Gender Stereotypes In Music Videos

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The article chosen is “Why do Rhianna pop songs have to tell girls they’re ‘sl**s’?” Which is written by Dr Linda Popudupolus. The author raises key issues around how girls are portrayed within music videos and how this can impact their identities, as a result of teenage girls’ looking up to “ultra-thin and glamorous” role models (Bell, Lawtona, and Dittmar, 2007). As Papadouplus refers to, women used as ‘sexual objects’, in order for a music video to appear more appealing and attractive (Papadopoulos, 2010). As a result, causing greater risk at impacting the development of teenage girls’. For instance, according to Bell, Lawtona, and Dittmar (2007), there has been a rapid increase in body dissatisfaction amongst teenage girls’ as a result of unrealistic body ideals developed through socio-cultural standards of thinness and beauty, therefore impacting the development of teenage girls identities. Moreover, another issues raised within the article is the use of lyrics and how women are portrayed within them. For example the use of sexual terms used to describe or identify female’s participants in music videos, tend to use explicit language; that illustrates the role females play (Papadopoulos, 2010). Since the use of explicit language degrades women, it also sets a stereotype for teenage girls on how they should act or behave towards the opposite sex. It also represents the role gender plays in music, for instance, the male gender is far more likely to be more dominant in contrast to the female gender, since they are perceived as strong, masculine and powerful. This therefore gives girls the perception to be more submissive as this type of behaviour can lead teenage girls into becoming more passive, dependent because of the way th... ... middle of paper ... ... For example, teenage girls might be labelled by the media as whole yet they may also individually battle to remove the stigmas attach to them, whilst finding a place in their social capital (Barkhuus, 1999). As a result, this could impact teenage girls since the transition to adulthood is often associated with an increase in responsibility yet at the same time they are labelled in the media because of the preconception of how females should behave (Cieslik and Simpson, 2013). Overall, the identity of teenage girls can easily be influenced and constructed by the media because of the cultural and social norms created within society. That can impact the development of teenage girls, in regards to their identity that can place at risk or vulnerability, because of the content that is present within the media and the preconception it has created in regards to females.

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