Sexual Objectification of Women in Music
When compared to the female singers of the early 20th century, the women in music today represented a much more blatant example of sexual objectification. This is not to suggest that three-quarters of a century ago women were not also objectified; it is simply to acknowledge that the objectification has been amplified to such a degree that women in music are eroticized in their music videos (in virtually all cultures, East and West, as the music videos in K-Pop, J-Pop and Western Pop all indicate) and in their performances on stage. Women performers from CL to Miley Cyrus to Beyonce all contribute to this sexual objectification by essentially flaunting their sexuality and utilizing it in a post-feminist manner of being the sexual aggressor rather than the sexually passive receiver of the "male gaze," as Mulvey called it in her deconstruction of the sexual objectification of women in cinema. However, as other researchers have noted, in adopting a post-feminist manner of sexual exuberance and assertiveness, women singers have not escaped the sexual objectification constraints of the past and both reinforce that objectification even as they attempt to redefine their sexuality through a more assertive, flaunting style of female sexuality. This paper will address the issue of the sexual objectification of women in music by describing how this phenomenon is exhibited in the modern music industry today.
Award-winning journalist Ginny Dougary has commented on this very specific theme in her op-ed piece for the London Times from 2007: she noted the underlying issue is the "pornogrification of mainstream culture" which is supported by the fact that "serious" women, such as Nicole Kidman or Maggie Gyllenhaal, who have screen presence often denude themselves for their roles -- an act which supports the idea that women are mere objects, according to Dougary. The popularity of female music videos on streaming sites like YouTube certainly reinforces the notion that women in music are utilizing their sex symbol status and power to build blockbuster-like followings on social media that translates into sources of revenue for the corporations that sign the women to extensive contracts. They promote their tours and the women come onto the stage in little more than bathing suits, some flaunting their bodies in all manner of sexually-explicit representations that audiences are sometimes astonished at the level of vulgarity to which these female performers degrade themselves (the performance of Miley Cyrus with the male singer of "Blurred Lines" Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013 was perfect example of the female singer's dual-role as sexual aggressor and sexual object: Thicke was dressed in tuxedo, while Cyrus came out in nude underwear and sneakers and "twerked" on Thicke as he gratuitously ogled her body).
Ironically, what happened after the Thicke/Cyrus performance only served to complicate the issue: Cyrus was hailed for her depiction of rebellion -- the idea that "sexual liberation" can make one great (Jones 2). Thicke on the other hand saw his marriage to Paula Patton fall apart and he was viewed scornfully as a "womanizer" (Holson). The irony is that without Thicke on stage, taking part in his "womanizing" with Cyrus at the MTV VMA, there would have been no "male gaze" under which Cyrus could show off her body. The women singers in music today are thus situated in a bind: they want to break free from the concept that they are just sex symbols -- yet at the same time they want to capitalize on the sexual power they hold over the male gaze and reverse their role in that discourse from being objects to being the objectifiers. The problem, as Michael Unger points out, is that it does not work.
According to Judith Bulter, such representations as that of Cyrus or any of the other popular (and sexy) female singers today perpetuate the depiction of women from a "phallic-centric" point-of-view (Butler 30). And even if they are more sexualy assertive depictions (such as CL's performance in her music video "Hello Bitches") that place the women's desire to dominate at the front and center of the erotic message the fact remains that the male-gaze is still the ultimate arbiter. Thus, Rosalind Gill maintains that what defines the post-feminist model is the shift from objectification to subjectification (i.e., the woman is no longer the object of the male gaze, rather the male is...
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CL's "Hello Bitches" and the Post-Feminist Representation of the Body In the music video by CL entitled "Hello Bitches," CL has managed to escape the constriction of the typical K-pop girl group (sexy, innocent, seductive, chic) by asserting a more aggressive, masculine-mimicking (gagsta-rap-mimicking to be exact), hyper-sexual attitude of domineering vibes; yet, in doing so, she has fallen into another and separate trope -- not the trope of the cute/sexy K-pop
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