Music has become increasingly available, beginning with the rapid distribution of sheet music to the invention of the record player to having any song in the world available from an online streaming service. Music has become a daily part of people’s lives, whether an individual is consciously aware of it or not. Music can be heard being played in the background of a commercial, out loud on the speakers at a sporting event, or played on the radio while driving in ones’ car. The prior realizations are concerning when considering the context of certain songs and the messages they relay to individuals. Specific context may include themes aligned with racism and sexism. While racism within music isn’t as heavily documented, sexism has been seen
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Rap and hip-hop get much more attention within popular media for sexualizing women than genres such as country and rock (Neff, 2014). Through research, Neff found that while rap is more heavily scrutinized for its’ regular usage of degrading and derogatory language towards women, country (though less frequently) has its’ fair share of sexism. For an example of hypersexualization in rap, I have chosen to examine the popular rap song and correlated music video “Pop That” by French Montana, Rick Ross, Drake, and Lil Wayne. The music video has been viewed nearly 60 million times on VEVO, a music video streaming website, since its’ release in 2013. Throughout the entirety of the five-minute music video, the four rappers are fully clothed at a swimming pool and flaunting around cash, surrounded by 15-20 women who are pictured wearing very revealing clothing, consuming alcoholic beverages, and dancing provocatively. The lyrics are equally as degrading as the video, referring to women as “bitches” when saying “drop that pussy, bitch.” The hook of the song constantly repeats the command to “twerk”-- a dance move that is mainly used at clubs and parties involving moving the bottom half of one's’ body in a sexually suggestive manner. The women in the video do as told by the men. This type of sexual objectification further shows within popular music that women’s bodies are “valued predominantly …show more content…
The cognitive and emotional consequences state that sexualization and objectification undermine a person’s confidence with her own body, leading to emotional and self-image problems, such as shame and anxiety (APA, 2007). In mental and physical health consequences, researchers have linked sexualization with the three most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women--eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression (APA, 2007). As far as sexual development goes, research suggests that sexualization has negative impact on girls’ abilities to develop a healthy sexual self-image (APA, 2007). Women are never told that they do not need to be sexual beings in order to be a “woman” and that these roles of women in society are unrealistic and not normal. Therefore, they see performances of women in music videos and the way men are talking about women, and wish to be “wanted” in that sense to feel and be
Rap and hip-hop get much more attention within popular media for sexualizing women than genres such as country and rock (Neff, 2014). Through research, Neff found that while rap is more heavily scrutinized for its’ regular usage of degrading and derogatory language towards women, country (though less frequently) has its’ fair share of sexism. For an example of hypersexualization in rap, I have chosen to examine the popular rap song and correlated music video “Pop That” by French Montana, Rick Ross, Drake, and Lil Wayne. The music video has been viewed nearly 60 million times on VEVO, a music video streaming website, since its’ release in 2013. Throughout the entirety of the five-minute music video, the four rappers are fully clothed at a swimming pool and flaunting around cash, surrounded by 15-20 women who are pictured wearing very revealing clothing, consuming alcoholic beverages, and dancing provocatively. The lyrics are equally as degrading as the video, referring to women as “bitches” when saying “drop that pussy, bitch.” The hook of the song constantly repeats the command to “twerk”-- a dance move that is mainly used at clubs and parties involving moving the bottom half of one's’ body in a sexually suggestive manner. The women in the video do as told by the men. This type of sexual objectification further shows within popular music that women’s bodies are “valued predominantly …show more content…
The cognitive and emotional consequences state that sexualization and objectification undermine a person’s confidence with her own body, leading to emotional and self-image problems, such as shame and anxiety (APA, 2007). In mental and physical health consequences, researchers have linked sexualization with the three most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women--eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression (APA, 2007). As far as sexual development goes, research suggests that sexualization has negative impact on girls’ abilities to develop a healthy sexual self-image (APA, 2007). Women are never told that they do not need to be sexual beings in order to be a “woman” and that these roles of women in society are unrealistic and not normal. Therefore, they see performances of women in music videos and the way men are talking about women, and wish to be “wanted” in that sense to feel and be