Week 2: Will Sing for Clothes

In an article entitled Teaching Music as Democratic Practice, Lisa C. DeLorenzo (2003) articulates her belief that educators are responsible for more than simply preparing quality lesson plans; they must also prepare their pupils to become thoughtful citizens in a democratic society. As such, she describes music not as an discrete area of knowledge, but rather as an "aesthetic deeply embedded in social political context where democracy and its moral underpinnings play a key role" (DeLorenzo, 2003). DeLorenzo uses instruments and modern music to teach students about responsibility, participation, cooperation, and social issues.

One social issue in popular music, indeed in pop culture at large, that is highly relevant to today's students is the entertainment industry's portrayal of women, and the impact these over-sexualized depictions have on women and girls. Many groups and individuals have taken on this issue, attempting to raise awareness for the inaccuracy and potential danger of the unrepresentative female images. For example, one home-made website, called The Objectification of Women in the Music Industry (n.d.), contends that through music videos and lyrics, women in the music industry are portrayed in terms of their physical and sexual power, while their deeper-than-skin characteristics, like personality or intelligence, are seldom, if ever, acknowledged. According to this concerned individual, such focus on physical features contributes to the proliferation of negative stereotypes about women. Other efforts include the Girls, Women, and Media Project, the Women's Media Center, and the International Women's Media Foundation.

Scientifically speaking, such interest in media portrayals of women is not for nothing. Research suggests that the exaggerated beauty of high-profile women may result in feelings of inadequacy, as viewers are bombarded with images that communicate an unrealistic standard of physical attractiveness (Media Awareness Network, 2009; Want, 2009). The Media Awareness Network (2009) found physical characteristics (i.e., age, height and weight) of many actresses to be unrepresentative of those of the average woman, offering the financial profit associated with a nation of women striving for a virtually unattainable body type as a possible explanation. Similarly, Fouts and Burggraf (1999) reported a disparity between central female characters of situational comedies and average American women; over a quarter (33%) of central female characters were underweight and 79 percent were under the age of 35 (Fouts & Burggraf, 1999). The visual and editorial content of magazines send a similar message. According to Malkin, Wornian and Chrisler (1999), women are affected before they even open the cover. In a survey of 21 popular women’s magazines they estimated that more than 78 percent of the covers displayed at least one message about physical attractiveness, and used strategic placement that seemed to associate weight loss with an enhanced quality of life (Malkin et al., 1999).

That female pop stars are no exception to this trend is a fact that seems to have been noticed by, and perhaps even sparked the conscious of, several prominent singers. Since the 1990s, a theme of female-empowerment has rippled across several groups and solo artists in the pop genre. Yet, even these would-be examples of female empowerment in pop music cannot be said to be themselves innocent of broadcasting an overly-sexualized, highly made-up image and maintaining an underweight body type. 

In 2002 Christina Aguilera released a solo track entitled Beautiful. The chart-topping song, which spoke of the resilience of beauty in the face of social scorn, was met with raving views from music critics and the LBGTQ community, and ultimately won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The lyrics are, to say the least, inspiring: "You are beautiful/ no matter what they say/ words can't bring you down." However, Aguilera's performance in the music video evidenced a lack of sincere belief in these words. While Aguilera did, admittedly, appear more clothed in the video than is her custom, she far from resembled a real, natural woman. Instead, she lounged attractively on an old armchair, wearing layers of makeup and a sexy, tousled, artificially colored hair style. In her other work, this hyper-sexualized image is even more defined.


Social comparison theory has become a popular framework for evaluating the relationship between media exposure and body image. The theory states that individuals evaluate their own attributes by comparing them to the attributes of other people and images. People are most likely to gage in social comparisons with people who are similar enough to themselves that they would consider comparison would be relevant and informative (Dalley et al., 2009). Regardless of Aguilera's good intentions, it's difficult to say whether such words of encouragement are especially meaningful or helpful when hearing them will involve exposing girls to a pop icon who allows herself to be photographed undressed. Instead, Aguilera's words may falsely signal to girls that its safe to lower the guard of whatever media intelligence they have acquired and engage in a social comparison with this stunning beauty.

References

Dalley, S. E., Buunk, A. P., & Umit, T. (2009). Female body dissatisfaction after exposure to overweight and thing media images: The role of body mass index and neuroticism . Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 47-51. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.044

DeLorenzo, L. C. (2003). Teaching Music As Democratic Practice. Music Educators Journal, 90(2), 35. Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Fouts, G., & Burggraf, K. (1999, April). Television situation comedies: Female body images and verbal reinforcements. Sex Roles, 40, 473-481. doi:10.1023/A:1018875711082

Malkin, A. R., Wornian, K., & Chrisler, J. C. (1999, April). Women and weight: Gendered messages on magazine covers. Sex roles, 40, 647-655. doi:10.1023/A:1018848332464

Media Awareness Network. (2010). Beauty and body image in the media. In Media stereotyping. Retrieved from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/ women_beauty.cfm

The Objectification of Women in the Music Industry. (n.d.). Educate yourself about the music industry's portrayal of women as sex objects. Retrieved from http://objectificationofwomeninthemusicindustry.yolasite.com/

Christina Agulera- Beautiful