Ciara - Like A Boy

This video from Ciara (R&B artist) is performance and concept based and was directed by Diane Martel. It is also a post-feminist related video as it has the women who take in charge and have control and dominance throughout the video.

At the start of the video we see an extreme close up of Ciara’s arms and hands and see various tattoos on them plus rings on her fingers too. The video is already drawing us in and pointing out to us the twist and subversion to the typical woman we may find in videos. It zooms out and we see a mid-shot of Ciara saying “2007, ladies I think its time to switch roles”. By the mid-shot allowing us to recognise her appearance more thoroughly and by what she says, we as the audience can understand she has attained not only a dominant persona, but also rather masculine one too as this is exemplified through her mise-en-scene features such as the attire and tattoos, which we would stereotypically associate with only the male artists.

‘Switching roles’ happens to be the main theme in this video as already we see a close up of Ciara leaning above her partner, shouting at him, putting her arms around him and none of this visa-versa, therefore we acknowledge the fact that Ciara governs the relationship which is something not very typical from a music video, especially in the genres of R&B and rap where it is more distinctive and representative for the man to be in charge instead.

However the post-feminist view over the video allows it to become more unique and let the genders “switch roles”, where the women don’t have to wear short, tight or revealing clothing in order to be more than noticeable.
Ciara portraying a male however by dressing up somewhat like on, and her posture and appearance allows her to mimic a typical black male/rapper and also portrays her as being more powerful as her character does not seem to display passiveness that illustrates a damsel in distress, but more so a person with a sturdy presence and can handle herself.

The man, who we presume to be her boyfriend/partner, is always stationed sitting on a chair. I believe the director did this purposely to subvert the sense of a chair being a symbol of power that it normally is. The man sitting on a chair could normally connote power, as it is symbolic to a king sitting on a throne, however because Ciara is always standing above him we see mid-shot and close-up clips of her shouting, verbally and physically abusing him, talking into his ear etc. It makes him appear as if he is actually sitting in an interrogation chair and she is the one in the driver’s seat pushing him around. This immediately takes away all of his power and creates a sense of vulnerability and helplessness, and makes it easier to acknowledge that it is Ciara who is the one with all the power. When Ciara herself sits on the chair, connotations to a king sitting on a throne are made to much more vivid detail, as she is able to sit on it without being disturbed, and her posture shows that she is relaxed, laid back and suggests her superiority.

There are many close ups of her tattoos, which are provided to exhibit them and used to illuminate her authority as tattoos usually relate to gang culture and pride, furthermore representing her power. The close-ups themselves also allow Ciara to appear very powerful and important as they show immense importance to the artist since we see her and only her in the screen, which make her appear very large and therefore representing her significance. The mise-en-scene aspects from Ciara’s appearance with the attire and tattoos suggest a much more masculine side to her (wears a vest, baggy jeans and a hat/ baseball cap and possesses various tattoos on her arms), and therefore creates a dominant persona on her which is something normally seen only on men in various music videos, particularly in the genres of rap and rock.

Her appearance is not the only methods used to promote this idea of power amongst her and exclaiming her masculinity and therefore dominance, but her actions are just as equally important to doing this as well. She grabs her crotch, and does various hand/arm gestures when singing which are resemblant to various male rappers.

The grab of the crotch allows Ciara to imply how powerful she is as it is a gesture very often used by rappers to show their masculinity and also to conform and live up to their ‘gangsta’ status. This is because it shows a rebellious, rude side to them that’s not trying to please the mass public by being polite and civil, instead it is a sign that basically tells them to ‘go away’. The dancers in the video also act accordingly to Ciara as they too are dressed up very masculine, and follow dance moves that would be normally associated and performed by male dancers.

In certain scenes there happen to be two Ciaras shown in long shots. A female Ciara that is wearing a dress and sticks to much more typical and conventional dance moves that would be seen on women, however there is also a male Ciara that is wearing a suit, has their hair tied back into cornrows and uses dance moves that are affiliated much more to male dancers.

The female Ciara is wearing white and that could suggest the pure yet somewhat passiveness to the typical woman in music videos as white is a colour easily stained, and easy to be coloured over. The male Ciara is wearing black, and that perhaps represent the typical male dominance in videos, particularly over women, as black absorbs white and is near impossible to colour over. The colour scheme of their attires also make it correlate well to the black and white theme to the video and this theme is used to represent contrast as white and black are known as opposite colours indicative of the genders male and female. Although the male Ciara would seemingly be the dominant character, this is not actually the case and ironically we see female Ciara actually show more demanding traits and characteristics compared to the other. There is a part to the scene where female Ciara demands male Ciara’s hat and male Ciara is obliged to give it to her. This further implies to us as how now the women are becoming much more controlling and domineering, as she is pretty much bossing male Ciara around. Not only this but shortly after the female Ciara rests her foot on top of male Ciara’s shoulder, increasingly suggesting the shift in power as not only is female Ciara standing on top of the male one and appearing higher, taller and therefore mightier; she is also instigating to us that the men have to bow down and accept women having all the control and authority.

The female Ciara also does a shifting gesture to the male Ciara, which leads to the male Ciara dancing off the screen, also suggesting dominance.

Another idea that provokes thoughts of Ciara trying to appear in control instead of very passive and seductive, would be a part in the video where the bridge of the song cuts in and we see a subtle, vertically intertextual reference to the glamour model/ actress of Marilyn Monroe being made where we see Ciara (also in her white dress) having her dress being blown up just as was the case with the incredibly famous picture of the actress as well. However in this shot we see Ciara hold down her dress and not being fazed by any wind as we only see her hair blow, and this could convey her own controlling and concrete presence that she maintains as she is not trying to appear sexy yet somewhat passive at the same time.

In the end of the video we see Ciara wrap her arms around her boyfriend and kiss her him on the cheek, and this is very ironic and further extends the idea of ‘switching roles’ as a kiss on this gesture represents protection, safety and security and therefore implies that it is not the boyfriend that will protect Ciara but it is Ciara who will protect him.

Irony draws from this because it is stereotypically seen in a man’s character as being the protector and sheltering partner in the relationship, however due to the theme of switching roles we see this aspect become totally inverted. A feminist and post-feminist reading to this would show how the woman is the stronger, dominant force and shows how Ciara can be capable of being a strong protector and also sexy yet always in control (as seen in the shot and slightly paradic reference to Marilyn Monroe).

I believe this music video is very successful at the portrayal of men and women switching roles and swapping personas as it depicted the man (Ciara’s boyfriend) as being under the will of Ciara and sticking under her authority. It depicted women as being much more dominating and strong than they may usually be portrayed to be in most music videos. The aim of this video was not to bring men down out of spite and bitterness, however in stead it seemed to focus on a target and aspirations of bring women up and representing them in a different light that grants them with more power, when compared to certain typical hip hop and R&B videos to the similar/same genre as this song, and their own rendering of women. It is also to show that men aren’t just free to dominate and dictate any relationship as they choose, and shows us that if things were to switch over that men would feel abused, hurt and mistreated (just like the boyfriend in the video) therefore showing an intolerance to double standards.