Being a suckling young media consumer, I can flick through DStv channels with all the dexterity and fervour of a dog digging a hole. Recently, I’ve been trying to reconnect with my generation, because being a jazz- and folk-loving bookworm at twentysomething is “so not on”, but I am simultaneously incensed and jaded by the images on the station for the generation — MTV.
I am told to relax because it’s all in the name of fun. Nobody would take a song like will.i.am’s I Got It from My Momma seriously.
The song asks the pertinent and penetrating question: “Baby where’d you get your body from?” — a novel interrogation, to be sure. Does she work out? Does she starve herself? We men often think of women’s bodies but have we ever bothered to look at what’s behind the body?
In the video the girls do not have faces — they have huge sunglasses. The artist (a generous term I know) is the only boy on set and the camera does not twist around the inside of his thigh or pan across his chest. In one scene he is encircled by female forms, mirror images of the same woman, duplicated and spun around him. We have very simply a body, broken into its component parts by the selective camera … and made replaceable.
Watching MTV is surreal as it is; between videos we watch two-headed creatures burp out the MTV logo. Then comes this onslaught of flashing lights and female body parts. This video is but one that objectifies women. As social theorist Sut Jhally points out, music videos reflect a “dreamworld” of male fantasy, in which women are demure, submissive and endlessly sexually available — merely “things” to be manipulated according to the male will.
Probably the most offensive video in this regard is She Wants It by 50 Cent, Timberland and Justin Timberlake. Or was that Timberlake and Justin Timberland? Anyway, it was some endeavour in forestry. Of course, we all know what “it” is. (Hint: it’s not a walk in the park or a candlelit dinner.)
In this fantasy the women are completely subject to the rapper’s will as he manipulates them remotely through a digital screen, sending the women into spasms of sexual delight at the touch of a button (dream on, gents). The women are all being spied on through night-vision equipment, giving us that same wonderful green-lit effect we saw in Paris Hilton’s amateur sex footage, underscoring their unwitting participation.
And yet they scorn these women that they have created in their fantasies: “She always ready, when you want it she want it, Like a nympho, the info, I show you where to meet her … if you want a good time, she gone give you what you want” croon JT and Fiddy. This charming line is followed by “When she ready to ride, I’m ready to roll, I’ll be in this bitch till the club close …”
And then we have Timbaland repeatedly saying: “Your hips, your thighs, you got me hypnotised” — essentially the woman is the sum of her component parts.
Of course, women are not exempt from falling into this trap and assigning themselves the “nympho” role. As Nicole Scherzinger, Vegas showgirl-turned-pop-queen, demonstrates with her Whatever U Like video. Here we have Scherzinger captured by a group of men and confined to a small box with only enough room for her to crouch in.
There are no bars on the open end of the box; instead Scherzinger seems held in place by the camera fixated on her. She looks hungrily at the camera, and who could blame the poor woman, looking as malnourished as she does? We watch her squirm and contort inside the box, supposedly dancing, while repeating the line “I do what I think you like”. Though I don’t know what we were expecting from the woman who led a group called the Pussycat Dolls.
The objectification of women is so naturalised it is ingrained in the minds of men the world over. And I include myself in that. As many naturalised sexist assumptions I might manage to sidestep, observe and criticise, there are surely several more I still walk into without knowing it.
It is only when the paradigm is turned on its head that we notice it. When I was in high school, Pink released a song called Most Girls which still — and nine years later this is really saying something — stands out. I remember seeing her surrounded by shirtless men and remaining in charge of the situation (though the men were not nearly as sexualised as women still are) and finding it odd. Jill Scott and Lupe Fiasco in the song Daydreamin take the mickey out of current video archetypes: “We need a few more half-naked women up in the pool … and can you please put your titties closer to the 22s? And where’s the champagne? We need champagne.”
Here we see it, but what of the multitudes of misogynist messages out there? In South Africa we boast the highest instance of rape in the world and we see men stripping and demeaning women based on what they deem to be appropriate dress. Surely the attitude behind this behaviour will not evaporate as long as women are so naturally painted as manipulated bodies, and nothing more.
