- Theses and placement reports Faculty of Arts

Transcription

The “M” is for Misogyny
Gender, Objectification and Reappropriation in the Dreamworld of Music Videos
By
Nicky Ribbers
“Nelly ft. The St. Lunatics – E.I. (The Tip Drill Remix)”
Press Ctrl and click on image to view music video
S1849492
LAX999M20
03/23/2015
MA Thesis: American Studies
Supervisor: Dr. A. L. Gilroy
16.821 words
I hereby state that this thesis is my own work except where indicated otherwise with
proper use of quotes and references.
∞
2
Table of Contents
∞
Introduction
p. 4
Chapter I: “Welcome to the Dreamworld”
p. 14
Misogynistic and Pornographic Elements in Music Videos
Chapter II: “Still Not Asking For It!”
p. 26
The Effects of Social Counter Movements and the Failure of Reappropriation
Chapter III: “I’m a Free Bitch”
p. 40
Reconstructing Femininity and Breaking Free of the Dreamworld
Conclusion
p. 51
“Somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is still Twerking”
Bibliography
p. 57
3
Introduction
∞
Ever since the launch of MTV in 1981, which brought the world its first televised 24 hour
music video station, the phenomenon of the music video has been exceptionally popular and
thus increasingly important to recording artists and record producers. MTV did not by any
means invent the music video genre, as music and motion pictures have a strong alliance that
goes back as far as the invention of the latter, but MTV was the first to create a stage intended
solely for the purpose of presenting music videos. MTV was described, before it was even
named, by MTV executive John Lack as “a video radio station” and since record companies
already made promotional music videos for internal use that could be used for free, MTV had
little to no material expenses.1 The first ever song that MTV played was “Video Killed the
Radio Star” by The Buggles, a fitting choice as video did indeed take over and MTV managed
to grow from a small novice TV station into a highly influential and international corporation.
Whereas initially most music videos like “Video Killed the Radio Star” and Pat
Benatar’s “You Better Run” were straight-forward and unremarkable, it did not take long for
the first ‘dirty’ video to make its introduction and pave the way for the sexualized music
video culture that dominates MTV today. Marks and Tannenbaum, authors of I Want My
MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, credit Duran Duran’s “Girls on
Film” with being the first dirty music video and claim that, in this narrow sense, it is the most
influential music video ever made. “Girls on Film,” released in 1981, is a precursor to the
many dirty music videos of today, not in the least because it also shows the first integration of
porn film techniques in the world of music videos. Director Kevin Godley has commented on
the racy video, saying, “Someone mentioned that at porn shoots, in order to get an erect
nipple, you put some ice on it. So we said, “Why not?”2 This and other elements of the
1
Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
(New York: Dutton, 2011), 26.
2
Ibid., 46.
4
controversial music video, such as graphic nudity and suggestive dancing, required it to be
edited before MTV could air it; however, Duran Duran greatly benefited from the attention
and controversy that the video inspired.
“Girls on Film” may have been the first dirty music video of the MTV era but it was
not long until it was in good company. It became apparent to directors and producers that
video was a medium that could greatly benefit and boost the popularity of a musical act, and
sexually provocative music videos started to appear more and more frequently. During this
period we see the first outlines of what Sut Jhally will later call the ‘dreamworld’ in his series
of documentaries on sex, power and gender roles in music videos. The idea of this
dreamworld is that music videos of all genres, whether it is pop, rock, country or rap, have
created a male fantasy world where female bodies are a currency and male dominance is a
given. The dreamworld is in fact a highly influential system of discourse largely solidified
around the personification of male adolescent experiences and desires, which represents and
influences how western society thinks about masculinity and femininity.3 As MTV and the
pop culture have grown tremendously in size and influence, the dreamworld has become allencompassing, while the depictions of women in music videos have become increasingly
explicit and pornographic. Examples of this can be found by merely turning on MTV or
looking up popular music videos on YouTube by artists such as Pitbull, Jay Z, Miley Cyrus or
Rihanna, many of which I have included in the digital version of this thesis.
Katherine Kinnick rightfully wonders how we got here in her entry in the book PopPorn: Pornography of the American Culture, as it is only a few decades since Elvis Presley
could not be filmed from the waist down on The Ed Sullivan Show because it was deemed too
racy. She mentions the concept of ‘ratings-inflation’ and claims that experts believe that what
qualifies for a PG-13 rating today, would have been rated R several years ago as popular
3
Jennifer M. Hurley, "Music Video and the Construction of Gendered Subjectivity (or How Being a Music
Video Junkie Turned Me into a Feminist)" in Popular Music vol. 13, no. 03 (1994): 331.
5
culture contains a definite increase in sexual explicitness. MTV underwent a similar change in
its attitude towards nudity and graphic language in music videos; even though some videos
still need to be edited before they are allowed to air by the Federal Communications
Commission, the overall explicitness of videos has also notably increased since “Girls on
Film” and the decade of the early eighties.
Popular music videos, arguably more than any other medium, have portrayed male
dominance and subsequently female submission during the period of the increase of televised
sexuality. This is especially noticeable in videos of male artists because of the presence of the
so-called ‘video vixen.’ There are many definitions of the term ‘video vixen,’ the differences
mostly based on details, but for the purpose of this research it is defined as a female in a
music video who is there to function simply as a prop through dancing, undressing, walking
around in revealing outfits or performing other activities, without being affiliated to the artists
or contributing to the actual music in any way. A good example of video vixens can be seen in
the music video “E.I. - The Tip Drill Remix” by Nelly and The St. Lunatics that can be
accessed on the front page of the online version of this thesis. Video vixens seem content
within the boundaries of their limited role as a prop in the video and because they allow
themselves to be portrayed the way they are in videos such as “E.I. – The Tip Drill Remix,”
they are often considered the primary example of oppression and male dominance in popular
culture. They accept their subordinate role in the video. Many videos, most explicitly of the
rap genre, but definitely also within other popular genres such as pop and rock, show these
scantily-clad women while they are doused with dollar bills or champagne as the male artists
refer to them “in terms normally reserved for prostitutes and canines.”4 While it would be too
shortsighted to argue that this behavior is per definition harmful, Jhally rightfully discusses
the poignant lack of counterbalance against this sexual aspect of the female identity.
4
Mardia J. Bishop and Ann C. Hall, Pop-Porn: Pornography in American Culture (Westport, Conn.: Praeger,
2007), 8.
6
It is important to distinguish between the levels of empowerment and entitlement of
the video vixen and the female artist. Many contemporary scholars and audiences believe that
female artists in music videos, contrary to video vixens, should often be seen as
“communicating a feminist view and promulgating feminist messages.”5 Robin Roberts is one
of the scholars who claims that in music videos, the politics of feminism have moved to the
front row, as she writes that women are increasingly presented as strong and positive in her
book Ladies First: Women in Music Videos. Roberts’ argument is based mostly on examples
of music videos by artists such as Janet Jackson, Pat Benatar and Salt ‘n Pepa to name a few,
and she encourages her readers to reconsider what she calls the standard, reductive dismissal
of music video depictions of sexuality, especially female sexuality, and the assumption that
any depiction of that sexuality will be exploitative.6
While Roberts is certainly right that not all depictions of sexuality are exploitative or
harmful, I disagree with her when she claims that these female artists can reappropriate
female sexuality with such great ease. While female pop stars may feel like they are
empowered through reappropriation, they are still moving, behaving and dressing within the
existing paradigms of the dreamworld. They still conform to the male adolescent fantasies and
desires that MTV was designed to express, because even though female artists may act and
feel feminist, they fit seamlessly within the existing portrayals of a female as perpetuated by
the dreamworld and apparently have to be naked to convey their messages. Female artists are
a definite step up from video vixens in terms of influence and empowerment, but with the
music of the videos muted, it is often difficult to distinguish one from another, especially if in
the video the female artist collaborates with a male artist. Even when female artists actively
choose to embrace their sexuality and express it because they want to, which, in an ideal
world they should be able to, they presuppose that their audience understands the statement of
5
6
Robin Roberts, Ladies First: Women in Music Videos (University of Mississippi Press, 2009), 3.
Ibid., 59.
7
reappropriation. As the current generation of MTV viewers has been raised amid the everpresent hypersexual female imagery in commercials, videos, movies, games, billboards and so
on, this is a debatable presupposition. Anticipating my above mentioned argument, Roberts
addresses this in her book by saying that “elitists such as Jhally” believe that music video
viewers and artists can only be the dupes of media images rather than informed consumers.7
While the term ‘informed consumers’ raises an entirely new set of questions on who these
consumers are and how many of them there are, which I will attempt to explore later on, the
most important question remains whether reappropriation, which Roberts is a clear advocate
of, can be done at all.
The fact that gender equality has not been attained in western society is significant in
the rise of social counter-movements, some of a feminist nature and others quite the opposite.
One of the most interesting contemporary social counter movements is a group of third-wave
feminists who have organized the so-called ‘Slutwalk’ in several major cities all over the
world. The Slutwalk movement was triggered by a remark made by a Canadian police officer
who was speaking at a safety forum at York University in Toronto: “I’ve been told I am not
supposed to say this. However, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be
victimized.”8 This remark outraged two local feminist campaigners who were shocked at this
account of victim-blaming, also known as ‘slut-shaming.’ They organized a march to the
Toronto police office after they learned that this was not the first time that police officers had
behaved in this fashion, often even in the presence of victims of sexual abuse. The first
Slutwalk was an immediate success and inspired women all over the world to organize walks
of their own, while each walk represented a local theme of importance for women.9
The most interesting aspect of the Slutwalk is its attempt at reappropriating the word
‘slut’, and while the walks have been dubbed by some as the most successful feminist action
7
Symon Hill, Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age (Oxford, Engl.: New Internationalist, 2013), 93.
9
Ibid., 93.
8
8
of the past twenty years, the movement is also exemplary of how difficult and challenging
reappropriation is.10 This is mostly visible in the differences of opinion and attitudes the
Slutwalk organizers have towards the word ‘slut,’ as some feel empowered by calling
themselves sluts as they believe sluts are women with healthy sexual appetites, while others
are bothered by the term’s negative connotation and its usage to oppress and shame women
and thus they feel uncomfortable reclaiming it.11 A black women’s movement that wanted to
feel included by the message of the Slutwalk felt uncomfortable reclaiming the word because
it reminded them of its historical use by white men to denigrate black women.12 While these
women all agree on the fact that women should never be ostracized or assaulted physically or
verbally because of their sexual behavior or the way they choose to dress, a message that
unifies them beyond borders or culture, they appear to be divided over the reappropriation of
the word slut.
