Eminem - Love The

Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

Institutional Information
Name of Artist Eminem ft. Rihanna
Track Love The Way You Lie
Released - August 9, 2010
Genre Hip Hop
Eminem's seventh studio album Recovery in 2010
Eminem wrote the verses and chose Rihanna to sing the
chorus and their past experiences in difficult
relationships influenced this collaboration
This track won 6 awards and was nominated for 23
others

Representations In The Hip Hop

Genre
The representation of women shows how they are portrayed in the
music videos. There have been many interpretations and on this,
good and bad, which is one of Goodwins theories about the use of
voyeurism in music.
Hip Hop is a genre which is criticised for many reasons such as foul
language. In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of
women in this genre with the use of misogyny. Artists such as
Rihanna, who appears in the music video I will be talking about,
collaborate with Hip Hop artists to show a different die to them and
express the real time issues they have faced such as poor
relationships. However, in doing so, these pop artists have explicitly
exposed themselves in voyeuristic ways which young audiences are
viewing.

Representation Of Rihanna
Looking at Rihanna in this music video, voyeurism plays a big part in this which is
one of Goodwins theories. Love The Way You Lie is a promotional music video by
Eminem which is an example of the male gaze. This was also used in the music
video Come Together by Echosmith where the bright red lipstick is the main
focus of the shot.
The majority of the shots Rihanna is in are close ups so the focus is all on her and
she is completely dominating the shot so the audience is focusing on her. She
also has plenty of make up on and red hair so voyeurism is again reinforced.
The mise en scene behind Rihanna shows fire surrounding her which later on is
revealed to be a house on fire which would generally catch anyone attention to
be the main focus. However, here the mise en scene is blurred so the only focus
can be on Rihanna, again reinforcing the use of voyeurism in the music video.
This is constant until 3 minutes in, then Eminem enters the shots with her and
dominates the mise en scene with her in the background showing male
dominance which Laura Mulvey would say this is portraying male patriarchy and
the males are the dominant type in the music video. Also, Rihanna is seen to not
be weary much clothing and showing off her cleavage which again Mulvey would
describe as the male gaze upon women.
Rihannas low cut costume, exaggerated lip stick and images which associate her
with the night. Mulvey claims the camera dwells on physical aspects of a woman
for so long that the image becomes almost iconic for male viewers. The interests
and fantasies seen on screen are tailor-made to comply with those of the
dominant males that more or less run the industry. This is referred to as the
male gaze which combines the theories of voyeurism, narcissism and fetishism.

Representation Of Gender
Laura Mulveys theory on the male gaze is a developed idea about living in
patriarchy where the men are the dominant gender. This is immediately
reinforced in the music video as the initial shot of the man and the woman in
bed shows him with his arms around her, suggesting she is his item.
There is a lot of fighting that goes on between the male and the female but
whenever the female fights back towards the male, he asserts his dominance
straight back. Half way through the fighting, they begin to kiss which again links
back the to theory of the male gaze as the images being sold is that of an
attractive women who is model-like.
During the kissing scenes, both genders are seen to dominate the kiss which
could link to Mary Devereaux who says that the male gaze is not always male,
but always male dominated which is a good example here.
Another example of the male gaze is in the music video Tessellate by alt-J
where the shots are male dominated with the women wearing short dresses,
with the men surrounding the females. Also Leave before the lights come on
by Arctic Monkeys shows this as well as it is about the male being in control, his
rejection of the girl who seems to define herself in her relationship with a man.
Thus in her depression she stands on the top of a building about to leap. This
interpretation shows strong female emotions which could be defined as females
being drama queens. This references the traditional representation of the
female as needy, hysterical and dependent on males, thus the world is seen
through the male lens. This idea is also used in our music video with the female
accusing the male but ultimately being his victim.

Representations In My Production
Eminems music video is very explicit compared to by production although
there are aspects of both which relate to each other but are expressed in
alternative ways.
In my production, the female is seen as a victim and there is a tradition
representation of male guilt. The difference between Love the way you lie
and my production is that the female in mine is not abused physically and
made to feel frightened but is instead the victim of a hit and run situation
which is short term, whereas abuse can be long term, as seen in Eminems
music video.
The mise en scene in my production is split between male and female which
can relate to Mary Devereauxs masculinisation theory. However the female
is in the perspective of being accusatory rather than proactive which shows
the mind games which are being played in my music video.
Another representation of my production could be the theme of guilt, selfloathing and loneliness. The film Another Earth is about a very bright
physics student who 4 years earlier got drunk and collided with another car,
killing a mother and her child. The accident is shown in flash back. Our
music video develops the theme of living with oneself after killing somebody
in a road accident.
Another Earth car crash