Well done, brilliant article.. Ive gotten so used to seeing women portrayed like that – i dont even remember to take offence at times.. Thanks for opening or eyes
I read this article in last week’s M&G and thought, “spot on!”. It’s so refreshing to hear a man express such views.
Another point to consider – modern music videos are so generic boring! Scantily-clad vacuous-looking women bumping and grinding against (usually) unattractive men (almost always in a club or around a pool). You just know that kind of woman would never have anything to do with that kind of man if he didn’t have money and lots of it. Or else, the barely clothed female singer writhing around in simulated ecstacy, usually with a bunch of look-alike wannabes and possibly a token half-naked male model.
Boring, boring, boring. Whatever happened to creativity in music videos?
Brilliant insight, Warren. It amazes me often how much we accept (buy into?) without thinking…
I agree, Warren. Of course I do. And now I, along with the previous three female commenters, think you are sensitive and intelligent,and that you spend your weekends being bookish and innocuous with a golden labrador.
About the Pink point: Attempts to invert this dynamic and objectify or maybe just ‘eroticise’, the male body do have some strange manifestations. Pink, my favourite pop-punk dominatrix, may simply be playing into a alternative heterosexual male fantasy.
I haven’t quite encountered a pop culture equivalent of something interesting I’ve – or rather Germaine Greer – noticed in historical and recent art. Male nudes are frequently represented as feminised, softened, languid, given almost-breasts. Youssef Nabil’s exhibition at Art Extra is an interesting contemporary instance of this, except Nabil’s nudes are mostly pretty hairy. This (not the hairiness)seems to recapitulate the aesthetic codes associated with the canonical erotic female nude. Even in art this whole thing seems quite binding.
I wonder why the image of the feminised erotic male doesn’t have much currency in popular culture (or does it?)? Is it that people are still too busy looking at naked women? Is it that people are too damn homophobic? Or is it just that I don’t watch enough TV?
wow, what a piece!
but aren’t men at the same time also being manipulated by falling into the trap of thinking that women are unaware of their sexualized status and not using it to get ahead?
Very well written article and I agree 100% with what is being said. Just to add to this thought I find that a large part of the problem also lies in the fact that today, in the music & entertainment world, artists require a gimic to sell their music. It is no longer about how talented the person is, but more about how they are able to sell themselves to the audience and well lets face it sex sells.
If you have a look at music back when our parents were in their 20′s all a musician needed was a mike and an instrument and they could send the crowd wild without having to pull a single stunt. Today you need to take off your cloths and parade around naked to get noticed.
I am 20 something and find that I too can not listen to anything they play on the airwaves, which has rendered me to buying old school tunes to play when I want to listen to music. Today it’s all about making the next big hit song, it’s no longer about creating something that is artistically worth listening too.
@ Thuli
Well said. Very well said indeed.
Just when I was giving up hope that there were males who do think further than their d*@ks I read this article. Well done. Beside the sexual objectification of women, MTV also demonstrates the racial objectivisation of women. One rarely sees “ethnic” looking black women or Indian or Asian women in these videos – no, they are generally white, or light skinned black women with (usually long) silky hair. It tells me that black women aren’t good enough to be desired and that white and light-skinned women are merely perceived a sexual trophies. Either way it is disgustingly discriminatory and the sheer volume of the images is mind boggling. The scary part is that MTV is not Playboy or Penthouse; it is not a dedicated “sex” channel. It is a mainstream TV channel for kids and young adults. It is a purveyor of American values and culture and it reflects a lifestyle that is completely unreal – even for the overwhelming majority of the American population. (The Sweet Sixteen programme is a case in point.) Our kids watch it, emulate it, and want it all.
Warren…you are so right. My (older) aunt (she does not want to be called old) …onece asked why is that women feel they should sell their bodies as sex objects/symbols. We were watching the Rihanna”umbrella video”
I think the qualinty of music has deterrioated bcoz people behind music videos spent time focused on the latest steamy scenes that messages.
