I love this music video.
The definition of sexualisation is kind of broad?
If someone is being desired by another then I guess it's technically a sexual scenario, I'm not really talking about sexual music videos but rather the music videos that are a little too sexual.
The kind of music video that makes you feel a little uncomfortable to watch in front of other people. That kind of sexual.
Most music videos can be split into different types's of sexual scenario's:
- The artist is represented sexually, more common if the artist is female.
- The artist isn't represented sexually but the people in the background are. (usually dancers male and female or female featuring artists.)
- Everybody is represented sexually. Sort of.
- Nobody is represented sexually.(These are usually the abstract music videos.)
In this video everyone is sexually represented, sort of.
Adam Levine is represented sexually , Rihanna is also being represented sexually but the rest of the band isn't really doing anything sexual at all, we only really see brief shots of them playing instruments.
It's arguable whether Adam Levine is being represented sexually in the video or not, I would say he is more seductive than Pitbull in last weeks post: Pitbull- Wild Wild Love ft. G.R.L
Pitbull looked nervous and despite the fact the women were all posed seductively Pitbull didn't really do anything seductive.
Adam Levine however looks confident around seductive women.
This is a very interesting point, but what do women find attractive in men?
Films, music video's, adverts, magazines etc have proved that men seemed to be more concerned with appearance, anything that improves or emphasises a women's appearance is usually a good place to start so high heels, revealing tight clothes, make up etc.
Women are slightly different, women look for physical attributes that imply something deeper than the actual appearance.
The purpose of attraction is to get the healthiest mate to make the healthiest offspring that will make it to adulthood.
Primitively speaking men want a healthy looking woman who won't die during pregnancy and women want a man who won't let them or their children die.
One thing that women look for is clothes, I know that sounds weird talking about clothes and how that ties in with primitive attraction but bear with me.
If a man can dress and look after himself to a standard a women likes she will be more attracted to him.
If we go back and looks at our ancient ancestors good clothes could imply a healthier active man.
Maybe cave-woman liked a man who could skin a healthy animal because it proves he is stronger than a cave-man who can't kill and skin a healthy animal.
Also lots of women like brooding men, there are countless articles on the internet that suggest this is the case and not to mention all the grumpy male leads in books and films.
Not overly sure why, maybe cave-women wanted a grumpy, brooding man because he was better at standing up to rial cave-men and their families or something, I don't know.
Adam is well dressed and grumpy looking in this video so according to what behaviour and apparel the internet says women find attractive, then he is indeed dressed and behaving in a way that's appealing to women, in that case I would say that he is being represented sexually.
Here are is an example of Adam Levine being sexy in If I Never See Your face. (to prove my point, clearly.) :
Adam is dressed in shirt, tie and waist coat.
Also take a note of his expression, he is maintain eye contact with the camera.
Eye contact implies confidence and my looking at the camera it's like he's looking at the audience, also his body language is open so he seems relaxed and confident.
The out stretched arm is inviting.
Oddly enough according to the internet men like women who are smiley and Rihanna isn't doing a lot of that, but she's moving pretty seductively and dressed pretty scantily so I guess that cancels out the not smiling thing.
Here is a screen shots of Rihanna being sexy too.:
Rihanna is wearing a tight, red, low cut dress.
Tight clothing shows off a persons figure, red is often seen as a sultry colour and the fact it's low cut reveals her cleavage.
Her body language is completely different to Adam's, her arms are close to her body and like in the women Pitbull video she is touching her body (in this case her neck.)
she also makes eye contact with the camera but less directly, this would imply confidence because she is making the effort to look into the camera but it also seems submissive as her body is closed off and she keeps shifting position.
Her body language is completely different to Adam's, her arms are close to her body and like in the women Pitbull video she is touching her body (in this case her neck.)
she also makes eye contact with the camera but less directly, this would imply confidence because she is making the effort to look into the camera but it also seems submissive as her body is closed off and she keeps shifting position.
Oddly enough Neither of them crack a smile the entire video.
I would also like to try and explain some other shots from the video:
Adam is seen fixing his tie, this relates to the theory of men's clothing appealing to women, it's clean, smart and probably expensive.
Again he looks sullen.
The blue and black colours could imply either coldness or coolness, depending how you look at it he is either relaxed or angry.
There is lots of sexual tension in this video, At this point Rihanna is the dominate but unlike Pitbull in the previous post Adam is convincingly ignoring her advances whilst maintaining an air of confidence and composure.
If you take a close look at Rihanna's outfit you can see it almost looks like a maid outfit.
Maid's have a submissive job role. (because they are given jobs by their masters.) Her dress is also revealing.
The way she is sitting also seems submissive. Her knees are drawn together and her body is arched forward, compare her body language with Adam's. All that can be seen of Adam in this shot is the back of his thighs and you can see his legs are spread apart implying he is confident and more domineering.
I think the reason that Adam's legs are shown in the shot if to remind the audience that the pair are reacting to each other, this builds sexual tension.
This shot shows Rihanna with open body language, she is touching his shoulder. He isn't touching her back and he hasn't reached out to her either so it would imply that she is being dominant and he is being submissive.
There is nothing in this shot to indicate that Adam put her head on his lap and he isn't reacting to her but there is nothing to indicate that Rihanna put her head on this lap either.
I'm not sure who the dominant person is, her eye contact with the camera is indirect and she is physically lower than Adam which would point to her being submissive but Adam isn't reacting to her.
Not reacting to her could mean he is playing hard to get and teasing her by not giving in or it could mean he isn't interested in her no matter what she does to him.
This shot show's Rihanna teasing Adam, it would imply that she is sexually dominant as she is in control of the situation.
He however is reacting to it confidently. (He neither resists her advances or takes control of the situation but keeps a stern expression, the stern face implies confidence in the situation.)