The concept of the Slutwalk ties into the discussion on music videos as it is the
depiction of women and how they are generally treated by men in the dreamworld that the
organizers are protesting against. While it should in no way be suggested that music videos
determine the way adolescents and young adults view their own sexuality and that of the
opposite sex, the sexual innuendo does influence them in one way or another. The lack of
reliable information on the influence of the media will become apparent as this thesis
progresses. Jhally draws a comparison between the way women are treated in music videos
and the behavior of the attackers in the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City in 2000,
where women were groped, doused in water and stripped naked by a large group of men in
Central Park, behavior which eerily resembles the behavior of male artists in the average
music video. These normal-looking men displayed a disturbing sense of entitlement to the
10
Symon Hill, Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age (Oxford, England: New Internationalist, 2013,
93.
11
Ibid., 93.
12
Ibid., 93.
9
bodies of their victims and completely disregarded the women’s attempts to fight them off
and to escape them, nor were they affected when they cried. This is just one example of many
vicious attacks on women that seem to have a misogynist foundation.
The sexual iconography of the contemporary music video often draws heavily on that
of pornography.13 Music videos have strongly contributed to the normalization of society’s
pornofication which caused hypersexual imagery to become rampant and part of our daily
lives. These hypersexual norms have leaped over to other platforms of entertainment, such as
Oprah and The Tonight Show, who both claim that dancing around poles is the latest and
greatest in cardio fitness and thus try to convince women that activities that originated in strip
clubs should be adopted as a cultural norm.14 Ariel Levy, author of Female Chauvinist Pigs
and the Rise of Raunch Culture, explains how women embraced rampant stripper chic as a
form of rebellion while using the “rhetoric of feminism”.15 This is in a nutshell what we see in
most female artists who consider themselves or have been called feminists. I will argue that it
is therefore necessary for female artists to actually break away from the existing paradigms of
beauty and femininity to be able to reappropriate their bodies and sexuality, as it is impossible
to do this within the dreamworld. This requires a renegotiation of the concept of femininity, a
daunting task to say the least. As we are all immersed in the dreamworld and often have come
to accept its concept of femininity as our own, it is extremely difficult to attempt to think
outside the dreamworld.
However, arguably there is one contemporary female artist who has come very close
to breaking with these paradigms of female beauty, and that is Lady Gaga. She chose to
construct her body in a way that is interesting and artistic rather than in a way that is
considered traditionally beautiful and by doing so she stands out from the crowd of famous
13
Jennifer M. Hurley, "Music Video and the Construction of Gendered Subjectivity (or How Being a Music
Video Junkie Turned Me into a Feminist)" in Popular Music vol. 13, no. 03 (1994): 331.
14
Meredith Levande, "Women, Pop Music, and Pornography," in Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism
vol. 8, no. 1 (2008): 299.
15
Ibid., 299.
10
female artists and is often described by the media as ‘weird’ or as merely ‘seeking attention.’
It seems as though Lady Gaga’s construction of her own divergent feminine identity has
resulted in many people developing feelings of cognitive dissonance, which they resolve by
labeling her as unattractive and crazy. Lady Gaga is the only female artist who comes close to
stepping outside the dreamworld, as she challenges what female sexuality looks like. In Gaga
Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal, J. Jack Halberstam, calls the singer a symbol
of contemporary feminism and argues that this is mostly visible in how Gaga normalizes the
abnormal in terms of gender construction. She shows her audience that it is acceptable to
diverge from the standard depiction of males and females as perpetuated in the dreamworld
and portrays a more fluid concept of femininity and even masculinity. Although this is why
she receives the most of her criticism, it also makes her greatly loved by many others;
"The great thing about Gaga is she always wants to push for the most
extreme option," fashion designer Gary Card said. "She's brave enough to
let herself be a canvas for a designer to go and really express themselves.
Nothing is off limits! With Rihanna and Beyoncé there is an end result of
desirability and unattainable sexiness, whereas Gaga is a really interesting
bridge between the desirable and the grotesque."16
Finally, I would like to elaborate on why I chose this topic for my thesis and explain
why the debate on the role of women in music videos is relevant in my eyes. I believe that
there is a ruling conviction that feminism is something that our society no longer needs, that
there is nothing left for women to fight for after the previous generations of women ‘cleared
the path’ for us. This is a conviction that originates from the post-feminism school of thought.
In my generation, which consists of men and women in their twenties, the word ‘feminist’ is a
16
Ann Powers, "Frank Talk with Lady Gaga" Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2009,
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/13/entertainment/la-ca-lady-gaga13-2009dec13/3, (accessed April 14,
2014).
11
dirty one, and I know very few women who would identify themselves as such. This is also
illustrated by most young female pop stars who do not dare identify themselves as feminists
due to misunderstandings on what being a feminist actually means. As a devout popular
culture enthusiast, I like to watch a lot of music videos but I struggle to allow myself to
appreciate the vast majority of them as they are so irreconcilable with my deeply rooted
feminist beliefs. However, it is not in any way my intention to suggest in this thesis that
people should stop watching music videos, as I know I have not, but I do hope to encourage
young viewers to think about origins and intentions of whatever they are watching and
consider the importance of feminism.
Therefore, I will argue that music videos starting from the birth of MTV have
constructed a dreamworld based on a highly influential system of discourse largely solidified
around the personification of male adolescent experiences and desires which represents and
influences how western society thinks about gender. Gender equality in the dreamworld is
virtually non-existent as women are portrayed as disconnected sexual bodies intended for
male pleasure, resulting in this sexual imagery having worked its way into the inner identity
of today’s young males and females, often without them even realizing it. This is further
enforced by scantily-clad female artists who behave like strippers in their videos, which
makes them virtually indistinguishable from video vixens. However, they claim that they
operate under the ‘rhetoric of feminism’, and thus do it by choice, which they believe
constitutes an empowering reappropriation of discourse. I will argue that, in reality, female
artists have to match the imagery of the existing set of stories and use the visual language
already established by the male authors of the dreamworld in order to be successful, which
makes the feminist reappropriation of their bodies and their empowerment per definition
unsuccessful. I will also argue that in today’s hypersexual society it would be extremely
difficult to reappropriate female sexuality, as that would require a complete renegotiation of
12
femininity and masculinity outside of the dreamworld to be successful. However, Lady Gaga
is arguably the only contemporary female artist who has managed to challenge our
dreamworld gender norms through her eccentric feminine identity and by doing so she at least
comes close to breaking with its paradigms.
13
Chapter I
“Welcome to the Dreamworld”
Misogynistic and Pornographic Elements in Music Videos
∞
The influences of pornography on music videos have been visible as early as in Duran
Duran’s video for “Girls on Film” in 1981. As this video was an enormous success, porn and
pop continued to become more closely intertwined, and by 1992, 63 per cent of the videos on
MTV contained sexual imagery and that number has strongly risen in the years following.17
Similar to the development in music videos, porn has infiltrated almost all aspects of our
popular culture, such as regular television, advertising, video games, movies and mainstream
magazines.18 Sexual imagery in these various forms of media have become so common and
frequently visible, that it can be considered normalized and unremarkable. The rise of MTV
has helped create the dreamworld, a world where women are depicted as willing and
subordinate nymphomaniacs that far outnumber men.
For real women that grow up in a dreamworld-influenced reality, these sexual images
and stories have worked their way into their inner identity, desensitizing them and urging
them to embrace objectification and misogyny. It must be said that theories surrounding the
influence and effects of the media on the public have both been celebrated and questioned,
and I recognize the simplicity and challenges of these theories. However, I would argue that
being exposed to graphic nudity and explicit gender roles from an early age does influence
what we consider to be the norm. Katherine Kinnick’s example of Elvis Presley being filmed
only from the waist up in the 1950s because his dancing was considered too sexually
provocative again comes to mind, while it is now fairly common to see naked breasts or more
in a music video. Being more exposed to sexual content can therefore make us push our own
17
Ann C. Hall and Mardia J. Bishop, Pop-Porn: Pornography in American Culture, (Westport, Conn.: Praeger,
2007), 10.
18
Ibid., 8.
14
boundaries in judging what is acceptable. Ariel Levy exemplifies this sentiment in her book
Female Chauvinist Pigs, when she describes how she witnessed two young women on the
beach being surrounded by men who were trying to convince them to expose their breasts and
buttocks. Even though the women had repeatedly refused, after the promise of a ‘Girls Gone
Wild’ hat and some perseverance, they complied. While ‘Girls Gone Wild’ has never been
aired on MTV, it does enter into the world of popular culture by having artists such as
Eminem and Snoop Dogg star alongside the women who bare their bodies. Levy has dubbed
the development where explicit sexual content is pushed into the mainstream the rise of
“raunch culture,” a culture where women are highly objectified and sexualized by both men
and other women while being erroneously convinced that this is characteristic of female
sexual empowerment. Raunch culture should be considered an important factor in
contributing to and perpetuating of the dreamworld, with contemporary male and female
artists as its (most likely unintentional) gatekeepers, while the dreamworld in its turn also
influences and perpetuates raunch culture, creating a reciprocal relationship between the two.
Of all the forms of media, the lines between fantasy and reality have never been as
vague as they are in the world of music videos as there is now a multitude of porn stars and
musicians who venture in each other’s line of work. Adult entertainers such as Jenna
Jameson, Ron Jeremy, Lisa Ann and Sasha Grey have all starred in music videos, while
musicians such as 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Lil’ John and Ice-T can be seen hosting and rapping
in the triple-x-rated adult videos.19 These crossovers have not just yielded an enormous
amount of revenue, but also helped pornography emerge from its sleazy, back-alley reputation
and elevate it into mainstream entertainment. Sut Jhally argues that other significant
influences of pornography on the music industry can be clearly found in the use of certain
filming techniques and stereotyping. The latter is most visible in the characters played by
19
Ann C. Hall and Mardia J. Bishop, Pop-Porn: Pornography in American Culture (Westport, Conn.: Praeger,
2007), 9.
