Objectification Of Women In The Music Industry - Research Paper Example

The 1960s saw a wave of feminism that brought with it new ways of looking at female sexuality. Women no longer expressed their sexuality through the standards set by their male counterparts; rather women were now setting and defining their own sexuality. This change in the expression of female sexuality was evident in many circles including the music industry. For instance, Donna Summer and Cher, two of the leading musicians in the 1970s took female sexuality to an unprecedented level. This was evident from the change in dancing styles, modes of dressing and even the topics covered in their music. Today, music videos depict scantily dressed women, and the lyrics in the songs are almost entirely about the female body. This has greatly reduced the woman from being an individual to being a collection of body parts aimed at pleasing men. Nowadays, if it is not a female artist singing about sexual encounters and dancing seductively, it is a male artist singing about the female body and using semi-nude women in videos to attract male listeners and viewers. The era when people listened to music for content with a moral standing are long gone, as are the days when music mentioning women was meant to show respect for women. Women in the music industry today are mainly portrayed as sex symbols and these women seemingly have no problem with such exploitation. 2.0 Research question The main question, therefore, remains to be whether women have been empowered to embrace and express their sexuality through raunchy lyrics and videos, or women have simply become objects of male desire. The issue about whether or not women are treated as objects in the music industry is a controversial topic in today’s society where women groups are always advocating for equal treatment with men. While others may view the trend as liberation of women from patriarchal ideologies, others view the music industry as subjecting women to the very male control that they seek to denounce. Unfortunately, most viewers and listeners do not know how to differentiate between virtual and reality, thus leading them to perceive all women as objects of male gratification. This research seeks to determine whether women have been objectified by the music industry in order to generate more sales. 3.0 Hypothesis All angles considered, it is still a patriarchal society where women are used by record labels to attract and sell music to men. In essence, therefore, women are just objects used to sell a product, which is music, to the target customers who are mostly men. The more scantily dressed the women in the music videos are, the more the male viewership and the more the music sells. 4.0 Review of literature The objectification theory, as Frisby & Aubrey (2012) write, looks at ways of improving women’s lives in a cultural setting that continually considers the female body as an object of sexual gratification for men. Shrum (2012) music videos argues that music videos do not depict reality and in fact represent women as subordinates whose only purpose is to please men. Although this is a virtual reality, many viewers often start to accept these notions as the reality, as a result of regular viewing of such videos. According to Zimmerman & Dahlberg () approximately 60 per cent of all music videos today are based on sexual feelings. Frisby & Aubrey (2012) argue that women artists are more responsible for portraying women as objects more than their male counterparts. In this context, Edmondson (2013) writes that Madonna was one of the earliest artists to risk sexuality in the music line, with her “Erotica” album of 1992 and in a world tour in which topless dancers were featured. Maybe the writers and producers of music lyrics and videos do not wish to degrade women or portray them as subordinates in real life, but any product always has an influence on the perceptions of its customer. Being objects of a social construct that measures their success depending on how much sexuality they exude, female artists continue to appear in videos and make songs that potentially degrade them as women in order to sell their music. 5.0 Discussion The fight for women rights and the gender equality campaign has almost succeeded in ensuring that women are accorded equal treatment with men. Accordingly, the traditional notion that women are subordinate to men and the archaic view of women as sexual objects have been overshadowed by the success of women in various levels of the society. However, these gains seem to be facing a serious challenge from the entertainment industry that often uses women to market products. In particular, the music industry has been at the forefront in using lyrics and videos that objectify women in a bid to attract the male customer. 5.1 How men objectify women through music The music industry as a whole is culpable when it comes to objectifying women in lyrics and videos. According to Frsiby& Aubrey (2012) hip hop is one of the genres which objectifies and demeans women. In most of these hip hop songs, women are used simply as props for decorating the video but they play no significant role. Schmidt (2013) gives the example of Nelly, a popular hip hop artist, whose song “The Tip Drill” practically gives out the message that men only desire girls because of their bodies, and that it is okay for men to judge women based on their bodies. The video itself is worse than the lyrics as it shows women clad in bikinis dancing provocatively and allowing men to grapple and touch them. In what clearly shows that the girls in the video are meant only as sex objects is one of the lines where the rapper says “it must be ya ass cause it ain’tya face” (Schmidt, 2013). The men in this video are constantly treating the women as sexual objects and the women seem to be taking that treatment happily. 