Music changes and grows with us, but what has been constant throughout the years of music is how women are usually portrayed as accessible commodities, whose purpose is to fire the passions of the (generally male) artist. In acquiring these over-sexualised ‘roles’, women may feel that they cannot achieve above these ‘video model’ statuses, ‘The Man-made world or Our Andocentric Culture...men have monopolised, managed and masculinised human activities, excluding women from many spheres of creativity, forms of amusement /leisure activities’ Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1911). What Gilman talks about is how the male population has taken control over certain types of outlets, and in having control, they are able to disallow women from taking part or, as some music videos portray, use them as a means of entertainment for their own benefits.
In some music videos, especially around certain genres, it clearly shows that the main purpose of women appearing in these videos are to look sexy and promiscuous, whilst wearing almost next to nothing, all this reverts back to patriarchy in which men have all the power and so can ‘adjust’ the music industry to meet their own personal needs. As Mulvey mentions in her essay, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, ‘...mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.’ (1975 p. 965). So in the sense of looking at music videos such as ‘Kanye West: Gold-digger’, this is a prime example of what Mulvey mentions, in that these type of videos/films where women are portrayed in an erotic manner, whether that be by how they’re dressed or their stance (seductively), has allowed erotica to be turned into something that’s dominated and controlled by men.
However, music has changed a lot throughout the years, in that there are more female artists around then there were before, women now commodify and objectify themselves through their own means and not that of the dominant order. One artist who is an example of this is Alicia Beth Moore, commonly known as pop/rock musician Pink. Her type of music has been described as being similar to other artists such as Britney Spears, ‘Tired of being compared to damn Britney Spears, She’s so pretty that just ain’t me...’ (Pink’s lyrics for her song ‘Don’t let me get me’); whose music personifies the over-sexualised concept which can be shown in music videos such as ‘Hit me baby one more time’, where she parades around in a school girls uniform, making herself an object to be gazed upon by the dominant male audience. Thus the reason why Pink wanted to separate herself from this kind of genre, in my opinion, Pink’s lyrics and videos reflect on how she feels women should be portraying themselves, not as sexual objects, but as independent and strong women who have head strong ambitions.
One particular song, which I think illustrates her message, is the music video ‘Stupid girls’, which looks at how tasteless other videos can be and questions whether young girls these days aim to become what they see on TV or, by having the right role models, wish to be more then these glamorised women. At the beginning of the music video, a young girl is sat in her living room and on each shoulder are two different versions of Pink, similar to the notion of good and evil, who try to convince her that their type of lifestyle is the better one. The ‘evil’ Pink represents the glamorised lifestyle of women; all about appearance, how men perceive them and what the next trendy object is to buy, whereas, the ‘good’ Pink represents empowerment that all women should possess and questions why girls’ aspirations have turned from wanting to become a girl president to being rich or famous.
The impact, I feel, this perception has on its targeted audience (young girls), is important as it highlights how by watching certain music videos which depict women in a sexual nature; wearing revealing outfits and fawning over the male artist/s, moulds young girls way of thinking and in their way of understanding that this is what they should aim to become. We are constantly bombarded with videos containing sexual content, majority of the time surrounding women, and with this regularity of these type of videos we not only become accustomed to its content but at the same time we always seem to be ‘sucked into’ them, should we call it fascination or good commercialism? Again reverting back to Mulvey’s essay, she argues that ‘...fascination of film is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work.’ (1975) What Mulvey means, in my interpretation, is that we continue to watch these videos which show women in a sexual light because we are fascinated by them, this lifestyle which is projected into these music videos maintain our attention in that although we understand that ‘normal’ women don’t look or act like that, it gives us a sort of window to how the ‘over-half’ live. And it’s this constant fascination, that has always existed, that aids male control over the music industry, in that they will always feed the enthralled party, us.