15
women in music videos, which are derived straight from male adolescent fantasy, such as
nurses, stewardesses, schoolgirls, police women, strippers, maids and teachers. These
hypersexual stereotypes were for a long time uncommon outside the realm of pornography,
but can now be found in almost any music video, whether it is from Britney Spears, Blink 182
or Rihanna, and are portrayed by both video vixens and female artists. Apart from the harmful
use of hypersexual stereotypes, it is perhaps even more disconcerning how women in music
videos are filmed and fragmented. Jhally calls the visual techniques we see today in almost
every video ‘the male gaze,’ when the camera slowly pans over a woman’s body or films her
from above so that the viewer can look down into her cleavage. Other examples of the male
gaze are women filmed from between their legs, women filmed while wet or close ups of
female body parts which provoke objectification to an even larger extent, as this fragmented
portrayal of women further allows for dehumanization.20 This is combined with male behavior
in videos that often suggests their dominance over the women, such as money being showered
on women’s bodies, credit cards that are run through their buttocks, men referring to women
as ‘bitches’ or ‘ho’s’ and watching them dance provocatively. This macho behavior implies
that the female body and sexuality can be bought, handled and controlled by men. 21 The use
of stereotypes, pornographic visual techniques and misogynist language serve as a less than
subtle foundation for the dreamworld.
The dreamworld is so closely intertwined with our popular culture that it can be
difficult to realize exactly how much influence it has on young women. Music videos make it
clear that the most important aspect of a woman is her sexuality and young women are
exposed to this ideology from a very young age. As 90 per cent of music videos are directed
by men, our society continuously views depictions of female sexuality through the eyes of
male authors, which results in women being defined by a sexual identity that is not self-
20
21
Dreamworlds III, directed by Sut Jhally (Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation, 2007), DVD.
Ibid.
16
created.22 This is such a gradual development that many women do not question the
construction of their sexual identity, but there are a lot of women who do feel uncomfortable
when trying to conform to the standards brought on by dreamworld. Ann Wilson, singer of the
band Heart, speaks about how she and her sister and fellow band member Nancy Wilson
experienced the pressure from their record company to look and dress in a way that was
considered sexy, while the male members of the band were not pressured in the same way:
“When I watched them objectify Nancy, it broke my heart. (…) It hurt our feelings, and we
felt jealous. The guys didn’t have pressure to be sex kittens.”23 This example of typecasting
women in the role of sex bombs is exemplary of what women have to do to fit in the
dreamworld. Especially female artists have to match the imagery of the existing set of stories
about what is feminine in order to remain relevant.
If we consider video vixens as a part of the male contribution to the dreamworld,
because of their role as props used to decorate videos of male artists and assert their
masculinity through their dancing, it would be logical to consider the videos of female artists
as part of the female contribution. However, female artists in their own music videos do not
use separate, female-oriented visual techniques that are different from those that stem from
the male contribution. They use the male-oriented visual techniques that are already available
and familiar to the public and themselves, which means that the contemporary female aspect
of the dreamworld is accepting the vision of the pornographic imagination.24 This has resulted
in videos where the female artists are dressed like video vixens, that is, dressed like
hypersexual stereotypes, while often singing about girl power and being strong, independent
women. A compelling contemporary example of this behavior can be found in the video for
the song “Pour It Up,” in which Rihanna sings about her monetary possessions and strippers
22
Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution
(New York: Dutton, 2011), 267.
24
23
17
sliding down poles, while wearing a thong, shaking her buttocks and opening her legs for the
camera. She also pole dances, rolls around in four inches of water on a dance floor and dances
with dollar bills sticking out of her underwear. The use of feminist rhetoric with sexual
commodification is not incidental; the equation of stripping, prostitution, and pornographic
imagery with power is the most popular myth of the dreamworld.25 The unbalanced
objectification and sexual imagery in music videos have helped form the notion that
demeaning women's bodies in exchange for profit is acceptable. What makes it tolerable for
these women to perform the myth is that they are portrayed as powerful, like Rihanna in
“Pour It Up,” as she imitates dominant masculine behavior by smoking a cigar and throwing
around dollar bills at strippers.26
“Rihanna – Pour It Up”
25
vol. 8, no. 1 (2008): 301.
26
Ibid., 302.
18
Robin Roberts would strongly disagree with the above-mentioned arguments and has
claimed in her book Ladies First: Women in Music Videos that this “is a version of a critique
of sexuality that can be traced back to nineteenth-century debates about the role of woman as
either angel or whore.”27 Robert’s comparison between the virgin/whore dichotomy and maleoriented female sexuality in music videos is interesting, as it seems that she considers the
critique on the pornographic image of female pop stars a direct criticism of these women’s
morals. That is a misinterpretation, as unveiling the dreamworld and the construction of
female sexuality in popular culture is intended to create awareness among women of who is
behind the camera and through whose eyes we see female sexuality. The question that the
theory of the dreamworld raises is not whether an image, or a woman, is good or bad, the
question is: whose story is being told?28
Arguably, it is wishful thinking that Roberts claims that feminist music video
performers expose the tradition of the male gaze by reversing it and by appropriating the gaze
for themselves, as there is no notable difference between the traditional male gaze and the
appropriated one. Appropriation is a complex and difficult strategy for many reasons; for one
as it is dependent on the audience to recognize the irony of using a technique, such as the
male gaze, in a music video to assert a negative stance towards that technique. Almost in
anticipation of this argument, Roberts claims that the theory of the dreamworld assumes that
music video viewers can only be the dupes of media images rather than informed consumers.
I argue that the theory of the dreamworld does believe in informed consumers, but it also
believes in the desensitizing nature of the pornographic images that are present in almost
every music video that children, teens and young adults watch. Our ideas of how a woman or
a man behaves and what they look like have not been biologically determined. These ideas of
femininity and masculinity stem our western culture and society, in the sense that they come
27
28
19
from the stories of our cultural expressions that tell us what is normal and what is not.29
Because they are so popular, a large portion of these stories are told to children and teens by
music videos, and many others they learn from their parents, who in their turn have grown up
influenced by music videos as well. This is a pattern of influences that has a significant
impact on how gender differences are perceived and it is such a gradual development, that it
often goes unnoticed. This does not mean, however, that audiences cannot become aware of
what influences their ideas of femininity and masculinity. If the theory of the dreamworld did
not invest in the possibility of informed consumers, it would not be intent on informing media
consumers about the objectification and misogyny present in our daily lives.
An interesting contemporary example of the ironic use of dreamworld elements that
backfired due to a misunderstanding of her intentions is Lily Allen’s video for the song “Hard
Out Here”. Allen’s video begins with a scene where she lies on an operating table while
undergoing plastic surgery as she watches music videos. Her manager and the surgeon discuss
her physique and utter their disgust over her size, as Allen comments that she has given birth
to two babies. After the surgery scene she appears to be making a music video accompanied
by predominantly black, scantily-clad video vixens as they do a raunchy dance routine, only
to be interrupted by her manager who then shows her how to properly shake her body, and in
a later scene how to seductively eat a banana or wash the rims of a car. The video vixens are
present throughout the entire video and engage in cliché dreamworld demeanor such as
dousing each other with champagne, slapping each other’s bottoms, explicit dancing,
throwing money in the air and bending over in front of the camera. These images are
accompanied by lyrics such as: “Don’t you want to have somebody who objectifies you?” and
“Inequality promises that it’s here to stay.” Allen also sings: “We’ve never had it so good,
we’re out of the woods, and if you can’t detect the sarcasm you’ve misunderstood,” which
29
20
makes the ironic sexist intentions of her video and song seem obvious. However, she received
a substantial amount of backlash because of it.
“Lily Allen – Hard Out Here”
Race and feminist campaigners have publicly stated their concern at how Allen, who
describes the video as “a satirical swipe at sexism in pop music,” uses her black backing
dancers as “nothing more than jiggling material.”30 It is unfortunate, but also realistic that the
majority of audiences do not understand that Allen has indeed used her black backing dancers
as ‘jiggling material’ to demonstrate the misogyny behind all the music videos that constantly
do this without the sarcasm. The fact that the women in Allen’s video are black is not because
she is racist, but because in her parody she stays true to the fact that black women feature
more prominently as video vixens in music videos than white women, especially in the hiphop genre.31 Fans have also uttered their disgust over the video on social media, such as
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, exemplifying the risks and difficulties of the ironic use of
Laura Cox, “Lily Hit by Race Row over Sexist Video ‘Parody’” Daily Mail Online,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2507615/Lily-Allen-hit-race-row-sexist-Hard-Out-Here-videoparody.html, (accessed April 18, 2014).
31
Tracy Lynn-Valentine, A Reflection in the Screen: A Visual Performance Ethnography, 37.
30
21
dreamworld imagery and visual techniques. This is especially poignant because “Hard Out
Here” is quite an obvious satirical video and it struggles to deliver its message to an audience,
while Roberts even goes beyond that and argues that the male gaze can be reappropriated by
singers such as Beyoncé, who make regular dreamworld-style videos, and claims that this will
be understood by the audience without a problem. An example of such a video is “Video
Phone” by Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga. In this video a dancing Beyoncé is observed by
men in suits with cameras where their heads should be, which is the ultimate visualization of
the male gaze, but there is no clear indication that Beyoncé uses this differently from, for
example, Sean Paul, who captures a video vixen on his own camera phone.
“Beyoncé – Video Phone ft. Lady Gaga”
“Sean Paul – Ever Blazin’”
22
Lady Gaga participates in Beyoncé’s video and behaves in a similar way as the latter,
which raises questions about whether she is the artist that manages to challenge the existing
paradigm of the dreamworld. In Chapter 3 I will discuss this further. Roberts states that the
method used by Jhally to argue his theory in the documentary Dreamworlds III, which
consists of stripping the videos from the music to showcase the offensive nature of the images
used, is a “cheap, easy and sloppy way to condemn the depiction of sexuality in music
videos.”32 She continues by arguing that Jhally needs to “distort the normal viewing practice
(…) in order to create a false unity of image, implying a seamless construction of sexuality.”33
Roberts appears to be convinced that Jhally strongly dislikes the display of female sexuality in
general; an extension of her previously mentioned argument about the virgin/whore
dichotomy. While both Jhally and Roberts are interested in feminism and the advancement of
gender equality, one feels that the latter has already been achieved while the other believes
that there is a lot of work to be done still. I would argue that feminism achieved is a myth that
(unintentionally) distracts us from the fact that we need feminism now more than ever.
Ariel Levy also attempts to embrace Roberts’ post-feminist stance, but she keeps
coming back to the same questions that arguably challenge post-feminism as a movement:
“How is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism endeavored to banish
good for women? (…) And how is imitating a stripper or a porn star – a woman whose job it
is to imitate arousal in the first place – going to render us sexually liberated?”34 With these
questions Levy illustrates that the problem is not female sexuality in itself, but in fact the
problem is that the stripper chic behavior, which is just one form of sexual expression, has
become so ubiquitous that it apparently has become synonymous for female sexuality as a
whole. Following Roberts’ thought process, when one feels uncomfortable with the
hypersexual, allegedly empowering stripper chic role of a woman, it automatically means that
32
Ibid., 61.
