Hyperfemininity in Sabrina Carpenter's Music Videos: Feminine Power or Objectification?

Oleh :
Asya Nanida Rahman - B0322020 - Fak. Ilmu Budaya

This study examines the representation of hyperfemininity and how it operates to negotiate feminine power or reinforce objectification in three Sabrina Carpenter music videos: Espresso (2024), Please Please Please (2024), and Tears (2025). Using a qualitative descriptive method, the study applies Roland Barthes's semiotic analysis, Rosalind Gill's (2007) concept of postfeminist sensibility, and Fredrickson and Roberts'(1997) Objectification Theory. The findings show that hyperfemininity is represented through costumes, bodily performances, facial expressions and gazes, makeup and styling, as well as visual framing and camera work. This representation negotiates feminine power through agency, self-management, and confident self-presentation, while simultaneously reinforcing objectification through the continuous visual emphasis on women's bodies and physical appearance. Overall, the findings demonstrate the ambivalent nature of hyperfemininity, in which feminine power and objectification coexist within the same representation.Keywords: hyperfemininity, Roland Barthes’s semiotics, postfeminist media culture, music videos, Sabrina Carpenter.