
feeling to the music video.
Modern view of women
