When I think about women being sexualized in music media I think of artists like Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and Rhianna, Kesha, multiple hip-hop artists, and more. I think about the lyrics they put into their songs. I think about how women are portrayed and how men use them as nothing but objects and props in their music videos. I wonder if it’s their choice. Do they really personally want, or even mind being viewed in that way? Does it bother them inside? I wonder if they even feel real feelings any more or if Hollywood media has brainwashed them into feeling what they “should” feel. I wonder if they like the fame, the success, the never ending money, the constant attention. The never ending, overwhelming pressure to always look amazing, and confident, to say the right thing, with the right facial expression, at the right time, having to do so many things just to stay successful. It must be tiring. The thing I wonder most; is any of it real?



It disgusts me to watch popular music videos these days. The majority of them seem to treat women as sex objects and nothing more; objects to sell. That’s what the people behind it all want. They want to make money, they don’t care about peoples’ feelings, or how they are affecting kids of this generation, especially young girls. Being a teenage girl at this time, I look everywhere and I see ads with a woman’s breasts pushed up towards her face as far as they go, nothing covering her incredibly skinny but considered “perfect” body. I see everything. I see her stomach, legs, arms, breasts, butt, everything possible to reveal. Why is this allowed? Why has it become normal? This is what young girls, and everyone, see every day. Music stars are looked up to. This doesn’t support girls to grow up to be strong, independent, confident adults. In fact, it basically does the opposite. What the media is saying is, “if you want to be successful and accepted and beautiful, and if you want boys to like you, you have to make yourself look perfect and sexy all the time, sell your soul to men and let them do whatever they so desire to you, wear almost no clothing, have a ‘perfect’ body, and basically be a porn star. Good luck!”

That’s bull s*** in my mind. It all has a tremendous affect on young people. I see it in my everyday life subconsciously breaking down my closest friends and peers. I notice them not wanting to eat, sucking in their stomach. I notice how they act around boys they might be attracted to. They act less smart, more giggly. They might put on more makeup and care more about how they look when they go to see a special someone, even if it’s just seeing them around town, or in school, for five minutes. I know girls who take hours in the morning to try and look what they think is how they’re supposed to look or what they think is looking their best. Straighten their hair, perfect their makeup, pick out the cutest outfit for they day, shave the legs, and who knows what else. It’s sad and I wish we could all be more accepting of ourselves for who we are.

An article that the University of Missouri writes on “Sexual Objectification of Female Artists in Music Videos” states that popular pop artists have more sexualized dance in their music, and hip-hop and R&B videos are more likely to contain sexual objectification through styling and dress. A lot of the time, the camera takes an angle on a woman only showing a part of her body. Such as her hips moving, or only her breasts. Taking away the obvious fact that there is the rest of a human being attached to those hips, or those breasts. It objectifies women even more than if it were all of her being shown. At least when an entire body is shown you see that there is a face and a whole body as well as the parts being used to sell. Not that it makes it okay because it absolutely does not. Another popular angle the media likes to take is what I like to call the “undressing method.” Women take of clothing slowly with the classic “pornographic gaze” upon their face making the act of getting undressed publicly seem very sexy. That brings up one of the things that bothers me the most: the overflowing necessity to constantly need attention from men, and the willingness of women to do whatever it takes to receive that attention and approval. There is not enough diversity and conversation on it all. It’s only one thing that everyone sees and that is the problem. All we see are men as sex crazed human beings with no personality, and arrogant thugs wanting to use women for their own pleasure. We don’t see what we should be seeing men as, and as men should want to grow up to be. Which could be so many different things, but not just what they are being seen as on tv and in movies, and videos. We should not feel uncomfortable about our bodies, but we should have modesty and natural beauty and we should be able to attract each other by just being ourselves, not having to give up our soul and being to get attention. Real love, real humans, real feelings, is where is world needs to be, and we are not all there yet.

If a woman wears makeup it’s normal. If a man wears makeup, he’s strange.


Every boy for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity, there is a girl who is called unfeminine when she competes.

When a woman stands up for herself she is a b****, when a man stands up for himself he is masculine.

If we don’t transform our mainstream culture, this generation will not grow to our full potential and respect will not be a priority. We need to change.