"The Player"

Timbaland’s recent music video for the song “Carry Out” featuring Justin Timberlake displays the myth of the “player”.  This myth is displayed through gender and sexuality. This video shows Timbaland and Justin Timberlake just chilling in the middle of the shot as women in skimpy outfits keeping rolling by. The women are just rolling by rather than walking by is because they are suppose to depict a 1950s waitress. They are dressed as waitress because Timbaland is comparing women to carry out food service. Through out the video Timbaland and and Justin just sing about women and what they are going to do to women and what they want women to do to them. 

Gender is by far the largest social identity that helps with the myth of the “player”. The music video shows both masculine traits and feminine traits and the women are doing the feminine things while the men are doing the masculine things.  

Masculinity is displayed through many different details in the music video. Camera angle, placement of men and women in the shot, the interaction of men and women, and setting.  First there is the camera angle. Both men are always in the middle of every shot. If there is a women in the shot with the men they are off centered or just off to the side completely. By having the men in the middle of the screen it portrays a sense of dominance because they are obviously the most important thing there if they are smack dab in the middle. Next there is the placement of men and women. If the women was not off centered in a shot with the men they were behind them. This also displays dominance because the first thing that one would see would be the men and than the women. Essentially all the women in this music video are serving men. Whether they are waitresses, maids, or back up dancers they are all serving men. In all societies waitresses and maids serve people which is obviously but even back up dances are serving the lead singers because they are making them look better with their dancing. While there is not much of a physical setting in the video, but the clothes, signs and cars set one up. All the women in the beginning are wearing some sort of reviling waitress outfit and rollerblades making them look like they are from a 1950s diner. The car that the men are sitting in look like it could also be from the 1950s and lastly the signs that are in the background look like diner signs from the 1950s. The setting that is being made here is obviously the 1950s. During this time period men were superior and women were very submissive and men were clearly dominant.  Dominance and 

masculinity go hand and hand and they are a huge part of the myth of the “Player”.

One can not have masculinity without femininity. The cloths that the women wear and the way they act really show off femininity. All the women in the video are wearing some sort of skimpy article of clothing, showing off their buttocks or breasts. Showing off skin is a feminine trait and this video has every women showing a lot of skin. The women in the music video act as if the only thing they want to do is please men. For example there is a scene with Justin Timberlake sitting in a chair and one of the maids leans over Justin so that the viewer can see up her skirt and then looks at the camera as if she wants to show off her body and please Justin. 

Gender is not the only social identity in this video. Sexual orientation is also right in you face. This music video is a very clear representation of a heterosexual fantasy. The entire video screams the heterosexual fantasy. A combination of the lyrics and the women in general help create this fantasy. They lyrics just yell sex, 

“I have you open all night like an iHop, 

I take you home baby let you keep me company

You gimme some of you, I give you some of me

You look good, baby must taste heavenly”. 

Everyone watching this music video has to notice the women because there is such a large focus on them. If this video were not trying to portray a heterosexual fantasy all the women would be fully clothed wearing winter jackets and not be sexually attractive. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRdHsuuXxfk