Gender Subversion in Annie Lennox Videos

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Annie Lenox through her performances and music videos evoked the use of “gender-bending”. Lennox was one of the first performers who employed this strategy. By doing this Lennox showed that we could view women in different ways unlike the identity assigned for them by the media and society. The Eurythmics used their videos as a tool for performing gender roles, stereotypes by evoking the use of drag through camp.
In Rodger’s article, she describes the Lennox’s transformation as fully beginning when she became part of the group “Eurythmics”. This happened around the same time MTV launched their music channel. “Music videos were quickly becoming an integral part of popular music” (Rodger 18). With the emergence of music videos as an important part of music, it was important to make these videos stand out and be different. Lennox did this by putting on a performance in her music videos. She did this through props as shown in her “Love is a Stranger” video. She employed the use of costumes, makeup, wigs, “movement and body language” (Rodger 19). She also uses fetish gear in the video. Her body movements change depending on which gender she is depicting. Her movements are more fluid in the beginning when she is big haired blonde beauty and as the video continues, her movements become more rigid.
Through her music videos, Lennox adopts gender bending. The way she looked in “Love in the Stranger” goes from feminine to masculine androgynous. In the first half of the video, we are not sure if Lennox is male in a female drag objectively speaking because even as a woman she has some masculine qualities. In the second half of the video when she is in a suit it is same, Lennox could be a woman in male drag. It is through depictions like t...

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... their authenticity because she is so easily able to adapt and assume a gender. By destroying film literally in the “Love is a Stranger” video Lennox critiques the commercialized images of women in the media. This is another example of how her performance was deliberate and sought to evoke certain references and images in to popular culture.
Overall, through Lennox’s performances in her music video she was able to construct another narrative for women in music at the time. Through this she employed the use of gender bending, drag as masquerade, camp and gender subversion. All of these were made possible using props and her mise-en-scene, which provided the right look and atmosphere for these performances to be able to take place. In conclusion, Lennox was part of the women who started a movement still used today through other female contemporary artists.

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