34
Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (NY: Free Press, 2005), 4.
33
23
one is uncomfortable with female sexuality. This is an unfortunate notion as the stripper chic
stereotypes are not created by women, and therefore should not be the main example of what
a sexually liberated woman looks and behaves like. The word ‘liberation’ in this case implies
a liberation from the sexual control of men over women, and thus for a third-wave feminist it
will seem very odd that Roberts encourages women to identify themselves with a sexual
identity that is inspired by the male adolescent fantasy, especially considering how first and
second-wave feminists have demonstrated against these sexual stereotypes for decades. A fact
that has also not gone unnoticed by Levy: “Only thirty years ago, our mothers were ‘burning
their bra’s’ and picketing Playboy, and suddenly we were getting implants and wearing the
bunny logo as supposed symbols of our liberation. How had culture shifted so drastically in
such a short period of time?”35
It is important to clearly define that the critical theorizing about the dreamworld is a
feminist theory, intended to educate women on the objectification and misogyny that is
present in their everyday lives. However, there is not just one type of feminism around; there
are in fact many feminisms and feminist theories who differ in opinion on what we should do
to further advance womanhood. As a critic of post-feminism, I argue that while there is
nothing wrong with exposure of the female body, there is something wrong with being led to
believe that taking off one’s clothes and complying with sexual commodification are
signifiers of sexual liberation. There is also little wrong with music videos that use titillating,
male-oriented, sexually stimulating imagery of women when there is sufficient
counterbalance against that. However, the problem is that there is nowhere near enough
counterbalance against this type of imagery in the world of music videos. One of the major
issues regarding feminism is that there is little unity between different scholars such as
Roberts, Jhally and Levy, who are all interested in the advancement of female imagery and
35
Ariel Levy, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (NY: Free Press, 2005), 4.
24
identity in popular culture, while strongly disagreeing with each other’s theories. As J. Jack
Halberstam summarized an argument made by Susan Faludi, American feminism has a
mother-daughter problem: daughters keep fighting with mothers, mothers keep being undercut
by their daughters, and this, apparently, is the real reason that feminism never quite gets its
revolutionary interventions right.36 This makes for a very interesting theory that I will further
explore in the third chapter.
36
J. Jack Halberstam, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Boston: Beacon Press, 2012), 3.
25
Chapter II
“Still Not Asking For It!”
The Effects of Social Counter Movements and the Failure of Reappropriation
∞
The constant presence of objectification and gender inequality in our western society has of
course not gone unnoticed by many feminists, and has concerned and triggered them to action
for many decades despite the fact that it has been ascertained in the previous chapter that
different feminist movements do not always agree with each other on how to further advance
womanhood in society. It complicates the achievement of the mutual goal of gender equality
when one feminist would label certain music videos as “communicating a feminist view and
promulgating feminist messages,” while another would see them as degrading and
misogynistic.37 The theory of the dreamworld has quite a pessimistic viewpoint concerning
the impact of contemporary feminism, or rather the lack thereof. The idea that the lack of
sexual boundaries signifies female power is what maintains and contributes to the inequality
between men and women, instead of showcasing feminism achieved. The dissidence between
different feminist movements and the absence of a moral common ground has led to the rise
of several social counter movements that protest against the cardinal imagery of the
dreamworld.
One of the most interesting recent counter movements is that of the Slutwalk, a protest
designed to shift the paradigm of mainstream rape culture, which the protesters believe
focuses on analyzing the behavior of the victim rather than the perpetrator.38 As mentioned in
the introduction, the first Slutwalk was organized after a Toronto policeman in 2011 had
publicly stated that women should avoid dressing provocatively in order to prevent being
sexually assaulted; by doing so, the policeman placed the responsibility of being attacked with
the (prospective) victim rather than with the (prospective) assailant. The first Slutwalk was
37
Robin Roberts, Ladies First: Women in Music Video (University of Mississippi Press, 2009), 3.
Mary Pharr, Of Bread, Blood, and The Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co Publishers, 2012), 142.
38
26
organized in Toronto via Facebook as a response to this insensitive remark and the thought
process behind it and generated a lot of interest among like-minded individuals. The protest
march has since gone global as it inspired women, and also some men, from all over the world
to challenge the belief that women would somehow provoke sexual assault with their clothing
or behavior by organizing a march of their own. Different local Slutwalks target specific
problems that local women face in that area, such as the right to breastfeed in public or
protesting against corrective rape against lesbians.
Many of the protestors who participate in the Slutwalks are deliberately dressed in
ways that are considered provocative, sometimes partially undressed, while wearing signs
with slogans such as “Still not asking for it!” or “My body is not your object.” Their message
is a clear one: rape is caused by rapists and not by sexually active women, or the showing of
skin. Other protesters are more conservatively dressed in everyday attire, sometimes wearing
signs with slogans such as “This is what I was wearing. Tell me I was asking for it!” or
“Women dressed like this are also raped.” Their messages are equally powerful as those from
the scantily-clad protesters, which underlines how one does not necessarily have to be naked
to challenge the status quo. However, the more interesting slogans that are seen on signs at
several Slutwalks state that the protesters are ‘taking slut back’ or actively referring to
themselves as sluts in other ways, which signifies that the protesters are not just attempting to
convince society that it is not the victims’ faults that they were sexually assaulted, but they
also want to actively reappropriate the word ‘slut.’ The desire to do this is also the most
important dividing factor in the Slutwalk movement, as there are many women who do not
feel comfortable with the reappropriation of such a negative term. While referring to
themselves as sluts may feel empowering to some women, others feel as if they would be in
fact putting themselves down by embracing the term. Therefore, it should also be stated that
fighting for the right to be called a slut without the negative connotation, in this case meaning
27
a woman with a strong sexual appetite and multiple partners, may for many women be an
important goal but it is definitely not the reason for everyone to partake in a Slutwalk.
The disunity over the word ‘slut’ can also be applied to the interpretation of the name
‘Slutwalk.’ Is it a walk of sluts: women who enjoy casual, consensual sex, who fight for the
right to do so without being judged by society, like men are also able to do? Or is it a walk of
victims of sexual assault and their sympathizers who have wrongfully been labeled as sluts in
the conventional definition; slovenly women with loose morals, because they did not actually
desire sexual contact with their attackers? The latter would imply that there are in fact ‘real
sluts’, real slovenly women with loose morals that the victims of sexual assault do not want to
be associated with because they do not deserve to be. This is a dilemma that plays a key role
in the Slutwalk movement, as the definition of the word ‘slut’ is exactly where protesters
differ in opinion. Yolande Robson, a 17-year-old Slutwalker in London, said that “the word is
often used to demonize women for having a healthy sexual appetite. So if you take ‘slut’ and
you say ‘this is who I am’ and you reclaim it, it no longer becomes an insult. It becomes a
source of pride.”39 Jackie de Paz, a 19-year-old Mexican-American organizer of Slutwalk
Riverside in California, does not think so lightly of the word as she claims that it “has been
used to oppress us, to demean us, to dehumanize us, so it really is a difficult word to
reclaim.”40 However, both sides intrinsically agree that a woman should never be shamed or
victimized in any way because of her sexual history or the clothes that she does or does not
wear.
The attempts to reclaim the term ‘slut’ are further complicated for a lot of women
because of its connotation of inequality, racism and its historical use by men and even other
women as a silencing tool. The word ‘slut’ in the Oxford English Dictionary describes
primarily “a woman who has many casual sexual partners,” and secondarily “a woman with
39
Symon Hill, Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age (Oxford, England: New Internationalist, 2013),
54.
40
Ibid., 54.
28
low standards of cleanliness,” a more dated definition originating around the 17th century.
Thus, according to the Oxford English Dictionary men cannot be sluts, and unsurprisingly, it
is a fact that there is not a similar word specifically targeting men and their sexual behavior.
The sentiment that sexual promiscuity by men does not hold the same negative connotations
as it does for women is also highly visible in music videos, where women are commonly
referred to as sluts, or synonyms of that word, such as whores, hussies or bitches, and men are
often referred to as pimps, hustlers, dogs or gangsters. Needless to say, the latter have entirely
different connotations and imply a completely different balance of power than the former.
Both the male and the female above-mentioned terms can be most frequently heard in hip-hop
and rap videos, two musical genres that are dominated by African-American male artists,
although it is used in popular videos of all genres. It is its historical usage by white men
against African-American women that further complicates the reappropriation of the word
‘slut.’
An organization called Black Women’s Blueprint suggested a change of name for the
Slutwalk because they felt that the term was a tool used by white men to denigrate black
women. Black female sexuality is historically constructed as oppositional to the normative
model of innocent white virginal femininity, which meant that the former could be used for
men’s pleasure and the latter should be protected against it.41 Nineteenth-century sexual
ideology posited that prostitutes and black women provided men with the kind of physical
safety valve that virulent male sexuality required in order to spare reputable white women.42
Therefore, according to the BWB, most black women would never be comfortable to refer to
themselves as sluts, which they argue causes the Slutwalk movement to become less
accessible and inclusive for ethnic women. However, the word ‘slut’ was important enough
41
Sikivu Hutchinson, Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebel (Los Angeles: Infidel Books, 2013), 76.
Alecia P. Long, “"A Notorious Attraction": Sex and Tourism in New Orleans, 1897-1917,” In Southern
Journeys: Tourism, History, and Culture in the Modern South (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press,
2003), 30.
42
29
for the founders to decide on keeping the name intact, and both parties agreed to disagree on
friendly terms. Had the founders of the Slutwalk agreed on a name change, they could have
expanded their reach and impact which would have helped them get closer to their goal of
gender equality.
Apart from the racial connotations, there is another reason why the long-term
reappropriation of the word ‘slut’ is unlikely to succeed. By reappropriating one derogative
term, one cannot prevent the rise of new ones with a similar meaning to replace it. Even
though the word ‘slut’ itself may indeed end up as a reclaimed term that many women will
choose to embrace, its negative connotation will simply shift to a new word because the desire
for such a derogatory term will remain. However, in the past reappropriation has helped with
the necessary strides towards acceptance of people in the LGBT community, specifically with
the word ‘queer.’ Queer was once an defamatory term, but even though it is still sometimes
used as such, today it is also a legitimate academic term for studies that focus on sexual
diversity and gender identity and a word that is used by LBGT people to describe themselves.