5.2 The role of women in objectifying themselves through music Arguably, most female artists have achieved success in the industry by using their bodies as sexual objects. This, therefore, means that women also playa big role in their own objectification, particularly the female artists. Schmidt (2013) gives the example of Khia, a female artist, whose song “my neck, my back” has the artists saying that all women want sex and she demands that the man perform sexual acts on her. Ina study conducted by Frisby& Aubrey (2012) on the amount of body exposure by females in music videos, results showed that approximately 3 body parts were exposed by female artists in their songs. In addition, the results showed that the pop culture had more skin exposure by females as compared to the genre of country music. This means that there is always that ideal body that is required for shooting videos, mainly a slim figure with full breasts and buttocks and a pretty face. This ideal body type has caused women to take extreme measures in a bid to have such a body, for instance Demi Lovato entering rehab for an eating disorder (Lieb, 2013). Some female artists, according to Lieb (2013) choose to have numerous body modifications such as laser surgery, Botox, liposuctions, and breast implants to fit the perfect body profile. According to Edmondson (2013), even artists who had previously managed to sell their music based purely on talent and content started being pulled towards the sexist movement. For instance, Dolly Parton opted for several surgeries to enhance her breasts so that she could be more appealing to the male audience. For those female artists who refuse to succumb to external pressure and change their bodies, they are met with unimaginable ridicule. Lieb (2013) write about how Adele faced criticism from the media for not having the “pop star look” due to her weight. However, Adele, through her exceptionally good vocals was finally able to silence those criticizing her physical appearance and make them focus on her talent. However, not many female artists are as lucky as Adele and for majority of those; the music industry will continue exploiting their physical attractiveness in order to sell their music. 5.3The effects of women objectification in music on the general population The worrying issue at the moment concerns how popular music has influenced the people’s behavior, particularly that of young people. Today, young women are almost walking naked in a bid to show off their bodies just as they have seen from the various music videos which show that men pay more attention to skimpily dressed girls. In addition, teenagers are posting nude and semi-nude photos of themselves all over social media to seek attention from men. This shows that young women nowadays do not care much for intelligence and morality but rather put more effort into their physical appearance. According to Frisby& Aubrey (2012) this occurrence can be explained through the self-objectification theory which holds that women are taught to internalize how outsiders perceive them, thus causing these women to believe that they need to be sexually evaluated by men so as to have a feeling of self-worth. Accordingly, men also define a woman’s worth based on her physical appearance and then other values come later. Such lyrics and videos have brought back the days when women would be sexually ridiculed and humiliated, more so now with the existence of cyber bullying. 6.0 Implications of the research Evidently, the music industry has played a critical role in objectifying women and reversing the gains made in fighting for the respect of women. In contemporary times, women are objectified in every aspect of a song especially in the genres of hip hop and rap. The objectification varies from women in provocative clothes that show too much skin, dancing seductively to attract the male eye, to speaking in seductive voices and enjoying being grappled and touched by men. The producers of such videos and writers of such music know exactly how to capture the consumer’s attention but at what cost? The result is a morally degraded society where the value of a woman is only attached to her physicality and not her character, personality, and such other values. The women are as much if not more to blame since they allow men to treat them as such. This has in turn, negatively affected the society especially the young people who view the depiction of women in the songs as how women should be in real life. 7.0 Research limitations The only limitation to this research was the absence of actual artists to interview and get an insight of how they personally feel about the music being produced today. A chance to hear what the artists think about the music they produce and whether it bothers them that the young generation is aping what they hear and see in the songs would have given the research more credibility. 8.0 Conclusion Clearly, the music industry has literally driven most people to perceive women as objects of sexuality. The music industry is raking millions from raunchy music, while the respect for the woman as an individual has diminished. It is about time that record labels started taking into consideration the effects that such music is having on the current generation of youngsters. A young woman now only thinks of herself as worthy if she has the same body as that of women appearing in these videos. In extreme cases, when a woman lacks the ideal physical structure that is seen to attract male attention, these women seek surgical procedures to enhance their physical attributes. Otherwise, intellectual abilities, character, and values come second to physical appearance. In actual fact, the society has gone back to the patriarchal days where it was men who determined what a woman would look like and how the woman should behave. If the objectification of women in the music industry is not controlled, then the society will be made up of insecure women who always need to be reassured by their male counterparts that their bodies are good enough and that nothing else matters. As such, men will have more power over women and the gains made towards female empowerment will all be lost. References Edmondson, Jacqueline.  2013. Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture. California: ABC-CLIO. Frisby, Cynthia & Aubrey, Jennifer. 2012. “Race and the Genre in the Use of Sexual Objectification in Female Artists’ Music Videos”. Howard Journal of Communications, 23(1): 66-87. Lieb, Kristin. 2013. Gender, Branding, And The Modern Music Industry: The Social Construction Of Female Popular Music Stars. New York: Routledge. Schmidt, Elizabeth. 2013. The Objectification of Women and Misogyny in Hip Hop Music. Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Retrieved May 14, 2014 from www.wordpress.com. Shrum, L. J. 2012. The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines between Entertainment and Persuasion. New York: Routledge. Zimmerman, Amanda & Dahlberg, John. 2008. “The sexual objectification of women in advertising: A contemporary cultural perspective”, Journal of Advertising Research, 48(1): 71-79. Read More