I sit as a 20something in my mother’s lounge with her and her friends from church and pray that no music video pops up while we are watching and spoil the sunday lunch. Raise questions on self-respect and how lost the youth is….
Excellent!! These sick videos called music are bringing in millions for the music Industry. Our youth are emulating these rappers so much so that they become there role models. Respect for women are lost or are non-existent because this is the way it is done by there heroes. How sad.
Will.I.aM is a real artist you twat!
There’s another album selling ploy that I find just as disturbing. It’s the “I dress like a hooker and dance like a stripper but I’m really a virgin so buy my record” pitch. Remember Britney Spears in her heyday?
ugh…
You certainly have a luxurious life to be surfing DSTV channels and fretting lyrical about poor women earning gagazillions for a 40sec appearance with all of the pressing issues facing our country and the planet at large.
Although sentiments such as these are guaranteed to secure that coffee date with indie chick with the hastily self cut fringe they do little to draw attention to issues more deserving of focus.
Got an opinion on Beijing? …DRC? …Kenya? …Zim?
Just a thought…
Warren, this was worth the read! All true, but maybe it’s time women start taking responsibility and stop appearing in those videos and stop presenting themselves as sex objects. None of them were forced to do partake in that. If someone approached me to get involved with something illegal and immoral and I accept, I can’t blame them if it ends up a disaster. There will always be exploiters of people. It’s up to people to resist and take a stand… in this case, women need to stop being part of media that puts them in a bad light. It’s irresponsible and ultimately immoral.
Too true.
I Watched a program once (probably Oprah) on the exploitation of the dancers they use in these videos. Apparently, if what was said there was true, the dancers are assumed to be fully available to the “artists”, and not just for dancing.
And the lyrics of these songs are truly appalling.
But now that I think about it….ugly men pulling ridiculous dance moves and singing songs with dubious lyrics whilst surrounding themselves with women….this sounds familiar.
I wonder if they shower afterwards….
@Solo, the nature of exploitation is such that the people being exploited do not have the power to put up the resistance that would stop the exploitation.
These are women who have chosen to be professional dancers. DANCERS, not prostitutes. This is how they make their living. The only difference between them and ballet dancers is the genre of dance. Just because they dance, just because they use their bodies, why must they be viewed as nothing more than a body? Male dancers who do exactly the same thing – dance – are not similarly objectified.
Yes, women must try to be strong and stand up to people that belittle and objectify them. But how dare you suggest that they must accept responsibility for the reprehensible behaviour of the people signing their paycheques. That is exactly the same as saying that women who wear mini-skirts are encouraging rape.
@MW
That’s right, only Politics with a capital P is worth writing about.
It’s people like you, who can’t see the value in talking about stuff on DSTV, that are partly to blame for the perpetuation of popular gender discrimination.
Good discussion.
Another way to look at this is to fully acknowledge the benefits (not positives) which raunchy music videos present to consumers and producers alike.
We can all name one or more. When you think about what that is all about, you realise that these things, like all destructive vices present their users with some relief (albeit small). And in that context, it will be hard (if not impossible to remove them altogether, without dealing with the consequences of repressed desire.
Some Islamic societies present examples of how repressed desires among people can lead to other unwanted expressions: open female oppression, mysogynism and so on.
Thank you Warren. You give me hope for the male species!
Hi Sugarbabes – those are not Islamic societies but Muslim countries with subscribing to traditional cultures; in many cases, such traditions eg: the veil pre-dates Islam. As you know, in the Sahara, North Africa etc many of the men wear veils re: traveling through the desert, nomadic lifestyles, as status etc
Its not just the women and of course, its not linked to Islam except by virtue of the fact that Muslims inhabit these lands, incorporating already present traditions into their societal structures.
MW – the DRC right now is highly militarised, even though fingerprinting of mineral resources will begin from next month the Rwandan etc soldiers still have a formidable presence and apparently require the DRC women to service their needs – so they are forced into prostitution by soldiers who spend their days watching enslaved civilians mine for ore, and of course, watching TV. A favorite, i’m told, are guys like 50c, he’s big in the DRC. Especially his music videos. The Candy Shop song for eg: refers to brothels, most of these women are internally or externally trafficked.