The pair pass the mic to one another forcefully, whilst one of the pair sings the other watches non-nonchalantly.
The lyrics are quite angry so the actions fit the mood of the song.
The song feature Adam Levine and Rihanna taking it turns to sing verses and the video features Rihanna trying to gain Adam's attention and Adam trying to ignore it.
It's almost like a fight, will Rihanna give up or will Adam give in?
The microphone could be a metaphor of them taking it in turns resist or seduce the other.
Touching is a good indication of sexual power. Rihanna touching Adam implies that not only does she have the confidence to do so but it also indicates that she is interested in him beacuse she is physically seeking him.
Again Adam is reacting by touching her back or moving toward her but he is looking at her which would mean that he is also interested. Only not as direct.
This could be an indication that he could give in.
Rihanna is posed provocatively on a bed, she is arching her back forward and head back to emphasise her chest. One leg is bent so both legs are visible, poses are used to draw attention to something so this pose draws attention to her chest and legs.
Notice the distance between the two, neither are imposing towards the other.
I would say Rihanna is being submissive in this shot as she is posing on a bed seductively and Adam is posing by the bed sullenly.
I would like to go back to what I said before about attraction. Men like women to dress and act in a way that highlight physical traits such as healthy and fitness.(such as long/healthy hair, healthy weight etc.)
Women usually like men dressed or to act in a way that highlights other traits that imply things like confidence, wealth and strength. Like when women are being sexualised men can also be sexualised by having them not wear an awful of of clothes.
A man could imply confidence by standing his ground or standing up for others, he could prove he is wealthy (or at least able to manage his money to some point) by maintaining his appearance so on and so fourth.
Adam standing by the bed in a suit looking serious would indicate he is behaving in a way that would be sexually appealing to women, you could use this shot to compare how both men and women are used to sell sex.
This is Adam levine's reaction shot to the Rihanna in the previous shot.
His body language is closed off, crossed arms are associated with irritation or displeasure so it would appear he has either rejected Rihanna or is playing hard to get, I would presume it's the latter because he doesn't look disgusted. Just indifferent.
This completely turns the table from the shot of him glancing at her because now it looks like he is determined to not be seduced.
The body langue is interesting in this shot, Adam stands in the centre of the room, his feet are wide apart and his shoulders are low and relaxed. (although his could be because he's playing the guitar.)
Rihanna is circling him whilst touching his shoulder, there are other men in the video but she never acknowledges them.
Her body is closed off, her knee's her together as she walks and this gives the impression that she is less imposing (because he takes up less space when she stands) she is also standing very close to Adam as she walks.
This could imply that she is being the dominant person as she is initiating the interaction and acting seductively.
this could also imply that she is being sexually submissive as she occupies less space and is trying to attract his attention.
In this shot we go back to a previous scene where Rihanna is resting her head on Adam's lap whilst he just sits there playing hard to get. On first impression it could have seemed like Adam was dominant in this situation, seeing as she is in a physically lower and laying on your back is seen as a more vulnerable position than sitting up right.
But Rihanna is feeling his knee whilst he doesn't react, wouldn't this imply that she is in control? But does this make her dominant in this situation?
Well. does this remind you of anything?
If you look at their bodies (what you can see of their bodies.)
Rihanna's legs are parted, also he is touching his guitar which implies that she leading the interaction.
Adam's arm hangs by his side, his hand looks relaxed but he isn't doing anything to try to take control of the situation or reject her actions.
In this case Rihanna is Dominant and Adam is submissive.
In this scene Adam walks over to Rihanna on the other side of a huge dining table, he pulls the hair at the nape of her neck. This is the first time he has done something of a sexual nature to her.
The nape of the neck is sensitive so pulling that of the hair should have some kind of reaction.
Now you can see Rihanna reacting to the hair pulling. This bit is a little bit weird because this is where the video ends.
Throughout the video regardless of who ever was dominant (because it was questionable most the time) Adam avoided reacting to Rihanna's sexual advances in a sexual way, in this shot Adam is the person to initiate the interaction.
Unlike Adam Rihanna Reacts to the interaction.
I think the empty space in the shot is to show how Adam has travelled physically across the room, it could be a metaphor of how his mind has changed from appearing uninterested to appearing interested.
The song its's self is about causal sex.
You say I'm not your type but I can make you sway
These lyrics seems to describe a one-sided attraction, Although these are Adams lines and he seemed to be the one who is uninterested but there is definitely a theme of one-sided attractions.
It would seem that the point of the video was for Rihanna to seduce Adam, I don't think the message was "keep harassing someone until they like you." because I believe he was interested in her all a long and was playing hard to get.
I'm not really sure as to what the message was...
But I think I learnt something pretty cool.
The difference between submissive behaviour and dominating behaviour isn't as black and white as I thought it was.
I thought you had to be one or the other and that the person initiating the interaction was the dominant person they were the person who was in control of the situation because they had created it.
I've learnt from the video that both people can be dominant at the same time and that you can be submissively dominant.
allow me to explain:
(I've returned to this shot.)
Just because Rihanna is the one doing the touching does not mean that Adam has to submit.
He is maintaining dominance by resisting and she is maintaining dominance by touching him.
By denying her a reaction he demonstrates he has more power over her by not letting her get what she wants, by touching him she demonstrates power because she has the confidence to do so and that she is persistent.
At the same time they are both submissive because Adam is letting Rihanna touch him and she is struggling to get a reaction so has to keep trying.
So both are submissive and both are dominant.
I think this is important when looking at sexualisation as a whole because people could think that women acting and dressing sexually automatically means that they are being represented as sexual objects and that then makes them weaker because they are submissive to more powerful men when really sexualisation is a lot more complicated than that.