An organization not much different from the organization behind the Slutwalks, called
Queer Nation, started with the reappropriation of ‘queer’ and managed to disconnect it
largely, though not entirely, from its homophobic connotation.43 While one should
acknowledge the value of the reappropriation of ‘queer’, there are still many derogatory terms
to describe people from the LGBT community, such as ‘queen,’ ‘faggot’ or ‘fairy.’ The
reappropriation of ‘queer’ has therefore not eliminated the thought process of the people who
use these pejorative words, which is essential in changing societal norms. A contemporary
example of a degrading term ready to replace ‘slut’ is the neologism ‘thot,’ an acronym for
the phrase ‘that ho over there,’ which is rapidly growing in popularity. This is an equally
disparaging term as ‘slut,’ and therefore I largely reject reappropriation, not because it holds
43
Michael Bronski, A Queer History of the United States (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011), 4.
30
no merit at all, but simply because it does not have enough leverage, since wanting to reclaim
all words that are synonymous to a pejorative term would be highly unrealistic.
While the Slutwalk is making necessary strides towards the banishment of rape
culture, one should wonder whether this culture can be sufficiently erased while western
society is still influenced by the dreamworld. Without a proper balance between current
dreamworld imagery and more positive representations in popular culture, it is inevitable that
mainly children and young adults keep being influenced by the gender relations that they are
exposed to on a daily basis. Teenagers are highly susceptible to external influences and
pressures and more likely to be attracted by illusionary, immature and faulty thinking,
represented by celebrity culture, which can eventually lead to premature sexualization, selfobjectification and low self-esteem among teenage girls.44 At the same time it is possible that
teenage boys adopt a sense of entitlement to female bodies and feel superior to women,
because of the ever-present display of willing and eager women and their subordinate
behavior in music videos. However, it should be mentioned again that theories on media
influence and effects are quite controversial. Although there have been valid studies that show
a significant impact of the media on kids and young adults, one should not be too quick to
only point the finger at the media, as parents will always play a crucial role in the
development of self-esteem and healthy sexual identities for their children.
With this nuance in mind, it is important to mention that the hypothesis of media
influence is underlined by a comparison drawn by Jhally between dreamworld imagery and
the attacks during the Puerto Rican Day Parade of 2000 in New York. What sets these attacks
apart from others is not necessarily the gravity of what happened, as the attack on the Central
Park Jogger in 1989 for example was far more brutal, but rather that these attacks were
partially filmed by bystanders and perpetrators, which allows us to see and study the
44
Nikki Giant, and Rachel Beddoe, Surviving Girlhood: Building Positive Relationships, Attitudes and SelfEsteem to Prevent Teenage Girl Bullying (London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2013), 40.
31
similarities between the attackers’ behavior and the behavior seen in music videos. An
important prelude to the attacks is that the men shower the women with bottles of water and
spray them with squirt guns, leaving them soaking wet, which is one of the characteristics of
the previously discussed visual technique of the male gaze. Even though the women clearly
signal that they do not appreciate this behavior, let alone enjoy it, the men continue by
chanting, “Soak her! Soak her!” and “Get that bitch naked!” Because of the warm weather
that June, most women were wearing shorts or skirts and tank tops or t-shirts, which the
frenzied mob started to pull violently in an attempt to disrobe them. Unfortunately, because of
the fact that surrounding groups of men often isolated the women, many were indeed disrobed
and exposed while the men were laughing, cheering and groping at their bodies as they tried
to secure their clothes.
The similarities between a standard music video and this scene are the women who are
scantily dressed, although not in the stripper-fashion of a music video, men dousing women
with liquids and clothes that are torn off women’s bodies. The key differences are that none of
the women in Central Park were smiling; in fact many of the victims were crying and
everyone was trying to escape. The video footage of the attacks show that while the women
desperately try to leave the scene, men violently grab their buttocks and breasts, which is a
grotesque example of their apparent sense of entitlement. However, even more striking is how
little the New York police did to help the victims of these attacks. An 18-year-old British
tourist who had been molested ran to the police, but they told her only that she could file a
report, while numerous reports on the news showed that the police stood around while the
attacks were taking place.45 A similar story exists about the police during and shortly after the
horrible attack on Trisha Meili, otherwise known as the Central Park Jogger, who was raped,
severely beaten and left for dead in a ditch.
45
Richard Mintzer, Coping with Random Acts of Violence (New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2004), 73.
32
The reason behind the lack of action of the police is unknown and can only be
speculated about, but it certainly seems to fall in line with the comment made by the Toronto
police officer, and the claims made by the organizers about our contemporary rape culture and
tradition of victim blaming. The prevalence of victim blaming and slut shaming in our society
is once again illustrated by what happened in the case of the Central Park Jogger. After her
grueling road to recovery, which consisted of waking from a coma and having to relearn how
to walk, Trisha Meili faced several of these accusations. Oprah asked her during an interview
if Meili thought she was invincible or if she was plain nuts for running in Central Park alone
at night, apparently hinting that Meili has herself to blame for it, to which Meili responds that
“it was not a smart thing to do, but that it is absolutely no justification for what happened to
me.”46 She also recalls how the defendants’ attorney tried to trivialize what had happened to
her by trying to make her seem like a loose woman. “He was right in front of my face and, in
essence, calling me a slut by asking questions like ‘When’s the last time you had sex with
your boyfriend?’”47
One of the event organizers of the Puerto Rican Day Parade told The New York Times
shortly after the attacks that in the future, rap music might be limited at the parade, asserting
that some rap music had obscene lyrics that attracted potentially unruly youths. 48 While
several people, among them Puerto Rican rapper Fat Joe, immediately defended the hip-hop
genre by stating that it is a convenient scapegoat for the parade organizers, there have been
“Oprah Talks to the Central Park Jogger,” Oprah, http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Oprah-Interviews-theCentral-Park-Jogger, (accessed June 21, 2014).
47
This case does deserve the side note that the five young black and Hispanic boys who were convicted for the
attack on Meili were all acquitted after it was disclosed that they were coerced into making false confessions,
while there was no DNA evidence of the boys’ involvement. In 2002 the actual perpetrator confessed to the
crime and this set in motion the acquittance of the five young men who were incarcerated for varying periods of
seven to thirteen years. In June of 2014 it was reported that the men have agreed to a settlement of about 40
million dollars from the city of New York for the tunnel vision and racial profiling that occurred in this case. So
while sexism, the main focus of this thesis, is an important issue among law enforcers, racism is definitely one
too.
48
Will Comerford, “Puerto Rican Day Parade Organizers May Limit Rap,” MTV News, August 4, 2000,
http://www.mtv.com/news/1122825/ puerto-rican-day-parade-organizers-may-limit-rap/, (accessed July 20,
2014).
46
33
several scientific researches that show the relation between hip-hop and increased sexual and
criminal activity. Professor Murray Foreman from Northeastern University claims that “to say
there is no influence and no effect is naïve (…) Hip-hop listening correlates with increased
criminal behavior, sexual activity and drug use (…) Rap’s greatest effects are on children,
where its influence can be particularly strong. A lot of young people listen to their (rappers’)
lyrics and take their word as law.”49 Frequent watching of music videos has been related to an
increased risk of developing beliefs in false stereotypes and an increased perceived
importance of appearance and weight in adolescent girls, according to a study conducted
among a group of 837 ninth-grade girls of different ethnicities in San Jose public schools.50
Results from this study found that the total media use was not significantly related to
perceived importance of appearance or weight concerns, but when media use was separated
into distinct media genres, only the hours of music videos watching were related to perceived
importance of appearance and weight concerns.51
Another study has been conducted by Emory University, and consisted of tracking 522
Alabama girls’ hip-hop video consumption and behaviors. This study has revealed that a
higher consumption of hip-hop videos corresponded negatively with higher frequency of
sexually transmitted diseases, alcohol and drug abuse (60 per cent) and multiple sex partners
(twice as likely).52 There are very few studies that look at the objectification of women in
music videos of different genres, even though I would argue that this also occurs in the vast
majority of pop, R&B and rock videos.53
49
Jerry Kroth, Duped! Delusion, Denial, and the End of the American Dream (Santa Clara: Genotype
Publishing, 2012), 152.
50
D.L Borzekowski, J.D. Killen, and T.N. Robinson, “Does the Camera Add 10 Pounds?” National Center for
Biotechnology Information, January 26, 2000, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10638716, (accessed July
28, 2014).
51
Ibid.
52
T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women (New York:
New York University Press, 2007), 26.
53
It is unfortunate that most studies are quick to adopt the idea that hip-hop is a bad influence on the youth,
while very few studies take into account the socio-economic factors of their research subjects. While their
34
While Fat Joe is quick to defend hip-hop against those who say it is a bad influence,
he himself is hardly the example of a reputable role model, as for one he has a criminal
record, and secondly, his songs contain the following and other similar lyrics: “I never seen an
ass like that, I’mma beat it til tomorrow. And all I keep telling her is ‘shut up bitch, swallow!’
Your legs is shaking, I won’t hurt you”54 Of course these lyrics do not make Fat Joe guilty of
rape or assault in any way, nor does it mean that if you like hip-hop, you are automatically
capable of rape or assault. Statistically speaking, however, it would be silly to disregard the
influences of hip-hop culture on society with fallacies such as “I love hip-hop and you don’t
see me harassing women.”
“Fat Joe – Porn Star ft. Lil’ Kim”
Press Ctrl and click image to view music video
One way in which rappers could take their responsibility for the above-mentioned
statistics, is to make their beloved musical genre a more positive one by rapping about
different themes, making other kinds of videos and using more respectable language. Tricia
Rose, author of The Hip Hop Wars and Black Noise, argues that this is the way hip-hop used
findings are valid to a certain degree, I do believe this causes researchers to attribute too much of the youth’s
unruly behavior to hip-hop, as they fail to discuss other factors and other genres.
54
Fat Joe, “Porn Star,” in Jealous Ones Still Envy 2, Terror Squad Entertainment, 2009,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJAdSg2AOQ.
