http://gawker.com/5864023/mariah-carey-and-justin-bieber-play-lovers-in-life+ruining-new-music-video?tag=television&autoplay
This music video was played during the broadcast of the Rockfeller center tree lighting.
We see Justin Bieber and Mariah Carrey singing in a mall.
First this video clearly promotes consumerism. Even though they sing "There's just one thing I need,
I don't care about the presents," the scene takes place in a mall and we see Bieber filling a shopping cart with presents.It is also very sexist: Mariah Carey is dressed in a very short, sexy Santa outfit and her posture, gesture, and face expression (see her eyes and mouth) are very sexualized and degrading. Throughout the music video she is "dancing" against a wall (we often see that in music video and I find it disturbing, it reminds me of rape imagery when I see a woman stuck against a wall like that). Even though she is "dancing" she is still very passive, while Bieber is active (walking around the malls with his buddies). So it reinforces the ideology of the passive, sexualized, inferior woman.
We find that a lot in music video but what disturbs me the most is that it was broadcast during what is supposed to be a traditional, familial show, and that they manage to turn Christmas in a sexist celebration.
What do you guys think, do you find it more disturbing when it is targeted at families with young children or when it uses "traditional" symbols? I think it's even more powerful because everything that surrounds it is supposed to be warm, and magic, and happy, and kids are just gonna learn through a traditional celebration that it's the way women are.
