Self-Objectificationas Representation of Postfeminist Women Empowerment in Fifth Harmony’s Music Videos.

Abstract

This research attempts to describe the portrayal of postfeminism empowerment that is represented by Fifth Harmony’s self-objectification image in their four music videos; Work from Home, Boss, Worth It and That’s My Girl. This research is descriptive qualitative. The method is employed by watching, classifying and analyzing the data that are collected by selecting the scenes, lyrics and other elements of music video representing the image of self-objectification and postfeminism. The supporting data consist of reviews, interviews and information taken from books, journals, articles, online sources and researches. Since the research is in the scope of American Studies which is an interdisciplinary study, it involves some disciplines that are applied in the form of theory including objectification theory, postfeminism theory, semiotic theory and theory of music video. From the analysis, Fifth Harmony in their music videos use their self-objectification image to portray the values of women empowerment in post-feminism era. The music videos are portraying the issues of domesticity (femininity and sexuality) as women’s choice and source of power, confident and successful independent women as a symbol of Girl Power and sisterhood as source ofwomen’s power in the era of post-feminism.