Entry (Music Video & Film): Who Runs the World by Beyonce & Film Malena (2000)

Entry (Music Video & Film): Who Runs the World by Beyonce & Film Malena (2000)

An analysis by using Psychoanalysis Theory of Erotogenic Zones; Oral, Anal and Phallic.

By: Nur Fasya binti Zahidi (1513366)

In this section, I will attempt to analyze music video “Who Runs the World” by American female singer, Beyonce and film Malena (2000) using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory of erotogenic zones; oral, anal and phallic. Beyonce’s music video “Who Runs the World” released in 2011 has received presently 443, 798, 691 viewers on Youtube. When looking at it through a psychoanalyst’s perspectives, Beyonce’s video is the perfect example of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory. In the video, Beyonce and the other female dancers were somehow performing in the crowd of men in revealing costumes to make themselves appealing. Freud refers this as the male gaze and women become the object of desire. 

Who Runs the World, Beyonce: 1.57

In my observation of the music video, there were many images which give representations of the phallic which Freud calls it as phallocentrism. Phallic is a symbol to associate power and male dominance. In the video, Beyonce uses the image of phallic to show that women can also play dominant roles in society and not just men. In minute 1.57, Beyonce is captured holding two hyenas on leashes. This image indirectly presents the male genital organ which again follows the ideology of having penises gives power and dominance. Another image of phallic is seen in minute 2.04 when Beyonce showed her middle finger which again carries the same connotations. Apart from the phallic zone, oral zone was also caught in the video. In minute 2.19, Beyonce is licking her finger. Here, Freud would argue that Beyonce finds pleasure through oral stimulation. Sexual pleasures can appear in even the most basic acts in the process of nurturing and so thus in the video clip.

A scene from Malena (2000)

Moving over to film, Malena (2000) is an Italian romantic comedy-drama directed by Giuseppe Tornatore staring Monica Belluci as Malena and Giuseppe Sulfaro as Renato Amoroso, released in 2000. The movie has received website’s critics because of how it ends up objectifying women. There were many scenes where Malena in her character, smoking cigarettes. In one of the scenes in particular, Malena was smoking in a crowd of men which again shows the male gaze. She was then surrounded by men offering to light her cigar. In psychoanalysis theory, Edward Bernays claimed that people could be made to want things they don’t need by appealing to their unconscious desire. According to him, cigarettes were a symbol of the phallus which distinguished between male and female; boys have the equipment and girls do not. While women are lacking penises, they are envious and as a result, they would smoke because it was then that they would have their own penises which give them power and authority.