In our music video there is representations of Gender. This is because the lyrics and visuals within the music video are about a love story between and man and woman. Our music video follows and goes against the stereotypes of gender throughout. At the very beginning of our music video it goes against the stereotype of the woman being a housewife and cooking dinner, this is because our music video shows the woman coming home from work and the man (the artist) has cooked her dinner and is being romantic. Although this is not stereotypical it does show that the man is looking after his girlfriend, in our music video the artist who is a male also looks after his girlfriend by pulling the blanket over her feet when she is asleep to show that he will take care of her. This is stereotypical because it shows that the woman needs a man to look after her.
It is then stereotypical in our music video because the woman is sitting down doing her makeup and putting her jewellery on getting ready to go out for dinner with her partner, this follows the stereotype of woman taking a long time looking nice to improve their appearance and follows the stereotypical generic conventions of a girl wearing makeup, heals, a dress and jewellery. This is then continued when there is then a shot of the girl walking down the stairs looking pretty and we look at her through the heterosexual mans perspective. This is using the male gaze theory of Laura Mulvey and shows that although he was annoyed that his girlfriend was taking so long to get dressed that it doesn't matter now because she looks beautiful and suggests that she is more of an object that looks good than a person.
When there are shots of him and his girlfriend at the park together having a picnic she pulls a funny face which is non stereotypical as it is not expected for a girl to be immature first however it is then followed by him being silly and chucking a grape at her face. This is stereotypical that a boy is being immature as men mature later then girls. The other shots are do not portray gender stereotypes until the end of he music video. This is when he proposes to her and gets on one knee and has a ring. This is stereotypical because it is expected that the man proposes to the woman.
Age
In our music video there are also representations of Age. This representation starts at the beginning of the music video when the woman gets home from work. It is stereotypical that a woman in her mid twenties will have a full time job now days and not still be in Education of perhaps at home with many children. Therefore the stereotype here is that people in their twenties have a job. The next representation of age is when the couple are sitting eating a meal at a candle lit table. This is stereotypical that there is a lot of romance between a young couple because they will not have been together for a very long time and are still in the 'honeymoon phase', people see it as less likely that an older couple who may have been together for 30 years to have as many romantic dinners.
There is then a stereotypical point in the video wear the couple are old and relaxing sitting in their arm chairs in the lounge whilst watching their grandchildren play games. This is stereotypical that children just sit playing games all day and not doing other things such as learning or being naughty. This is because it portrays children as being innocent and using products such as jigsaws which are sold in our child centred society making sure they enjoy their childhood and do not get bored, even though in reality children may not just sit their happily playing games and may be badly behaved. The grandparents (the artist and his girlfriend) are sitting in their armchairs which is stereotypical as it sees them as not fit and active as old people, as people expect retired people to sit and relax and enjoy retirement even though sitting down all day would probably be boring for an old person.
The scene shot in the park where they are having a picnic together and are messing about doing piggy backs and chucking grapes at each other and pulling faces is non stereotypical because the it is not expected that people in their twenties are immature as when they are children they are socialised into being told not to chuck food or be rude and pull faces however, many love stories do have scenes like this where young couples mess around so in this respect it is a stereotypical love story.
It is then finally stereotypical that the couple become engaged at the end of the music video because in western society couple in their twenties often get engaged and get married. According to www.independent.com the most common age-group by frequency to get married is 25-29 for both men and women and since as this couple are in their early to mid twenties and they are at the engagement stage, it is stereotypical.
Sexuality
Our music video has very stereotypical representations of sexuality. This is because the couple in the music video are heterosexual. Majority of couples in western and other societies are heterosexual so the music video follows this by the love story being about a heterosexual couple. Throughout the music video there is no reference to homosexuality or transgenders etc. When the shots of the couple as older people are with their grandchildren it just assumes that the artist and his girlfriend will end up having children even though it is possible that they do not want children (but in society people assume heterosexual couples will want children). Also, after it assumes this couple will have children it then follows by saying that their children had children in order for them to have grandchildren in the music video even though their children may not want children or may be homosexual. Therefore our music video follows the stereotype of a nuclear family following from generation to generation.
Conclusion
Overall I think that our music video is mainly stereotypical and does not often go against the stereotypes of different representations. The only cases where the stereotype is different in when the couple are slightly immature for their age whilst having their picnic and when the man cooks dinner instead of the woman. Our music video shows representations of gender, age and sexuality.
Sophie Thomas
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