June 4, 2015|page 15
THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Centerfold
‘I Know You Want It’ The sexualization of women in music and media|by Mona Baloch
Public Domain
Anaconda
God Made Girls
Blurred Lines
“My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun … He said he don’t like ‘em boney, he want something he can grab”
“Somebody’s gotta wear a pretty skirt Somebody’s gotta be the one to flirt Somebody’s gotta wanna hold his hand, so God made girls”
“I know you want it But you’re a good girl The way you grab me Must wanna get nasty”
Nicki Minaj is not known for having a good-girl reputation. After her song “Anaconda” was released in 2014, Minaj faced heavy criticism for both the song’s controversal lyrics and the overt sexuality of the music video. A “Today” show host said that Minaj’s song and video were inappropriate, especially given the pop star’s status as a role model for children and teenagers. Minaj said she believed she accomplished her goals with the song. “I wanted to create a song that embraced curvy women. I wanted to be sexual, but be playful with it,” she said in an interview with Complex Magazine. In response to the debate surrounding the song, Minaj posted pictures on Instagram of models wearing bikinis, captioning each of the pictures with “acceptable.”
RaeLynn, a former contestant on The Voice, debuted this country single in 2014. According to RaeLynn, the song was written to empower young girls. “There’s just something so special about ‘God Made Girls.’ It comes from a girl’s perspective, and there’s nothing like that on the radio right now,” she said in an interview with Taste of Country. Yet following its release, others said they believed the song’s message is a sexist portrayal of women. “‘God Made Girls’ is a sexist song, even though it’s performed and penned by a woman,” Grady Smith wrote in The Guardian. He suggested that the song went beyond prejudice against women. “Underlying most of the song’s insipid lines there exists a pretty unsavory assumption about men, too.”
After its 2013 release, “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I. was an enormous Billboard success. The lyrics and music video of the pop song, however, immediately ignited controversy. Online bloggers and news sites like The Huffington Post wrote that the song promotes rape culture and misogyny. The unrated music video, which features Thicke, Williams and T.I. singing alongside topless female models, was banned from YouTube. In an interview, Thicke said that the song was intended as a joke and was not meant to cause controversy. “For us, we were just trying to make a funny song and sometimes the lyrics can get misconstrued when you’re just trying to put people on the dance floor and have a good time,” he told the “Today” show.
Nicki Minaj
RaeLynn
Robin Thicke
Women in Hollywood 3x 4x 5x more likely than men to appear partially naked on screen
more likely than men to wear sexualized clothing on screen
more likely than men to receive appearance based comments
Sources of information: Women’s Media Center, United Nations