35
to be before the economic imperative took over. Music by artists such as Chris Brown, Lil’
Wayne and 50 Cent is saturated with stereotypes of pimps and ho’s, in lyrics as well as in the
videos. Rose discusses how there was a community-regulating factor in early hip-hop,
because the music was created for multigenerational consumption, which meant that the
language and the themes were very different from what they are today.55 She argues that,
unlike contemporary hip-hop, early hip-hop had a lot of political content; it was focused on
education, history and trying to change society. However, while Rose is critical of mainstream
male hip-hop artists and the messages they convey to their young public, she is more positive
about female hip-hop artists, who she believes address sexual power, the reality of truncated
economic opportunity, and the pain of racism and sexism.56 She also argues that while male
rappers often focus on social criticism against police harassment, female rappers focus mostly
on sexual politics.57
In the previous chapter I recognized how some female artists are attempting to make
feminist strides, but that these attempts have a contradictory effect due to the usage of the
male gaze and often a lyrical focus on the female body that is very similar to way in which
male artists refer to the female body. Arguably, this behavior preserves and confirms female
sexual objectification, rather than challenging it, and Rose acknowledges this. She names Lil’
Kim, Foxy Brown and Nicki Minaj as examples of female rappers who confirm sexual
objectification, while she, like Robin Roberts, praises Salt ‘N’ Pepa for their female-oriented
lyrics. I recognize and admire the efforts made by female artists such as Salt ‘N’ Pepa and
Queen Latifa; however, there are not nearly enough artists like them, and they are not
innovative enough to have a noticeable influence on the dreamworld, let alone that they offer
an alternative. A remark made by Rose herself when dissecting the song “Tramp” by Salt ‘N’
Gilbert Cruz, “Tricia Rose, Author of The Hip Hop Wars,” Time, December 11, 2008, , 2014,
http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1866048,00.html, (accessed August 1).
56
Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, (Hanover, NH: University
Press of New England, 1994), 146.
57
Ibid., 147.
55
36
Pepa describes this problem on a small, song-based scale: “Tramp” is courtship advice for
women who choose to participate in the current configuration of heterosexual courtship, it
does not offer an alternative paradigm for such courtship.58
“Salt ‘N’ Pepa – Tramp”
While the organizers of the Slutwalk have made noble attempts at reappropriating the
word ‘slut,’ reappropriation as a concept has proven itself once again unattainable, and
arguably even undesirable. By fighting for the right to be a ‘slut,’ the organizers
unintentionally divert the attention away from their true feminist cause; protesting against
victim blaming and our contemporary rape culture, in which a women is held responsible for
the sexual attacks made against her. Reappropriation signifies that we are willing to stay
within the boundaries of the dreamworld, that we as women are willing to be defined by terms
that are historically male-oriented. Terms such as ‘slut’ do not necessarily need reclaiming;
they could also vanish and be replaced by something that is truly empowering, something that
signifies that the female sexual identity is constructed by females and not males. I would
suggest that feminists not seek empowerment in being called a slut and acting like a slut, as
58
Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Hanover, NH: University
Press of New England, 1994), 158.
37
the pressure in the dreamworld for women to embrace their inner stripper is already so
prevalent. What would then be the drastic change for young women between the empowered
slut and the repressed slut? How should they recognize the difference? Female empowerment
could lie with a break away from dreamworld-based terms and imagery, and for that it is
necessary to break away from the word ‘slut.’
The previously discussed attempted reappropriation of the visual technique of the male
gaze struggled with the exact same issues. If there are two videos, both using the male gaze,
but one from a standpoint of reappropriation and one from the traditional, male standpoint,
how will viewers recognize the difference? Or perhaps an even more important, and slightly
painful question: is there really a difference at all? Arguably, reclamation will not start the
feminist revolution that is necessary, even though those who attempted it had the best of
intentions. I have previously included the videos of Lily Allen, which was designed as a
satirical representation of the dreamworld, and Beyoncé, which was intended to reappropriate
the male gaze. Unfortunately, while Allen’s video was relatively obvious in its satire, many
missed this completely and were outraged because Allen used her back up dancers as ‘jiggling
material.’ Beyoncé’s reappropriation of the male gaze, executed in a far more subtle way than
Allen’s satire, blended in effortlessly with regular, non-appropriated videos. To illustrate my
argument even further, I will include two more videos.
“Nicki Minaj – Anaconda”
Press Ctrl and click to view music video
“Kid Ink – Show Me ft. Chris Brown”
Press Ctrl and click to view music video
38
After seeing and comparing both videos, it is difficult to justify the nudity in the Nicki
Minaj video as a sign of empowerment, as it is even worse than the video of Kid Ink. While it
could be argued that Minaj is expressing how comfortable she feels with her body and
sexuality, and can be considered a feminist in that aspect, there is still a matter of the very unfeminist lyrics. Minaj proudly shakes her curvy body to the sample by Sir Mix-A-Lot, where
he sings: “My anaconda don’t want none unless you’ve got buns, hun.” By doing so, she
implies that her self-worth and value are directly linked to a man’s desire and approval for her
well-rounded figure. It should also be said that at the end of the video, when Minaj slaps away
Drake’s grabbing hand after a lap dance and walks away, she looks as if she is in charge.
However, the power play still focuses on his desire for her, which is provoked by her
behaving in a way he finds preferable. And while the song is celebratory of curvy black and
brown bodies, where does that leave women who are a little less curvy? Minaj in fact
comments on these women in this same video by saying: “Fuck the skinny bitches in the club
(…) Fuck you if you’re skinny, bitches, what!” This does not support the idea that all women
should be as happy with their bodies as Minaj clearly is. One could even go so far as claiming
that she is shaming skinny women for not being curvy, and therefore not being desirable for
‘the anaconda,’ a man’s penis. This behavior can be considered un-feminist. Therefore, when
looking at the two screenshots above, I wonder how young audiences are supposed to
recognize which woman shaking her butt is supposed to be reappropriating the male gaze, and
which one is just being subjected to the male gaze, as their behavior is almost identical.
39
Chapter III
“I’m A Free Bitch”
Reconstructing Femininity and Breaking Free of the Dreamworld
∞
In the previous two chapters it has been argued that the dreamworld and its pornographic,
hypersexual, misogynistic imagery and lyrics are important factors in the rise and
popularization of gender inequality and slut shaming. However, it is relatively easy to
recognize the faults in a society, while it is much more challenging to offer a feasible and
attainable alternative that can exist outside a utopic version of that society. This alternative
may possibly start with a woman who is one of the most interesting and fluid personalities in
the contemporary music industry, an artist who manages to confuse and shock her audience
and fellow artists; Lady Gaga. This name is aptly chosen, because Gaga, derived from the
Queen song ‘Radio Gaga,’ is synonymous with crazy or insane. Lady Gaga’s ability to shake
the dreamworld to its core has also not gone unnoticed by gender theorist J. Jack Halberstam.
In fact, he has even based an entirely new ‘type’ of feminism on Lady Gaga’s unique
character. In his book Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal, Halberstam
explains this new concept of gaga feminism, and how it is based on a lashing critique on the
fixity of roles for males and females.
This is exactly what Lady Gaga has been known to toy with. Whether she wears a
meat dress and states “I am not a piece of meat,” or when she arrives at her album launch
party with a moustache and revealing lingerie, Lady Gaga’s constructed femininity is nothing
like that of any other female pop stars. For being different, Lady Gaga has been accused of
being many things: a hermaphrodite, a man, a transvestite, a loose woman, and everything in
between. In fact, in 2009, when she had her breakthrough, Lady Gaga’s gender occupied so
many people’s minds, that the third most asked question on the search engine Ask.com was
40
whether she is a man or a woman.59 This is a manifestation of western society’s desire to label
every person as either man or woman, as well as how uncomfortable it still makes us when
someone does not fit our existing gender patterns. Lady Gaga is remarkable because she
bends gender, she flirts with the rumors that exist around her and her sexual preferences, and
she loves to confuse. For example, in her video for the song “Telephone,” she is carried off to
jail by two female guards who undress her down to just fishnet stockings. When they close the
cell doors and walk away, one guard says to the other: “I told you she didn’t have a dick!” to
which the other one replies: “Too bad.” Gaga herself has commented on the rumors that she is
a hermaphrodite by stating: “I think this is society’s reaction to a strong woman. The idea that
we equate strength with men, and a penis is a symbol of male strength, it is what it is.”60 In
true Gaga fashion, she did not flagrantly deny the accusations, but she did claim the
following: “My beautiful vagina is very offended. I’m not offended; my vagina is offended.”61
The “Telephone” video is a collaboration with Beyoncé, just like the two artists
collaborated on the previously mentioned video for the song “Video Phone.” As promised in
the first chapter, I would like to explain why I use “Video Phone” as an example of a
traditional, dreamworld-style music video, while I cite “Telephone” as an example of a
dreamworld alternative. In “Video Phone” it is clear that Beyoncé plays the lead role. She
does most of the singing and all the shots feature her and only a few feature Gaga. Both the
video and the song are consistent with Beyoncé’s other work and Lady Gaga has for this one
instance assimilated herself into Beyoncé’s personal style and choreography. In “Telephone”
it is exactly the other way around; Gaga is in almost every shot and the video is filled with her
extraordinary fashion and stylistic choices, and Beyoncé simply assimilates into Gaga’s
Gemma Wheatley, “Lady Gaga: Gender Debate,” Daily Star, December 1, 2009,
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/110654/Lady-Gaga-Gender-debate (accessed August 1, 2014).
60
“Lady Gaga Addresses Hermaphrodite Rumors, Says Vagina is ‘Very Offended’” The Hollywood Gossip,
September 5, 2009, http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2009/09/lady-gaga-addresses-hermaphrodite-rumorsvagina-very-offended/ (accessed August 1, 2014).
61
Ibid.
59
41
world. Lady Gaga has not made a video like “Video Phone” since these collaborations, and
Beyoncé has since not made a video like “Telephone.” Lastly, “Video Phone” is credited as
‘Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga,’ and “Telephone” is credited as ‘Lady Gaga featuring
Beyoncé.’ For these reasons I do not particularly credit Beyoncé for making a dreamworlddefying video in this chapter, nor do I particularly criticize Lady Gaga for making a
traditional dreamworld-style video in the first chapter.
“Lady Gaga – Telephone featuring Beyoncé”
The video for the song “Telephone” is far from the only opportunity that Gaga has
taken in the past couple of years to toy with her sexuality and gender. In 2010, she and
photographer Nick Knight constructed an alternate identity for Lady Gaga, and his name was
Jo Calderone. Lady Gaga posed in drag as Calderone in Vogue Homme Japan, he appeared in
her music video for the song “You and I” and she even performed and handed out an award to
Britney Spears as Calderone on the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, and she did not break
character the entire night as she even refused to answer questions as herself at the press
conference after the show. Calderone, scruffy-looking in a dirty, white shirt, oversized black
pants and a black Elvis haircut, gave an almost four-minute-long speech on stage, saying he
was Gaga’s Italian-American ex-boyfriend from New Jersey and that she was mad at him
because ‘he is just like the last one.’ He also confessed that he used to touch himself as a little
boy while fantasizing about Britney Spears. The entire performance visibly shocked her peers
in the audience, as they exchanged dumbfounded looks or just stared at Calderone in awe.
