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Beauty standards and how they affect
Objectification of women in pop culture
Essays on portrayals of women in media
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Where is the line drawn between empowerment and objectification? Do women want to be viewed as objects rather than equals? According to Cameron Diaz.Female sexuality in media continues to be a heated and divided debate between people with conventional and progressive views. The media and various female artists have forced us to repeatedly question whether pushing boundaries is liberating or insulting. Those with traditional values believe that objectifying women sets a negative example for the youth of today. While modern audiences believe that women should choose to empower themselves by pushing the envelope and promote the youth to follow their own path in life. Women in the music industry today are empowering themselves, rather than being …show more content…
Breines, a postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University, believes. This media imagery shapes how society views women and young girls see themselves. As a result, this leaves women are more prone to low self confidence and eating disorders. This self-objectification shown by oversexualized artists perpetuates the ideal that a woman’s character is solely based on her appearance. Nowadays, teenagers are becoming more and more influenced by social media and have an easier access to images that are not necessarily appropriate. The female artists are promoting stories of female servitude rather than of female equality.
Female artists promote a tasteless lifestyle through overtly sexualized imagery. Suit, a representative from Safermedia, stated that, The song lyrics to “Pour It Up” include. This poses a question of whether musical artists should be role models considering how much publicity they have. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that society holds artists to a higher standard because of their popularity. Artists should be held accountable for their artistic
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Robin Thicke, a husband and father, co-wrote a song called “Blurred Lines”. The hottest song of the summer of 2013 involved lyrics relating to date rape, nudity and sexual objectification. The song lyrics include and “ Thicke depicts women as animals wanting to be sexually catered to rather than human beings. The video includes three topless women dancing in the background as Thicke, Pharrell and T.I. sing fully clothed. This video and song promotes the ideal that women are sex objects rather than equals. Why aren’t male artists questioned for this offensive attitude towards
Trina’s intent was to create a song that liberated women from the double standards and stereotypical views placed upon them. Her song however can cause harm to young women that listen to take this song to heart. Instead of liberation, we are moved further down into the hole of degrading and devaluing women. Trina should’ve sent the message that these things were wrong. Instead she endorsed and encouraged them.
Not only do celebrities misrepresent women, but music adds to this problem. Specifically rap music, the vulgar lyrics and over sexualized music videos give people the wrong idea of American women. Rappers like ASAP Rocky, Lil’ Wayne, and Jay-Z use their lyrics to describe women in derogatory words that would devalue a woman’s self. Music videos also show women wearing extremely revealing clothing and dancing in provocative ways. Most of these rappers are male, and t...
In her song, Caillat comments on the expectations put to women, the effects that trying to achieve them can have, and the importance of breaking free from these expectations. Feminist criticism of Caillat’s song shows that it offers empowerment to women being themselves and learning to be happy with who they are. Although the obvious central message is aimed at women, the underlying message of accepting one’s self and acknowledging that one doesn’t have to strive to meet the media’s standards can also be applied to society as a whole. Men and women alike of all ages can take this underlying message in the song and use it in their own lives in order to learn that it is okay to step outside societal norms and to not worry what others think of them.
Traditionally, an image of Honky tonk girls permeate the collective unconscious of the American country music (Wilson, 2000). Honkey tonk are referred to bars that play country music and women in country music are represented as corrupted temptresses who sit in honky tonks with painted lips and tinted hair to seduce men or as innocent virgins who are loving and patient (Wilson, 2000). However, contemporary female country musicians reject this traditional view on women because such simplistic dichotomy fails to recognise diverse identities that are adopted by women in a contemporary world (Wilson, 2000). In other words, country music provides a space for female musicians to challenge normative gender roles that dominant culture embraces and
Her confidence is well illustrated in the music video “Who Runs the World (Girls)” by her fierce, focused expression while dancing in skimpy, feminine clothing. In addition, she embraces her powerful feminine identity by comparing herself to a variety of powerful animals in the music video. These elements combine to illustrate Beyoncé’s acceptance of her own femininity but also show how she allows that to empower her, not weaken her. Her actions in the music video are complemented by her actions in real life such as posing in the GQ magazine in only her underwear. On the other hand, some such as Hadley Freeman feel that Beyoncé is too powerful to need to stoop to posing in such magazines; in Freeman’s words, “It’s another if you are professedly one of the most powerful women in the entertainment business who has no need of such tactics” (4). While it’s true that Beyoncé does not need such tactics, it does not necessarily follow that these tactics are in fact a bad thing and purely a publicity stunt. Rather, these tactics are her way of embracing her feminine identity in order to promote feminism in her own way. While perhaps untraditional in her methods, by fully embracing her feminine body, Beyoncé promotes a confident feminism that empowers women in order to eliminate
Since young girls today spend more time surfing the web, they are exposed to more mainstream advertisements that boast sexual content, and as a result, many girls want to do the things they are seeing young girls just like Winifred do. In addition to exposure to sexual content on the internet, the music of popular culture leaves very little to the imagination. Women in these music videos are more often shown as provocative and wearing revealing clothing. Many girls look up to these women and want to emulate them because they are their favorite artist. For instance, Beyoncé’s album “Beyoncé” features the song “Partition”, where Beyoncé says “He Monica Lewinski all on my gown”. The sexual reference to Monica Lewinski is hypersexu...
