Introduction
“We Found Love” is a popular song produced by Calvin Harris and features singer Rihanna. “We Found Love” reached the number one spot in the top charts in multiple countries in 2012 and the music video became popular very quickly after being filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The music video features a young couple living in an impoverished council estate in West Belfast. Both characters portrayed in the music video are in their twenties and of mixed race, one parent being black and the other being Caucasian. Their relationship is distinguished by domestic violence as the couple is seen yelling, pushing and hurting one another, along with stealing from convenience stores, gambling and abusing drugs and alcohol together.
The main problems with the music video and lyrics of “We Found Love” are the androcentric representation of the couple’s relationship and living arrangements and how it is justified by biological determinism along with the normalization of objectifying women and the dualism of passivity from females in active male dominated relationships.
Critical Analysis
Beginning with the lyrics in the opening scene of “We Found Love”, a female voice speaking about being in a domestic violence situation and the difficulty she is having deciding between staying with her partner or leaving. The statements; “you almost feel ashamed that someone could be that important, that without them you feel like nothing,” and “when its over, you almost wish you could have all that bad stuff back, just so you could have the good” (We Found Love, 2011) depict the power that the man has over this woman, even in situations where she is being victimized. This theme continues throughout the music video as the male character is se...
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...s as the weaker and more helpless sex, the inequality between Caucasians and non-Caucasians as a non-Caucasian couple residing in a predominantly Caucasian area are depicted as poor, alcoholics who abuse drugs, and finally, the unnecessary objectification of females, especially in situations such as domestic violence, where they should be supported the most. The most prominent dualisms presented in the music video are rich and poor, dominance and passivity in relationships and subject and object of males and females. “We Found Love” has reached a mass audience and has not caused moral panic, outrage or controversy due to the fact that todays androcentric society justifies the classism, racism, sexism and victim blaming through biological determinism.
Works Cited
We found love (2011). Retrieved March 14, 2014, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzg
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