Many women in first world countries perceive the skin business to lucrative, whether modeling or porn…they see it as a career….but the visual effects of whoring women who choose to be there has a very adverse effect on those who don’t live in first world countries and have no option. Its an important issue…first world feminism and third world feminism…etc etc
@MW: This is exactly the problem that feminism has faced since its inception – but particularly in the current context. Issues such as these are seen as petty, wo/men throwing their toys about inconsequential nonsense when there are ‘real’ problems in the world.
Why is it that you think in such mutually exclusive terms? Why can Warren not write about gender issues without it being seen as detracting from other important issues? What is the threat of raising these critically important questions about the way women are portrayed that is so problematic that it somehow must be completely silenced in order for us to deal with the DRC, Kenya or Zim?
That you cannot see the importance of warren’s post is exactly the reason why it must be written, read, stated, shouted from the rooftops…everyday, every second of everyday. These things *do* matter; they *do* affect women’s lives, in very real ways; they *must* be interroagted.
@Warren – Thank you. You are truly amazing.
@ Janet
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Coincidentally I made the same point to the reader LordFoom in the thread ‘Let’s put our breasts together’. He also railed about the ‘trivial’ nature of the discussion.
At the risk of making even more friends on this page I’d like to respond to Janet’s comment:
“What is the threat of raising these critically important questions about the way women are portrayed that is so problematic that it somehow must be completely silenced in order for us to deal with the DRC, Kenya or Zim?”
The fact that human *lives* are at stake and being lost, besides – as already pointed out: the abuse of women runs firs in DRC and Kenya amongst other places so we can see that the ‘larger’ issues sort of overlap the smaller ones in any case.
I’m not poo-pooing feminism but I am saying that the time for bleating about exploitative music videos and burning bras is over or at least that in the light of far more worrying times, its in poor taste.
Women can empower themselves by taking on the bigger issues and showing through example both their equalities and the spheres in which they excel.
I personally know many women who do this daily, my mother is one of them.
Quit playing the victim already, if anything – its your weakest attribute.
@ MW
It may surprise you to know that women are quite capable of thinking for themselves. We do not need you to tell us what is or isn’t important.
This thread deals with the way women are portrayed in the media therefore the responses are in the same vein. Or are we only ever allowed to discuss topics which you deem worthy of attention? Maybe we should also walk four paces behind you and only speak when spoken to.
MW, respectfully sir/madam, i fear you are still missing the point. Which, ironically, is what my article was about, people missing the relevance of such things. My focus was on music videos, my broader argument was against ideologies unseen by those who perpetuate it “Here [in music videos] we see it but what of the multitudes of misogynist messages out there?” Did you get as far as the conclusion?
I don’t belittle the gravity of human rights violations the world over in writing my post, I’m not sure how you managed to convince yourself that I have. (Moreover, what is your ‘beef’ with me in particular? I’m not the only person on TL who fails to write on your “bigger issues”. Did I offend you personally with this post? Could you be Justin Timberland himself?)
I feel I pointed to a very relevant and distressing social issue, even if you think it is not one that concerns you. I happen to think it concerns everyone in our society. Maybe not the music videos per se but certainly the idea of invisible misogyny.
I certainly don’t detract from the feminist cause. Your critique of feminism is, quite frankly, dire. When I speak to the subtleties of misogyny, I speak of something flying under the radar. The things we don’t think twice about. Women can, have and will continue to, tackle the bigger issues you speak of. That doesn’t mean there are forms of discrimination still going undetected. And, as Janet said, we *have to* point them out.
It is strange (and sad) that lately everyone is so attuned to the social relevance of Fanon – that whiteness is an invisible ideology, that the idea of black is derived in contrast to white, that this results in waves of discrimination which go unseen by the dominant ideology – yet when you apply Fanon to feminism, it is deemed irrelevant.
Women, blacks and homosexuals should have more empathy toward one another, having battled so long and continuing to battle so hard, against the dominant ideologies of whiteness, heterosexuality, patriarchy and (if I dare add a fourth) christianity.
