Sexualized Music Video Analysis

Then, I will present the results in graphs and tables and discuss them. I plan to split my discussion into two parts parallel to the survey’s parts. I predict that the participants would describe the women in the infantilized song lyrics and music videos as childlike and dependent. If my prediction was true, I would use the discussion parts to explain the powerfulness of music in shaping the perception of women in our society. In my discussion, I will incorporate the findings of Huot’s and Carlson’s research that go along with my predicted finding. I will also use the examples of the infantilization of women in pop culture that are shown in “The Codes of Gender;” a documentary film, written and directed by Sut Jhally, that focuses on the American’s pop culture role in shaping the stereotypical ideas about femininity and masculinity. Also in this section, I will discuss other effects that resulted from the infantilization of women in music. I will use Alanna Vagianos’s Huffington post article “Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ Just Got A Genius Feminist Makeover,” to help me provide an example. In this article, Vagianos presents the story of a 27-year-old woman named Javetta Laster who was affected by the infantilizing lyrics of the hit song “Hotline Bling,” and decided to rewrite the lyrics in a more accurate way. One example of Laster’s rewritten lyrics shows how the original one was presenting an infantilized look of women; the original lyric says: “Why you never alone? Why you always touching road? Used to stay at home, be a good girl. You was in the zone, yeah,” while Laster’s edited feminist version of the same lyric says: “You used to stay at home and be someone I saw fitting into the patriarchal expectations of women to be infantilized good ‘girls’ which is some bizarre father/daughter husband/wife dynamic left over from women being considered adult children & property.” Laster’s rewritten

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

Teenage hormones seek gratification, this may become addicting; they sort of become sexual predators. Many cultural influences remind these young people of teenage sexuality. Proscribing sexual activity for teens has gone to the personal liberation and media-saturated sex desire. Billboards, commercials, magazines, everywhere you look, sexuality is expressed. Watching a beer commercial has become one of the targets for sexuality because almost all these commercials has a half naked woman trying to seduce a man into drinking “their” label of beer.

The media chooses to portray and sell sex, violence, drama and role models because it appeals to teenagers’ biological and evolutionary instincts. The excessive amounts of sex hormones being produced in teenagers boosts libido causing displays of eroticism to be very alluring. Scenes of action or violence release adrenaline and endorphins for emotional stimulation and teen idols like NSYNC and Edward Cullen portray the ideal mate for many girls. The music presented is mostly homogenous and simple to promote familiarity and emotional response. Had these businesses tried to sell celibacy, indifference and pariahs, their profits would have declined.

According to researchers Christenson and Roberts, “American adolescents spend…between four and five hours a day listening to music…[which is] at least as much time as they spend watching standard television fare and more than they spend with their friends outside of school” (8). Music media influences the lives of adolescents in a number of ways. It “…alters and intensifies their moods, furnishes much of their slang [and] provides models for how they act…” (Christenson and Roberts 8). Music plays an important role in the lives of adolescents. They spend as much time, if not more, listening to music as they spend watching television, and therefore, music deserves additional scholarly attention.

Women are seen through the eyes of the music industry as little more than sex objects; causing them to feel of no worth, leading to extremely dangerous long term mental illnesses and eating disorders. Music lyrics/video is a key source of messages that advocate and encourage drinking, smoking, drug abuse, sexuality, sex-role stereotyping, sex and violence. Exposure to music videos, has also been correlated with early uptake of sexual activity. (AMCA, 2014)

Music is an integral part of youth culture. Ever since the introduction of music videos in 1981 on MTV, music and music videos have gone hand-in-hand (McIntosh & Pavlik, 2004, p. 94). The effects of music (particularly hip-hop) on youth have been subject of research and controversy. There has been an increasing concern that hip-hop culture has become profoundly influential on young people’s views of sexuality.

Sexuality and sex in America is a complicated subject in that there is little consensus on the topic of sex in, and the American media sends many mixed messages regarding sex and sexuality to everyone, not just to adolescents. Americans are aware of sex primarily through advertising (print media, commercials, etc.) as sex is used to sell anything and everything. The media also bombards Americans with sexuality and sex on television and in films. The sexuality of teenagers is not a straightforward issue in America either. Many parents do not discuss sex or sexuality with their children. There have been ongoing debates as to whether sexuality should be taught as part of school curricula because there are such a great deal of adolescents participating in reckless and/or dangerous sexual behaviors, largely because they are grossly uneducated about sex. The paper will reference the film Juno and other texts as a meditation on the relationship between adolescent sexuality and the media.

