21st Century Female Artists : Sex Appeal

Director Sut Jhally, in his documentary film, “Dreamworlds 3: Desire, sex, and power in music videos”, analyzes the issue of how women are portrayed in the music world. Jhally, in his film argues how music and media has become a proud industry when it comes to advertising women, all for the benefit of popularity and record sales. Jhally believes these videos both inform and misinform our culture about our dominant attitudes regarding femininity masculinity, sexuality and race. He uses an empathetic tone in order to appeal to pathos, the feelings and experiences in women when he presents video clips that are somewhat offensive to watch as proof that women have become a common necessity shown in music videos. Often presented as being sexually aggressive and submissive, being objectified by men. He also intentionally wants to try to stir up emotions as he introduces song lyrics of women being called inappropriate names and images of women being fondled by men throughout the film. Sometimes, aggressively without consent.

From wearing cupcake bra outfits to performing in a lavish swimsuit, Katy Perry has demonstrated how women in the music industry use sex appeal to captivate their audience. In today’s society, it isn’t uncommon to see female artists in revealing, flashy outfits surrounded by flashing lights and steam. Artists such as Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj have certainly made news headlines for their audacious performances. In many cases, artists are presenting false images to their fans as an investment for future sales. Female artists continue to be sexually objectified by their audience, which increase their viewership, which leads to record labels pressuring artists to keep a sexy image.

This study works to examine the use of sexual objectification of women in music videos today. The primary purpose was to examine the differences between genres, specifically hip-hop and country. I tested the following; Women are more likely to be sexualized in hip-hop music videos than in country music videos.

“All I want for my birthday is a big booty hoe”- 2 Chainz. Some women dance and show off for fun, some women expose themselves for money, and some give themselves up because it is expected. Wait, what? Yes, you heard that right. Society has come to the point where women are expected to give themselves up for sexual pleasure. Now what could some causes be? Could there be influence by the media? Would there be any influence by the music videos that the youth watches? You’re getting warmer, take a listen, feel the beat pulsing smoothly through your ear drums. That slight head nod you give to the beat, maybe a slight foot tap? Take in the instruments taking part in the beat. Now the important part, take in the artist’s voice. The loudest part you hear from his or her production. Dissect the lyrics and you’ll be surprised to find what you hear when you take it into consideration. Music has become more influential in society. With it a negative light has been projected towards the female gender; and although most of society doesn’t realize the damage this can do. Awareness of the damage caused by artists and producers in the music industry needs to be raised on these negative effects.

In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.

In conclusion, the music industry is sexualising older teenage girls to a minor extent. According to the surveys, the older girls don’t feel that they have to display every inch of their body to be considered attractive, and most didn’t see having male attention as an important social standing to have. To the older teens in actuality, music videos are seen as false and a fake depiction of adolescent girls in reality. Lily Allen has made more or an impact on our

The Film Dreamworlds III examines the explicit nature and the objectification of women in music videos across music genres. A similar theme is presented throughout these various music videos as women are sexualized and exploited. In addition, many music videos display the domination and antoagonizing nature of a man controlling the numerous women submitting themselves to him. The portrayal of these images in music videos advertise and influence audiences to accept this behavior on screen, which in turn strengthens aggressive masculinity and the pornography of women.

Allen’s music video introduces half-naked women committing sexual acts in a provocative scene to establish the role of women in pop culture as dehumanizing. The scene starts with Allen joining the female dancers, clothed enough to barely cover their genitals, beginning their dance routine. As Allen sings, the dancers are seen performing the twerk, and the video zooms on the dancer’s genitals as the dancers lick their hands and slap their genitals. Allen’s incendiary scene highlights women as needing to be overly sexualized in music videos and performing suggestive behaviors to be included in pop culture. This scene dehumanizes women in music videos because women are expected to behave and dress in a specific manner or not be included in the

Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.

Instead of trying to claim their lives and educations to get better jobs women are shaking their bodies in music videos. These music videos are “playing significant roles in reflecting, reinforcing and sometimes subverting the dominant systems and ideologies that help shape gender” (Shaw and Lee 450). By putting women in music videos both male and female singers (but mostly male singers) are sexualizing and objectifying the female body. They are making women dance in the background with hardly any clothes on. Singers like 50 Cent have women in their music videos simply for “eye candy.” They are just there to be looked at, to be seen as objects, not human beings. By using objectification, which is “seeing the body as an object and separate from its context” (Shaw and Lee 216) music videos portray the female body as a piece of meat, with no feeling or worth. By continuing to promote this objectification music videos are encouraging gender ranking, which is the “valuing of one gender over another” (Shaw and Lee 119) to limit women and “keep them in their

In most videos, women reveal their bodies in sexual ways with lack of clothing. Most teens claim that it is the beat of the music rather than what's going on in the video. For Example “Sexualized identity of Black women. For instance, in conversations, many of the youth said that it was the “beats,” not the lyrics, that are important to them about hip-hop. In this case attractive and highly feminine girls like Tiffany were among the ones that were able to perform and receive attention in this setting” by Andreana Clay,2003.There have been popular american hip-hop artists, such as Eminem, Ludacris that have increasingly depicted women as objects of violence. Studies have shown almost half of an music video involve sexual activity towards women .For Instance, “....policy statement that found 75% of music videos involved sexual imagery, and more than half involved violence -- usually against women.” Sid Kirchheimer,2003. Although some teens have said it was the beat, Artists have caused society to view women differently because of the image artists have left on

The idea “sex sells” is largely influential for celebrities like Beyoncé to deem it necessary to objectify their bodies for they're so called image. The repercussions of this behavior, however, are the lasting affects it will have on both female and male children and young adults of this generation. Behaving in a sexualized and objectified manner has the potential to corrupt young minds and manipulate their views on sex, body image and their role in society. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is a powerful and influential woman in today’s generation. Her audience ranges from boys and girls

Some female artists in the music industry have used their femininity and sexuality to their advantage. Jessie J is a prime example of an artist who did this; in January of 2011, she released her highly provocative single, ‘Do It Like A Dude,’ as well as a highly promiscuous and startling music video. However, in an interview with Neil McCormick, writer for The Telegraph, young artist Gabriella Cilmi admitted that she felt “pressurized to present herself in a sexier style,” despite only being a young teenager (McCormick). So, it may not actually be a choice that these artists are making, but rather a choice their managers are making in order to help them gain more fame make more money. In an interview with Independent singer-songwriter Charlotte

In an interview with Nicole Sherzinger she discussed issues in the music industry, sexualisation and reference to sex sells. “To be honest with you, I sometimes wish I were more slutty. I’d probably be a lot more successful if I were. This is such a tough industry. To make it, you really have to sell your soul to the devil.” This viewpoint suggests there are artists that would like to be more sexual because they believe it will generate more recognition and popularity. This quote is also relevant to the research question ‘Is there pressure on music artists to be sexual in order to be successful?’.

In the current music industry, the normalization of the over-sexualization of women makes the whole society focus on female performers’ body image rather than their music. Many female singers, especially pop stars, confront the challenge between sex-positivity and eroticism. After the likes of oversexualized female superstars had become the new definition of pop music, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins changes the way that the music industry markets female acts. Born and raised in the United Kingdom, the 28 years old singer is known for her soulful voice and meaningful songs that consistently top the charts. As the first artist having two titles in the top five of both the U.K. singles and album charts since the 1960s, Adele conveys a simple and powerful