POP MUSIC - PINK GLITTER AND SEX
When analyzing pop music it is increasingly shocking to see how much a pop icon must do, especially visually, in her music videos, in order to fit the standard and "push the limits." The idea in pop seems to be that rather than push the limits lyrically on contextually, female artists need to push the limits of sexual imagery and create a gendered appearance of women as mere sexual objects that can be purchased just as easily as their album.
Gender roles here place women in the category of object of desire, sexual object, or advertising schemes. Music videos and promotional photo shoots of women in the category usually depict a scantily clad woman in a seductive or sexually suggestive pose. These images reinforce the gender stereotype type for women being sexually ready/willing, and that sex is perhaps the only thing that they crave. |
VIDEO EXAMPLES:
BRITNEY SPEARS - "WOMANIZER"Britney Spears' video for "Womanizer" begins with a nude Britney Spears laying in a sauna, and then serving her male counterpart breakfast in a sheer teddy. Throughout the video we are shown glimpses of the nude, sauna Britney writing around and teasing the camera with her nude body. The rest of the video attempts to show a seemingly "powerful" set of women that are exacting their revenge on the man, who is the original (breakfast serving) Britney's counterpart. These women gyrate and sexually dance around the man often in dominatrix-esque ways. Although the song attempts to be strong and discusses a woman who knows a man who is a womanizer, it is really a oxymoron because here Britney is working as an object of affection, sex, and desire; Ultimately it does little to make the point that I'm sure it originally planned to. In order to make up for this shortfall, Britney Spears instead reverts to the tried-and-true method of distracting the audience by using her body. |
LADY GAGA - "LOVE GAME"Lady Gaga's "Love Game" is a classic example of what women in the Pop Music genre generally end up doing. Here we see a scantily clad Gaga (when she is actually clothed) surrounded by men vying for her attention. Here she is the object to be gazed upon: thin, blonde, flexible and young. In the beginning of the video, Gaga appears nude between two men where she writhes around seemingly unable to control her sexual desire for the men. The men here, of course, take turns passing her back and forth, as if she really is just a sexual object. Later in the video, Gaga is seen making out with what appears to be a man, and then upon a camera zoom, we see it is a woman, or at least it implies that it is a woman. In doing this, Gaga works under the guise that she is open about her bisexuality, when in reality it is just a gimmick that garners the attention of lustful young men attracted to erotic lesbian imagery. |