This age group is generally in an age of exploration of self-identity and fulfillment, instability, and optimism of the future (Munsey, 2006). This is also the time when most people complete their undergraduate degree, and many studies on emerging adults can be applied to college students. An individual age 12-18 is generally defined as an adolescent. For the purposes of this literature review, young adults will be defined as those ages 13-25. In a little over a decade, the choices made will influence the individual for the rest of their lives, and is often referred to as the crucial years for this reason. During these years, the brain is particularly impressionable, making sexual media a concern for

Teenagers today are being influenced by many different aspects such as peer pressure, friends, school, music, and many other aspects. One negative aspect is today’s music videos are explicit and unfit for teenagers today because they portray and send messages to them that may lead them astray from the appropriate attitude that they need. Teenagers tend to imitate what their social environment thinks is cool. Some probably think that rap music is cool, but very rarely can you find a rap video that does not promote negative messages such as criminal activity, sexual behavior, drugs, sex, or even cursing. Teens often believe from these “role” models in these music videos that they are watching is the cool way of doing things.

Music containing sexually explicit content makes people in today’s world more calloused and more accepting of sexually activity. How do lyrics play a role in all of this? Lyrics play a huge role in enabling our society to normalize sex in everyday conversation. Songs with sexually explicit lyrics reinforce the idea that premarital sex is okay among younger generations. Studies show that premarital sex is more accepted by adolescents if they listen to explicit music compared those that do not listen to explicit music (Zhang, 2008).

When children listen to sexual lyrics, they become tempted and become inspired, leading them to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Studies show that between 2001 and 2006, the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended, increased from 79% to 83% among women aged 18 and 19 years and from 59% to 64% among women aged 20–24 years. In comparison to the twentieth century, studies show that even though teen childbearing overall has declined steeply over the last half-century, the proportion of all teen births that are no marital has increased equally dramatically, from 13% in 1950 to 79% in 2000. According to NBC news a study found that teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs. On the other hand, the study shows that, Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years, as were teens that listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Just like it is mentioned. According to the article “ give rap music a positive spin”, the author portrays that themes that degrades women can generate productive conversations that many encourage young people to put themselves in others shoes. This could be true, however this is only true when it comes to their own family because teens regarding this situation

The public debate about adolescent sexuality has habitually fixated on which sexual practices are appropriate, and disregarded the complex dimensions of sexuality (Greenberg, Bruess, Oswalt, 2012). The goal of this paper is to compare a scholarly written article, to an article available through a popular media source, on the topic of Teenage Sexuality and New Media.

(Walsh-Childers 19)”. Also, it seems that adolescents are incredibly susceptible to the modern and not-so-modern influences of all media and the reasons for why this is the case goes as follows: they don’t exactly have the proper cognitive skills yet in order to let themselves analyze all media and the messages that come from said media they happen to consume on a daily basis, whatever they may be, and making any decision based on any and all outcomes that should come from it is also not that developed. Adolescent sexuality is another factor in this topic as well. There is a major and practically strange disconnect between what the mainstream media may portray, be it casual sex and sexuality with no consequences, and what both children and ESPECIALLY teenagers need which is of course straightforward information about human sexuality and the dire need for contraception when having sex. Obviously, this is what sexuality in the media feels like today as opposed to an era such as the 1950’s where everything was focused on the

An effective aspect in the music video ‘Booty’ by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea is music. This was because of the way they chose to use them by sexualizing women while doing so. For example “It’s his birthday, Give him what he ask for”. This quote is a good example of sexualisation in women as when this quote is said the camera is at a close-up shot which is flickering between someone’s booty and Jennifer’s face and higher stomach whilst she is singing the lyrics which remain very dirty and sexual. Through this example there is an effect on the audience because it is the way that they choose to use this to of which demonstrate that women are objects and can easily be taken advantage of therefore making them seem more like a toy for the use