I recently stumbled across the website for a well known fashion magazine called V Magazine, while I was looking through their pictures of what was supposedly "high fashion" I couldn't help but notice how objectified all these women were. It was nearly impossible to find a picture of a women who was in a position of power, most of them were barely clothed. I kept scrolling until I found something that really grabbed my attention, the title reads "Best Music Video Of 2012: 2 Chainz" I've heard a few songs by this dude and found it very hard to believe that out of every single music video made in 2012 he was crowned number one. I clicked on the link and for the first time watched the music video for Birthday Song. I realized I had never actually listened to this song all the way through, or in the short time that it would be playing I didn't listen to the lyrics. I recall when it came out one of my friends was talking about how he lost respect of Kayne for being in such a lame song, and now I can see why.
The most known line from this song is also the least creative and directly encourages dehumanizing and objectifying women. The line is "All I want for my birthday is a big booty hoe/She got a big booty so I call her Big Booty". When I further investigated this song I found a website talking about how dumb that line was, shows no creativity, and so on, but there was a few people with comments like it's just music don't take it so seriously, or 2 Chainz is our generations Shakespeare. I find it slightly surprising that people don't realize the affect that the music you listen to has on you. By repeating this line and encouraging music that calls women hoes, or talks about their body it is keeping women from achieving all they possibly can.
As I continued to watch the video I noticed several other themes such as, the women in this video never show their faces. The shots are always just them from behind shaking their butts, giving lap dances, or being over sexualized. However, women are not the only ones who have negative stereotypes encouraged in this video, men also do. One part shows a group of men beating up another guy, and acting generally violent. It worries me that young boys and girls are seeing this video and thinking that's the gender role that they have to fit into. After this weeks reading I realized that boys who see this could start to believe that this type of behavior is permissible and will start to treat women as objects and continue a culture of violence.
I would like to encourage further discussion on the idea of how music can influence all generations. Is it true that young people watching music videos are going to take it as a truth? Should lines in songs be taken serious or just as part of an artist trying to make music and express themselves? How can we change the way that women are portrayed in music videos or magazines? These are a few things I believe that are important to think about and discuss so that we become more informed watchers and consumers rather than just going along with what's popular.
Here is the video:
http://www.vmagazine.com/site/content/429/best-videos-of-2012-2-chainz
And the Lyrics:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/2chainz/birthdaysong.html
I have heard this song before, but NEVER have I seen the video. I am absolutely enraged, disgusted, and horrified at what I saw. I have noticed that more and more are women wearing less clothes, more makeup, and exploiting themselves in front of the camera. It places the rest of women under this category of "objects" and useless if we do not appeal to this extent. I found it interesting that the only white person was portrayed as a clown... who continuously got abused and beat up. I also found it interesting how there were so many children in this video! Children are learning from this garbage! This is truly impacting not only our generation, but those to come. How ridiculous!
ReplyDelete