Sociology: Sexual Objectification of Women in Music Videos Today

The misogynistic treatment of women in commercialized rap has become a widespread phenomenon which as a result has become commonly accepted by majority of the individuals in society. Rappers, in general, nowadays use women in their videos in a way which is both derogatory and exploiting. Black men in today’s society, especially in the entertainment industry, do not see women as their equals; rather they objectify them as being nothing more than sex objects. People in the Hip Hop industry do not believe that sexism and misogyny is as big of a deal as racism, thus they push this issue to the side by simply ignoring it and learning to accept it. This misogynistic portrayal of women is ruining the image if Hip Hop as both an industry and a form of expressive art. However, instead of taking action against this atrocity, many women simply believe that the images of women and their portrayal in rap videos does not represent nor refer to them as an individual and the type of woman they truly are. By being silent these women are allowing themselves to be victimized by the men of not only the Hip Hop industry but also general society. By not having a say in this matter of the false classification and portrayal of women, they are voluntarily allowing men to do whatever they please to do so, in any given time and with any approach they feel is necessary. They do not

The video material that I chose to view for this assignment were music videos, which was an unsurprisingly easy decision to make for writing about gender stereotypes. Music videos are watched by millions every day, and many of these provide misogynistic visual media that has been regulated and accepted by society. These negative connotations for women showing them in highly gendered roles mainly doing medial things such as dancing around in lingerie or fawning over a rich, famous, and/or successful man are dangerous towards equality for genders. Young girls and boys seeing this kind of harmful content could lead them to grow up believing they have to conform to these stereotypes and gender roles instead of living how they would prefer.

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.

Women are sexually exploited in the media. In today’s society if people watch television programs such as Chingy featuring Snoop & Ludacris – Holidae; Charlie's Angels; the Z100 commercial with Britney Spears; or Baywatch they will see that the feminine image is presented differently than the masculine. In these programs men are typically placed in sexual situations fully clothed, while women are presented in provocative clothing or less. The camera will frequently zoom in on body parts to focus on the woman’s buttocks, midriff, and legs. Society is still dominated by men who control what people see. As a result women are increasingly portrayed as sex symbols as a way for a media company to turn

Sexualisation is a way that mass media, celebrities or advertising can make young or old people, especially young girls, become more provocative in the way that they speak, dress and behave

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.

It is suggested that one of the reasons why artists use misogynistic lyrics in their music is that they have internalized the negative stereotypes about women that are prevalent in American society. African women were historically portrayed as animalistic sexual beasts and African males in a submissive role, giving in to wild instinct or bodily impulses. The internalization of such stereotypes may be a possible explanation of the hyper sexuality within certain hip hop music. Various authors have argued that misogyny is merely an outgrowth of the cultural acceptance of misogyny at large.

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.

The development of visual media has introduced the concept of The Male Gaze Theory. The Male Gaze Theory is defined as how women are depicted in the media from a male perspective, such as presenting women as sexual objects for men’s pleasure (Loreck). The article, inexplicitly, talks about the male gaze: “Up to 81% of music videos contain sexual imagery, the majority of which sexually objectifies women by presenting them in revealing clothing, as decorative sexual objects, dancing sexually, or in ways that emphasize body parts or sexual readiness.” The article talks about how women are sexually presented in the media which is what the male gaze encompasses the “male gaze” is a harmful contribution to the sexualization of girls and is also seen throughout the music video. The beginning of the music video shows 50 Cent walking into a brothel-type mansion where the camera pans to focusing on the writhing, half-naked women in the foyer of the mansion. This scene is viewed from a male’s perspective because the camera focuses on their sensual movements and physical assets instead of their normal facial expressions or more appropriate places on their body. Also, since 50 Cent is the only male in the mansion, the camera is only coming from a male perspective because brothels are only truly for a male’s pleasure. The other women in the video are objectified from their revealing clothing

Girls get exposure to sexualized messages through, TV, ads, song lyrics, videos, and movies. Television shows and movies depict the attractive, sexy girls as being associated with the popular crowd (APA 6). The APA has noted that advertisements use a blurred framework known as “trickle up” and “trickle down” with the sole purpose of making girls appear to be more adult like, and women to appear more child-like. For example, network TV aired a Victoria Secret’s Christmas themed fashion starring models dressed up to look like children. They strutted across the runway in baby doll lingerie as they dragged stuffed animals behind them (APA 12). Music is overflowing with songs that sexualize and degrade women (APA 6). Research has shown that children and teenagers on average listen to more than 2 hours of music a day (Parker-Pope). The message that young people are receiving from both female and male artists reinforce that sexualization of females is normal and accepted. For example, coming in at number 3, on September’s 2015 Billboard’s Top 100 is male artist OMI with the song Cheerleader (“Music: Top 100”). The artist describes his perfect woman to be someone who is submissive and knows her place. She is gorgeous and thin and does what he requests. A little further, down on the list coming in at number 7, is artist Selena Gomez with the song Good for You (“Music: Top 100”). The female artist sings about wanting to look good for a man. She does this by putting on a dress

Gender is a part of our everyday life. Of course there are two genders, a man and a woman. However, these genders seemed to get abused by media on how these genders should be defined. A man should be aggressive, tough, and strong, while a woman she be passive, soft, and sensitive. The part of media that abused these stereotypes the most were music videos. From Rock N’ Roll to Hip-Hop to Country, most of the artist within these genres abused the gender identity of a woman and a man. In the culture of Hip-Hop music videos, the men are rich and all thug like while all the women are dancing around the men with no clothes on. Lupe Fiasco’s music video,”Bitch Bad” identifies how media shows what a “bad bitch” means to a boy and a girl. The video does stereotype women by using them as sex objects and stereotypes men as thugs but it shows how a “bad bitch” is perceived by two different people.

In conclusion, I believe that music videos used women in a seductive way to fulfil their function of selling music videos, it is clear that women’s bodies have functioned as an important currency through which stories in music videos that are

The music video Booty (by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea) is about the bottom and how it is used to show that skinny girls with larger assets are more attractive than girls with a more flat chest and bottom. This essay explores the idea of sexualization of women in music videos and how women are shown through the 'male gaze', also this shows how women are easily portrayed in the media. The main purpose of this video is that they are trying to say that having a bigger bottom will help you to succeed more in life but it will also help you to gain attention from either sex. In the video by not wearing very many clothes that cover up very much, it will help to gain attention therefore creating more views than what they would have got with more

One negative global implication that commercial Hip Hop in the U.S. produces is the characterization of young black women in four different personas: Diva, Hoe, Gold Digger, and Bad Bitch. When young black women hear music and see music videos that promote sexual conduct, they take on one of the different personas that is illustrated in the music and treat themselves as sexual objects. This characterizations affects the black community worldwide because this causes young black girls to be more sexually active at a much younger age, this results in teen pregnancies and

Sexualisation can be defined as the imposing adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of coping with it usually through the media. In my investigation I aim to discover the effects that sexualisation of men and women in music videos and the effects that this has, mentally and emotionally, on the younger Australian generation. I also aim to discover the extent to which music videos have been sexualized over time.