And the point the ever bold and beautiful Khadija Sharife was making, MW, was that women abuses are tracked back to patriarchal ideologies going unnoticed – the point I was making.
And @ Khadija, thanks for bringing that up. Another aspect to this article, which I didn’t have space for in the paper, is the issue of local readings of global media. Music videos need to be seen for what they are the world over but the misogynist attitudes displayed in them could be particularly dangerous in South Africa.
MW – the largest issue re: women (and men) relevant in the world today was addressed in his piece…re: the externalized, commodified nature of the commercial marketplace – and the aberrant narratives through which women are viewed…..as things to be had, used, enjoyed, bought…some women manipulate the situation, but this rarely if ever happens in countries that r comprised of poorer majorities…and they are ones who devour material culture as a mean of measuring the status…both men and women lose out when the female is seen and valued only as a hot piece of flesh…will.i.am’s stupid video illustrates the same thing you oppose but consider irrelevant because the presentation was already made acceptable to you by constant looping and infiltration in mass culture… the video was shot in Brazil, one of the tenth largest economies of earth, also one of the worlds most economically disparate countries..24% of rio pe-pol live in slums along the coast…will.i.am shot the video, so I heard, using ‘real’ brazilian women…their economic situation is so bad, that even if you told them they were to be thingified/reified, it wouldn’t matter…poverty creates desperation and the media culture schools young boys in gender materialism – how to buy women – this can only happen if they are dehumanized or seen as less human; global media perpetuates this crap all over the world, when it filters down it cultivates a society like ours, where rape and abuse become an epidemic – there are more trafficked women as sex workers than ever before…(13 million official estimates).. and its been documented that there is a direct link between soft porn/hard porn culture and the rise of sex tourism, to countries such as Kenya where sex can be bought cheaply with no consequences…women are used to sell goods, music, movies, cars and chocolate, women-as-whores are so deeply embedded in our media culture dat it normalizes the situation …. The power of media propaganda is so potent, via what is and isn’t mentioned, that everything becomes acceptable after a while..little excuse for most women who star in such videos, but the architects behind it are usually men (71% of female mags in US are owned by men) …that crap is lapped up by young dudes who procreate and then dump their kids – in the US, where such media culture is rampant, there exists the largest proportion of broken families on earth (excluding conflict nations)..the piece brings to attention and highlights the distinction between what people would consider subversive but what he has articulated is actually legitimate mainstream media culture….subjugation of women isn’t an irrational act against gender but a deliberate act that helps maintain male dominant status quo – that determines how women are perceived and treated…few men will actually admit that….awareness, is what helps people empower themselves so its sad that you have failed to distinguish what the monolithic ‘DRC/Kenya situation is really about – expropriation and exploitation of life, via transgressions of human and environmental rights. Point of view really does define a thing, rationalize atrocities…
Warren my special creature, isn’t Justin of the Timberlake tribe and timberland that dude who gargles in the OneRepublic music video? if MW is justin timberlake – may i request the cute curly hair to come back? no reason he should have a record contract without it.
Speaking of the way women are portrayed in the media, has anyone been on to yworld.co.za and seen the publicity pics for their new crop of young DJ’s? There in all its glory, is a pic of 4 young (early 20′s) female jocks, standing in nothing but their boy briefs and hands over their naked breasts!! All the male jocks are fully clothed, not a boxer in sight!
What does this say? As a woman on radio, who should be judged by the content & intelligence of what you say (like the men), you instead are asked by your management to pose naked for your publicity pics.
I hope these girls are stupid & naive. There can be no other excuse for them to agree to pose like that.
eh. to the two (no doubt bearded) people who emailed me – ‘my special creature’ is just a term of affection. if you are as familiar with my ‘lewd’ and ‘slutty’ comments as you say you are, you will also note that i call the lovable Ndumiso Ngcobo the precious one, or the precioussss and other variations; again a term of affection;)
Although I liked the phrase virtual whore (nice one) i don’t believe that I qualify just yet. please give me a few more years to work on the act;)