Male Gaze - Girl in a Country Song (Maddie and Tae)

The music video I will be analysis will be Girl in a Country Song by Maddie and Tae (2014) which points out the problem of Male Gaze and even challenges it:




Girl in a Country Song is a country song as implied by certain mise-en-scene. There are hay bails, the music video is based on a farm, the men are wearing red tartan shirts and the women singers wear American bikini's as that is where the genre originates from.

Gender is represented in the music video by cinematography; there is a high pan of alot of girls in skimpy clothing as one of the first shots, the females dominate the frame. This represents them as dominant to men as they are seen out numbering them.

Later on there is a medium shot of the men reacting to the women in bikini's, there is even a zoom of a
man doing a wolf whistle. This implies that women are not respected in the country genre and are just there to look at.

However there is a close up of a "role reversal" button which causes the day to start again and the men to appear in bikini's. This is implied by some of the same shots being played again except with
men and not women. This shows that the music video is defying gender stereotypes of country girls.

Near the end of the music video there are a series of close ups on male body parts (bum, legs) that are conventionally used on women to show sexy themes.  This also supports that the conventional roles

of gender have been reversed.

The mise-en-scene also shows the music video defying gender stereotypes. For example, it is a cliche' in films of women in bikini's doing a car wash. However this cliche' is defied when it is done using men in bikini's, this is to show  that it is unfair and wrong as it makes the audiences feel uncomfortable when they are made to

"male gaze" upon men instead of women. This creates empathy for women who are forced to look at women in a male gaze fashion due to music video conventions.

There is also men seen with trays of food serving women which also reverses the cliche's of what is expected of a woman.

Mise-en-scene also reveals the conventions of music videos and how they are used in this one, for example there are two locations, one is a stage made out of trucks / four by four cars and the girls singing, the other is the country party in which the roles are reversed. The editing cuts between these two locations to show this is what the singers want.  Cutting between singers and a narrative is also a convention for music videos. Another convention is used at

the beginning and end which is a bedroom scene where the singers are creating / planning the lyrics for the song as well as the music video. This shows that they are rebelling against stereotypes as they want a reversed music video.

Editing is used in the music video to represent gender roles, for example; there is an eye-line match of the men looking at the women, this represents the women as objects that are only there to be looked at. It represents a "male dominated" environment.

There is also a series of slow motion shots of men in bikini's which is conventionally used on women to represent men staring at them, this shows how the music video is going against convention and is quite feministic.

The lyrics used in the song also defy stereotypes as the women in the music video are writing it. One of the singers say "Can I put some real clothes on now?" implying that she believes that women shouldn't have to appear appealing to males. She also says that they "need a little respect" which also supports this.

In Conclusion, all the micro-technical aspects convey the representation that women are equal to men and shouldn't how to be appealing to them if they don't want to. The music video also follows the conventions of the average music video, cross cutting between locations and singers, using pans around the singers. The sound editing was also conventionally synchronous editing. It also follows Country genre conventions  because of the mise-en-scene being conventionally symbolized as the country side in the USA; hay bails, four by four trucks, sunset and acoustic guitars.