This
week I got in a mini-debate with a friend of mine. She was talking about music
videos these days and how the males in them objectify women. She went on to say
that it’s disgusting that these men (specifically talking about rap and hip hop
artists) allow women to dance around half naked while the male just watches as
if he’s used to it. I made the comment that the girls in the videos are
willingly in them--they are making the choice to be half naked, dancing around,
and doing those risqué things. Needless to say, she didn’t like that comment.
By
saying this, I didn’t mean that women are “asking” to be objectified; I was
just simply trying to make her realize that men are not forcing these females
in the videos to do anything, in fact in most music videos, girls will audition
to be in it and know exactly what the music video entails. Yes, the male
artists may have a lot to do with creating the concept of the videos and their
songs, but I feel that women should not agree to be in videos that are super
raunchy—basically I was just annoyed that males are always getting the blame
for when a female is portrayed as a sex object when it’s not completely their
fault.
I
watched a video a few years back in another Gender-based class I took; it’s
very explicit and shows a lot of sexual objectification of women. It’s called
Tip Drill by Nelly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFBga8WP7EY)
Afterwards we had a discussion about the video. Most peers only talked about
how disgusting the males were in the video for “allowing this” and wanting to
have a music video with this in it. A few others said that the women in the
video are “insecure” and/or “uneducated,” so they wanted to make money and get
attention. Nelly’s music video for Tip Drill is definitely explicit—there’s a
lot of sexual stuff going on and nudity, although a lot of it is blurred out
(nipples, mostly). However, a much newer video that I stumbled upon is
definitely worse. The music video for Make It Nasty by Tyga (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pvpAf5veyw)
has no blurring of nudity at all (not even nipples), and far more sexual chaos happening
than I’ve ever seen in a music video before. My boss saw it and argued that it’s
basically soft porn. Once again though, all I heard about was that Tyga was a skeezy
person for wanting these women to be engaging in these activities.
I think that
the real issue of gender in the media has nothing to do with men being pigs and
women being victims of sexual objectification. The real issue, at least in my
opinion, is that we’ve been exposed to these types of images/messages for so
long that we forget that they aren’t appropriate; they’ve become a norm to our
society. To me, the most disgusting part about these videos is that they are too
common. I think that women should know better than to be in a video that does
this, but it’s so common and less frowned-upon that they actually (in my opinion)
enjoy doing it, no matter what their motivation is. Since this is the case, it
allows the cycle to continue—explicit songs are created, an explicit video
needs to accompany the song, tons of females apply to be in the video, the song
and video is a huge success, another artist thinks up an explicit song, etc… Now,
by no means am I saying its females’ faults either. I’m just saying that as a
whole, our society has become desensitized to these things and it’s harder for
us to realize that they’re not ok and shouldn’t be “normal.”
My questions
are: Why is it that the men are the first people to get the blame for female
objectification in music videos? What are your opinions about this topic? Do
you think that videos such as these 2 should be allowed to be created and
marketed to the general public on places such as YouTube?
I agree with you men are not forcing women to objectify themselves in these music videos or in any other types of media. Women are allowing men to degrade them by participating in sexual performances in these videos. All though man are guilty of deeming women as sex symbolizes because they view the deration of women as a social norms, this is why men do not see the problem in viewing a women in sexual poses or positions. Some man encouraging this type of behavior by watching music videos, purchasing magazines and by participating in any other activities the support women objectivity. I also, believe that this types of videos and magazines should not be advertised to the public because young boys are seeing these ads of sexualized women and are learning that it is ok to look at women as sex objects.
ReplyDeleteAbbi,
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly right that these social constructions and stereotypes of women continue generation after generation which is how they are sustained (a question on our mid-term) -- until, as you say, "we forget that they aren't appropriate".
However, when you say that women should "know better", would you also say that men should "know better"? The reality is that we only KNOW what we are taught and exposed to THROUGH COMMUNICATION (media, videos, each other, TV, magazines). That's the relationship that we have explored during this whole class -- many women are willing to put themselves in these degrading positions because, at least partially, their self-worth has been compromised by seeing women over and over again in powerless situations --- and men? The same is true -- their social construction of masculinity includes demeaning women and having power over them (social, political and economic). So, whose to blame? Maybe the institutionalized images and language of gender stereotypes.
P.S. Rebe, do you mean "degradation" instead of "deration"? or maybe you had another word in mind.