What Pink tries to do is feed our fascination through other means, rather than objecting women, she concentrates on women’s differences and imperfections, highlighting that they should embrace them and accept them for who they are. Her lyrics for her song ‘Raise your glass’ demonstrates this idea, ‘So raise your glass if you are wrong, in all the right ways, all my underdogs...’, what Pink’s message is within these lyrics is inviting those who may seem ‘wrong’ to some people (popular kids) but are ‘right’ in a sense to others (other so-called ‘underdogs’) to ‘raise their glass’ in a toast to celebrate them differences. Comparing this particular music video with Britney Spears’ ‘Hit me baby one more time’, the main difference is the content, where Britney Spears and her ‘peers’ are clad in school uniforms and surrounded by young, model-looking men, Pink’s ‘Raise your glass’ video includes groups of people who don’t usually get included in the music industry, such as a mixed minority of people from different races and religions, her video looks at gay marriage, at controversial situations (bull fighting) and shows role reversal; showing her ‘milking’ a row of women to feed a calf. Pink’s different approach can be related to the ‘Queer Theory’, ‘Queer theory is a set of ideas based around the idea that identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are. It suggests that it is meaningless to talk in general about ‘women’ or any other group, as identities consist of so many elements that to assume that people can be seen collectively on the basis of one shared characteristic is wrong’. (Gauntlett, 2011) Pink, I believe, is proof of this theory, in that what Gauntlett says about it being ‘meaningless to talk in general about women...as identities consist of so many elements...’ is the epitome of Pink, she may be classed in the same genre as Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, but they have based (majority) their music around over sexualising themselves for the benefit of attracting the patriarchal order. And so, these two female artists have similarities in not only their lyrical content but their video content also, but just because they have similarities does not mean that we can identify all female pop/rock artists as representing or portraying the same idea, which Pink proves as she drifts away from this typical stereotype and represents a completely different message from the others.
Although it has been highlighted that Pink’s main message in her music has been about celebrating differences whilst portraying herself as an independent, strong woman, that’s not to say that Pink’s music is not versatile in that she doesn’t show herself as being sexy, two particular videos I looked at not only continues with her idea of women being in control and having the upper hand over men, but also allows her to reveal some of her glamorous side. Such videos are ‘U & Ur hand’ and ‘Lady Marmalade’ which features other artists from different genres who also represent that female solidarity of independence. The initial feeling I get from ‘U & Ur hand’ video is how women shouldn’t let men use them as objects of entertainment and within the video she dresses in a variety of attires to prove to men what they’re missing.
The other music video ‘Lady Marmalade’, I believe, concentrates more on exploiting the sexualisation of the artists featured which includes Pink, Mya, Lil’ Kim and Christina Aguilera, although Pink does appear more promiscuous in this particular video it still promotes the idea of independence and sister unity and I feel that there being no men in the video only proves that point even more, as usually men would be the ones to be surrounded by women, making them in control.
A student’s video essay: Sexism and Misogyny in Rap music on YouTube, looks at how women, are continuously being perceived as video models, they made points on how these type of videos portray women as ‘glamorised strippers’, so much so that it has now become acceptable within society, whereas, traditionally it would have been frowned upon. As mentioned before, Pop/Rock music, especially coming from a male artist’s perception, do try to persistently render women as desirable sexual objects, though with solo female artists such as Pink emerging and changing the views of women in the music industry, this idea of all women in music grouped as ‘video models’ is shifting, as the YouTube essay says, ‘...music reflects the culture of the time, the role of women in music should change as well.’ (8:32, December, 2009). I believe that the role of women in music is changing, although in some genres women are still continuing to be used as attributes, by men, more and more female artists are surfacing to take back some of that control and switch it to themselves in order to empower the image of women everywhere.
References:
- Cultural theory and popular culture- John Storey (2009)- Chapter 19 pg. 199
- Practices of looking: an introduction to visual culture- M. Sturken, L. Cartwright
- Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema- Laura Mulvey
- Pink’s music videos: ‘Stupid Girls’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4yQFZK9YM ‘Raise your glass’ lyrics- http://m.youtube.com/watch?v-6LqrulrO-R8
- ‘U & Ur hand’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtHjOuPKTO
- ‘Lady Marmalade’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQa7SvVCdZk
- ‘Student video essay: Sexism and Misogyny in Rap music’- http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Gy9LAxJl
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