42
Days later, when Gaga was herself once again, she told V Magazine the motivation behind the
creation of Jo Calderone. “In a culture that attempts to quantify beauty with a visual paradigm
and almost mathematical standard, how can we fuck with the malleable minds of onlookers
and shift the world’s perspective on what’s beautiful? I asked myself this question. And the
answer? Drag.”62 It is interesting to hear Gaga comment on Calderone’s creation and
recognize how much thought goes into her actions, arguably more than she is often given
credit for. Drag is an interesting choice for many reasons, among which the fact that it has not
been universally applauded within feminism. Gender theorist Judith Butler was one of the
first people to recognize its merit and deploys the idea of drag in order to reject the opposition
between ‘true’ and ‘false’ genders and to demonstrate how the impression of a gender identity
is established.63 In other words, drag confirms Butler’s theory that femininity is not natural to
women but is rather an effect of specific practices and behaviors. Heteronormativity
naturalizes a set of relations between sex, gender and desire that drag, in effect,
denaturalizes.64 Gaga’s comments prove that she is quite aware of similar constructions of
femininity in the dreamworld as Butler is. It also signifies that Gaga wants to change these
constructions by stepping outside what is considered beautiful for women, and thus making
the first steps outside the boundaries of the dreamworld.
Lady Gaga as Jo Calderone in Vogue Homme Japan
Lady Gaga, “From the Desk of Lady Gaga,” V Magazine no 74 (Winter 2011), 34-35.
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1999), 186.
64
Ibid., 187.
62
63
43
It appears that Lady Gaga’s character is far too complicated to label as feminist or
non-feminist, something which is carefully constructed, as she despises labeling. Early in her
career, Gaga stated in an interview that she is not a feminist and by doing so, she
unfortunately joined the non-feminist Hollywood tradition, as feminism is still not a popular
school of thought in the dreamworld. Artists such as Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Katy
Perry, Madonna and Bjork have all publicly denounced feminism, often under the misguided
impression that feminists are angry women who hate men and spend their days burning bras.65
It is an important contemporary issue, raised by Susan Faludi in her article “American Electra:
Feminism’s Ritual Matricide,” as she wonders; how did ‘feminist’ become a dirty word?
Faludi blames what she calls the demise of feminism on a generational divide, a mother and
daughter conflict, with younger women declaring themselves sick to death of hearing about
the glory days of Seventies feminism and older women declaring themselves sick to death of
being swept into the dustbin of feminism.66 Thus, saying to these female pop stars that they
are feminists, sounds to them like one is saying: “You are just like your mother,” a phrase
that, according to Faludi, makes most women’s skin crawl. This disconnect between mothers
and daughters has also not gone unnoticed by Ariel Levy, whom I previously quoted on her
disbelief that women are now wearing Playboy bunny necklaces as a sign of empowerment,
while ‘our mothers’ were picketing Playboy for its sexism. Halberstam, on the other hand,
acknowledges the generational issues but also argues that the ship that is the mother-daughter
divide in feminism has sailed and that it does not play the pivotal role that Faludi awards it.
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga is the only artist out of the aforementioned who took back her antifeminist words and in an interview with the LA Times in 2009, she referred to herself as “a
“10 Celebrities Who Say They Aren’t Feminists,” The Huffington Post,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/feminist-celebrities_n_4460416.html, (accessed August 1, 2014).
66
Susan Faludi, “American Electra: Feminism’s Ritual Matricide,” Harpers Magazine, October (2010): 30.
65
44
little bit of a feminist.”67 This could be a contributing factor as to why Halberstam modeled
his gaga feminism, his answer to Faludi’s claims that feminism is dead, after the pop star,
even though it is only in a symbolic way. With Gaga’s rise to stardom, Halberstam senses a
window of opportunity for a transformation of not just the dreamworld, but also our
perception of gender and sexual politics.
“Gaga feminism proposes to be a new kind of gender politics for a new generation, a
generation less bound to the romance of permanence, and more committed to the
potential of flexibility, more tuned in to the fixity of power relations, and less likely to
buy the broken ideologies of uniqueness, American dreams, inclusivity, and
respectability.”68
Since her interview with The LA Times, Gaga has been more outspoken in her support
for women, like she has always been outspoken in her support for the gay community. In fact,
in an interview with Barbara Walters, Gaga admits that she herself is bisexual, and although
she claims that she has not been in love with a woman yet, she has had sexual relations with
them. Her song “Pokerface” is about exploring her sexuality and about fantasizing about a
woman while engaging in sexual encounters with a man.69 It should be noted that Gaga’s
support for gay marriage is a great example of the difference between Lady Gaga as an
individual, and Halberstam’s gaga feminism. Gaga is very vocal about gay marriage and
recently got engaged to her long-term boyfriend, which she announced by plastering her
Instagram account with pictures of her enormous, heart-shaped engagement ring. Halberstam
on the other hand, finds marriage an oppressive ideology and would rather see gay couples
67
Ann Powers, "Frank Talk with Lady Gaga," Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2009,
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/13/entertainment/la-ca-lady-gaga13-2009dec13/3, (accessed April 14,
2014).
68
69
Lady Gaga, “10 Most Fascinating People of 2009,” Barbra Walters, Broadcast by ABC on December 9, 2009,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6TYQ4Ln8E.
45
abandon it completely because it embraces and lends credibility to a form of normative
culture that rejects gay people. Gaga feminism is therefore not limited to Lady Gaga and her
beliefs.
Even though Gaga now calls herself a little bit of a feminist, her feminist beliefs are
still more prominently visible in her actions than in her words. For example, in her video for
the song “Bad Romance,” Gaga is forced to dance in a revealing outfit for a group of men
who are watching while placing bids on her. She eventually has to bed the man who has
placed the highest bid, but ends up killing him by setting the entire bed on fire. In the final
scene she lies on a burned bed next to the disintegrated skeleton of the man who tried to buy
her. Gaga herself has commented on this video by saying that it is about tough, female spirit.
The murdering of suitors and boyfriends is a recurring theme in Gaga’s videos; it is featured
in the videos for “Paparazzi,” “Bad Romance” and “Telephone.”
“Lady Gaga – Bad Romance”
What if sexual orientation could also be read as less fixed, less determined, more
negotiated and fluid?70 Halberstam insightfully argues that this is necessary because we live in
a world that still controls girls and girls’ sexualities within a rigid system of blocks, taboos
and prohibitions, and we still expect boys to punish each other into ‘normal’ forms of
70
46
masculinity and then compete and agitate for female attention. 71 To break down the fixity of
gender roles in western society, a pop star could have the influence on young adults that is
incomparable with any other person or authority and help to gradually change the norms
concerning these gender issues. While there are arguably far too few pop stars who occupy
themselves with these or even other unrelated social issues, it is exactly the values of gender
rigidness and fixity that Lady Gaga seems to largely reject. Gaga actively chooses to break
away from the existing imagery of female pop stars, as she told Elle about her struggle with
record companies who wanted to push her in the direction of Britney Spears, Christina
Aguilera and other sexy starlets. She was determined not to follow that path, even though it
cost her a record deal with Def Jam. Completely aware of her responsibilities as an upcoming
role model, she explained: “The last thing a young woman needs is another picture of a sexy
pop star writhing in the sand, covered in grease, touching herself.”72 Instead, what Gaga
teaches young girls, and young boys alike, that it is acceptable to be different and interesting
rather than just conventionally beautiful, that it is more than acceptable to be gay, bi,
transgender or otherwise queer, and that women should love their bodies regardless of what
could be considered as physical flaws.
Influential as Gaga is, she encourages people who do not feel comfortable within our
heterosexual normative surroundings, as Halberstam describes, to break away from these
surroundings and be different and queer. For example, when Lady Gaga sang a duet with
actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt during “The Muppets Holiday Special” in 2013, they chose to
perform the controversial song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” in gender reversal. “Baby, It’s Cold
Outside” is a duet in conversational style between a man and a woman who are romantically
involved and find themselves at his house on a particularly cold winter’s evening. While the
woman tells the man several reasons for why she needs to leave, the man interjects with
71
Ibid., 9.
Tom Munro, “Lady Gaga – An Exclusive Interview with Elle’s January Cover Girl,” Elle, December 1, 2009,
http://www.elle.com/pop-culture/cover-shoots/lady-gaga-3 (accessed August 1, 2014).
72
47
reasons why she needs to stay. The controversial part especially is a line sung by the woman:
“Hey, what’s in this drink?” Today this line is often considered as evidence that the song is
about date rape, and many feminists dislike the song for this and other lines that the male lead
sings to convince the woman to stay after she repeatedly rebuffed his advances. Others
believe that the songs is taken out of context and the timeframe within it was written, that is
1944, because the woman states public scrutiny as the main reason for not wanting to stay
over, indicating that she actually does want to, but is just afraid of ‘what people might think.’
Whatever it may be, in the version by Levitt and Gaga, it is Gaga that ‘preys’ on Levitt,
instead of the other way around. By doing so, they not only change the entire dynamic of the
song, they also challenge and reverse the stereotypes of the sexually aggressive man and the
reluctant and timid woman as well as that the public scrutiny in this version is the man’s
worry instead of the woman’s.
Should, then, the renegotiation of femininity always necessarily be paired with gender
ambiguity and sexual queerness? I would argue that this is not the case, because if it were,
feminism would become too exclusive. This is where I differ in opinion from Halberstam,
who seems to believe that his gaga feminism as a school of thought is the best possible future
for
feminism,
whereas
I
rather see it as one of the
possible
futures
for
feminism. However, Lady
Gaga
as
managed
an
to
artist
has
radically
renegotiate femininity and
restructure it into a concept
that no longer embodies the
48
ultimate male adolescent fantasy. This new concept of femininity does not target women as
solely an object of male desire, which we so often see in the dreamworld. This is especially
visible in the picture on the previous page, where we see actress Sofia Vergara on the right,
who looks like the perfect embodiment of the dreamworld, with her long and wavy hair, made
up face, large breasts and a skin-tight leopard print dress, while sitting next to Lady Gaga,
with her pointy face- and shoulder pads, invisible eyebrows, dark make up and black hooded
dress. While it can definitely be debated whether Gaga looks beautiful, it is safe to say that
she never fails to look interesting. With Vergara it would sooner be the other way around; it
can be debated whether her look is interesting, but she is without a doubt presented as
conventionally beautiful.