...ality between males in females. They have succeeded in a lot of issues; but there is still a lot of work hat needs to be done to create a better world for women. The images we receive from the media clearly downgrade the capabilities of women by only focusing on their physical appearance. Hip-hop videos teach us that women are inferior to men, which is something many females have fought to end. The way in which women are portrayed in music videos influence the decisions we make every day. When young girls see those women dressed with provocative clothing, dancing in a seductive ways, and hear the names they are called, they create the ideology that those behaviors are acceptable. There is still a lot to do to end with the stereotypes that hip-hop videos have created, but if women unite to end this inequality and misrepresentation everything is possible.
Since the explosion of music videos in 1981, a large portion of their popularity has been due to the objectification of women and their sexuality. “Early content analyses showed that anywhere from 40% to 75% of music videos contained sexual imagery”(Arnett, 2002). Hip-hop music videos especially have a reputation of degrading women. In these videos “women are often depicted in positions of submission to men” (Sommers-Flanagan, 1993).On the flip-side Country music videos are “known for [their] socially conservative themes”(Frisby & Aubrey, 2012).
Mclune (2015) is an African American woman who is opposed to sexism on black on females in the hip –hop culture and wants this nonsense to come to an end once and for all. As a Black lady, Mclune (2015) voices and reveals her angry and frustration in her article. Mclune (2015) discusses how black women are frowned upon by hip-hop male singers in the music industry and the affects this has on the women. The hip-hip male singers do this by showing black women as
It is shocking to see the digression in humanity’s morals and values over the past decade. As cliché as it sounds, the media is the center of it all. The way women are being represented, from our television sets, the radio, pornography and even art has pushed beauty to the top of the list of controversial and widely debated topics around the globe. “Whenever we walk down the street, watch TV, open a magazine or enter an art gallery, we are faced with images of femininity,” (Watson and Martin).
Madonna is a controversial legend whose attitudes and opinions on sexuality have forced the public to take notice and change the image of females in society. Madonna believed women’s sexuality was a natural aspect of life; therefore, she dared to challenge the rules and definitions of femininity and sought to expand the meaning of it. In a male dominated world, she wanted to focus on the importance of women and let them have a voice of their own. Madonna shattered all the myths on traditional beauty standards and made her statement on sexuality and feminism, which changed how society viewed the standards of beauty. She impacted female power by encouraging sex- positivity into her music and her style. It is mainly because of Madonna that ordinary women, and women in modern entertainment have more choices and freedom which continues to influence further generations.
Feminism Empowerment The dictionary definition of feminism is stated: the movement for the political, social, and educational equality of women with men. Truth be told, feminism can mean a whole deal of things. It can mean women fighting for jobs that were mainly held by men with equal pay. It can mean women fighting for equal education in a so called male dominant world. Feminism can give lesbian women the chance to adopt and have children.
The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
answers to the recurrent question, how do I get more out of my employees while
In today’s society, dancehall music is one of the most popular forms of music, however, the themes and lyrics of many songs that fall in this genre tend to be vulgar, offensive, violent and sexist. Sexism in dancehall music is one of the main topics of this paper and is apparent through the negative portrayal of women found in both the lyrics and music videos of such songs. This is an important issue because since dancehall music is so popularized today these negative representation of women, are being popularized to a huge majority of people, potentially giving them the idea that it is acceptable to treat women in such demeaning ways.