Not every young woman may want to go to such extremes to break with the beauty
standards of the dreamworld as Lady Gaga, nor should they necessarily, but her presence in
popular culture is extremely valuable, indispensable even, because what Gaga does most
importantly is show young women an alternative to the female pop stars who are
interchangeable in terms of behaviour and physical appearances. Whereas I would argue that
this is the person in our contemporary popular culture that comes closest to breaking free from
the paradigms of the all-consuming dreamworld, I also want to state that not even the deviant
Lady Gaga embodies feminism achieved, or equality achieved, as her hits, according to
Annette Lynch, still have the unwanted influence of making one eleven-year-old show
another eleven-year-old how to move to express the meaning of “riding on your disco stick.”73
Lady Gaga is not exempt from sexual innuendo in her songs, videos and live performances,
and although there is nothing wrong with female sexuality per se, the fact that the sexual
aspect cannot be detached from her stage persona does still underline the essence of the
dreamworld: women need to be sexy to succeed, even Lady Gaga. I suspect that her overall
73
Annette Lynch, Porn Chic: Exploring the Contours of Raunch Eroticism (Londen: Berg, 2012), 51.
49
weirdness would be too weird if it were not paired with her sexual lyrics and the showing of
skin, which is something that feels recognizable and familiar among the freakiness. Lynch
already argued, that if Gaga would have left the sexual aspect out entirely, she would have
been thrown to the side first by the music industry, but also by the male and female audiences
socialized to expect sexualized power on stage.74
In other words, audiences are immersed deeper in the dreamworld than what can be
solved by one unorthodox artist in a short period of time, and this was by all means to be
expected. She did, however, manage to construct her sexuality in a divergent way, which is
refreshing and promising, not to mention necessary, otherwise it would send the message that
audiences should either embrace the existing, misogynistic female sexuality, or no sexuality at
all. There needs to be a viable alternative for young women and men alike. Hopefully, over
time, the socialized expectations of sexualized female power among audiences can be
abolished if there would be more artists like Lady Gaga in the future who at least challenge
the existing status quo on femininity, sexuality and gender in popular culture in their own,
unique way.
74
50
Conclusion
“Somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is still Twerking”
∞
In 2013, Lily Allen summarized in her song “Hard Out Here” what female artists and video
vixens alike have experienced for decades; it’s hard out here for a bitch. The female
performers of the generations after MTV’s founding discovered that directing their
appearance towards the male gaze through the creation of a sexy but powerful stage presence
won the acceptance of the male pop establishment as well as the attention of female fans,
eager to copy the performer’s style and dress to also secure male attention and therefore
achieve some level of social power.75 One of the questions that started my thesis was: “Do
women in music videos actually control their own female identity, or do they unknowingly
settle for a male-constructed concept of it?”
Having reached the conclusion, I found that this question is not an easy one to answer.
I answered it from a traditional feminist perspective, but I now understand that the answer to
this question depends on who you ask. I learned to better understand post-feminism and its
contemporary icons, such as Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus. Although I still cannot fully
accept post-feminism’s way of thinking, I have become more understanding of it than I was
starting this thesis. Nevertheless, I hope to have encouraged women to think about whether
the social power, gained by adhering to the male gaze in popular culture, is a power worth
having. Instead, I have suggested that the most popular myth in the dreamworld is the
equation of stripping, prostitution, and pornographic imagery with power, and the notion that
demeaning women’s bodies in exchange for profit is acceptable.76 Since the establishment of
MTV in 1981, pornographic elements have infiltrated music videos and due to their ubiquity,
the audience has become desensitized to this content and learned to more or less embrace the
75
vol. 8, no. 1 (2008): 301.
76
51
misogyny. Because of this, the audience has become the unintentional gatekeeper of the
dreamworld and society-wide raunch culture, named as such by Ariel Levy. I have discussed
how Jhally is concerned with the fragmentation of the female body in music videos, and how
female sexuality is constantly depicted through the interpretation of male authors, as the vast
majority of music video directors are men.77 I deliberated at length the concept of
reappropriation and the admirable steps made by the organizers of the Slutwalk, for which I
wholeheartedly commend them, even though I argued that their affinity with the controversial
word ‘slut’ may cause their organization to become divided and non-inclusive. I have
dissected the arguments of post-feminists such as Roberts and Rose who do not agree with my
rather pessimistic viewpoints, and see female empowerment in Salt ‘N’ Pepa and Queen
Latifa to name a few, and hopefully I made it clear that I acknowledge their opinions and see
reason in their arguments, even though in my eyes these artists fail to offer a viable alternative
paradigm for the dreamworld and thus stay comfortably within its boundaries.
I hope to also have properly elaborated on how I value the presence of Lady Gaga who
functions as a welcome alternative to the female standards in music videos. Alternatives such
as this are vital components in preparing audiences, who are institutionalized to expect sexual
behaviour and lyrics from women in videos and on stage, to start expecting different things
from female artists, who then have the possibility to gradually redefine and reintroduce their
feminine identity as female artists. However, before we reach that point, popular culture will
need many more divergent and atypical artists to inspire this change. It is perhaps hard to
envision Lady Gaga as the one female pop star that possibly holds the key to further change of
the dreamworld, when one has never seen her live in concert, and for anyone who has not, it is
highly recommendable to watch the HBO special Lady Gaga presents: The Monster Ball
Tour. Even if one does not care for her music, it is quite inspirational to see how she takes a
77
"The 10 Best Music Video Directors Of All Time," Green Label, November 1, 2013, Accessed February 28,
2015, http://greenlabel.com/sound/10-best-music-video-directors-time.
52
lot of time in between the performances to discuss multifarious social issues and reveals
herself as a truly skilled motivational speaker; it is obvious that her audience hangs onto her
every word. This is another example of how she distinguishes herself from her peers, who
mostly seem less politically and socially involved.
Even though Lady Gaga comes close to breaking with the paradigms of the
dreamworld, I would not ever claim she is immune to its influences. Recently Gaga redefined
her stage persona into a more classic, old Hollywood glamour style and recorded a jazz album
with Tony Bennett. She gave up the meat dresses and adopted a look that is reminiscent of the
likes of Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. It was also during this time that she swooned over her
enormous engagement ring on Instagram, and did a very classical performance at the Oscars,
where she sang a Sound of Music medley. Her most recent behaviour is overall less
dreamworld-defying, more traditionally feminine and it bridges the gap between her and her
fellow female pop stars. She has not lost her freaky side entirely though, as she recently
appeared in a trailer for the newest season of American Horror Story. The trailer has an eerie
vibe and Gaga wears strange masks and outfits that remind the viewer of the looks she was
famous for during the release of her first and second studio albums. I personally prefer Gaga
when she embraces her freaky side, because I believe we need it.
I have come to realize that there are many topics related to the ones I discuss in my
thesis that have not been researched yet, despite the fact that they are relevant and thoughtprovoking. One of the most unexpected topics that could be researched further, is the
construction of male sexuality and identity in popular culture. Many of the music videos I
have watched in the process of writing this thesis have one thing in common; the men look
silly and a little clownish gaping at the women who are shaking their bodies. This is
particularly visible in the screenshot on the cover page, where especially the man on the right
looks almost goofy, trying to embody male hip-hop stereotypes. I would therefore suggest
53
future research to perhaps focus on how male stereotypes, such as the pimp and the gangster,
influence young boys and the development of their sexual identity. Another topic I could not
research because of a shortage of time and space could be to look at how much influence
different socio-economic environments have on the susceptibility of kids and young adults for
misogyny and sexism. Most studies I came across are quick to claim that children who watch
a lot of music videos are more prone to display promiscuous and violent behaviour, but they
never mention anything about the socio-economic backgrounds of these kids. This makes the
outcome of these studies less reliable in my opinion, which is unfortunate, because I do expect
music videos to have an impact on children, but I also expect those who come from
challenging backgrounds to display more promiscuous and violent behaviour than young
people who come from the upper middle class. Therefore the results coming from such studies
may be overly blaming music videos, and more objective studies on the influence of the
media are necessary.
Another thing that I have learned while writing this thesis is that feminism’s biggest
problem is a generational divide. Different generations of women cannot agree on what the
next step should be in further advancing womanhood, and this has led to the ‘mother-daughter
divide’ that Faludi and Halberstam were talking about. It seems that this has always been the
case, and in this thesis I am mostly discussing artists who are currently very popular, because
artists of previous generations have hardly been able to challenge the dreamworld during the
height of their fame. Madonna is often mentioned as a pioneer for women in pop music, and I
do not say that she is not, but I would argue that she started what Miley does now, which is
hardly ground-breaking in terms of rejecting sexism. Admittedly I felt that post-feminism
was not real feminism at the beginning of this thesis, but I have since tried to accept its
thought process, because I would rather see young girls proclaim that they are post-feminists,
than no feminists whatsoever. Even though I see it differently, I would rather have young girls
54
think about feminism and choose that they find Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus strong, sexually
liberated women than not have them think about it at all. Writing this thesis has therefore
opened my mind and broadened my perspectives, for which I am grateful.
When it comes to post-feminism I will
always feel ambivalent. I find it questionable
that Miley Cyrus is twerking on stage in latex
underwear while touching herself with a foam
finger because she is a symbol of empowerment,
as I am critical of such performances where it
seems that a woman needs to take her clothes off
to be heard in the music industry. Others,
however, see Miley as the sexually liberated,
taboo breaking, new voice of feminism. They
© MTV
consider her having found her own sexual identity by radically breaking free from her good
girl image that stems from when she still played Hannah Montana on The Disney Channel.
While I definitely think this is true, as Miley has successfully disconnected from Hannah
Montana and created an entirely new image for herself, I cannot shake the idea that her
transformation makes it very easy for young women to believe that a lack of sexual
boundaries is what defines female power, and that is simply not my feminism of choice.
I do believe that when a woman decides that she wants to wear latex underwear and
fondle herself with inanimate objects, she should have every right to do so. Not in any way do
I intend to slut shame those who want express themselves sexually. However, it should not be
the expected route for a woman to behave in such a way so that she will get her music videos
played on MTV, and this behaviour should not be sold in any way as the sole signifier for
female strength. Unfortunately, it is being sold as such, and as I argued, there is a substantial
55
chance that Miley lives under the assumption that by behaving like this, she is challenging the
status quo. She is not the only one; previous generations of artists, such as Madonna, preceded
her and many will follow her by picking up where she will leave off in the future. However,
Miley is one of the premier faces of today’s generation of artists. This is not to say that her
way of thinking, or post-feminism as a school of thought, is per definition wrong, although I
have made it clear that I do not believe in what I consider the myth of feminism achieved.
Therefore I hope to have successfully challenged women to think critically about what they
see on MTV and other popular cultural outlets, and contemplate and debate with each other
whether they agree with the way women are portrayed, treated and behaving in music videos.
56
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