Michael Murgo - Dreamworlds 3

The role of women and femininity in music videos is critically analyzed In Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex, and Power in Music Videos. The video explored the ideas of women draped around men, women as the depiction of the pornographic imagination, and the objectification of women. In music videos, women far outnumber men and are used as images of status and fantasy for the men in the video. They are defined by their sexuality, morphed into sexual objects and are presented as nothing else than wanting to be watched. Music videos are a “dream world” for the heterosexual male libido; women are perpetually aroused, women lament when men are not present, women softly touch themselves, women give into male aggression and never deny men, use ice cream, popsicles, and hood ornaments as phallic objects, make out with each other, and do their best to seemingly emulate pornography as much as they can without breaking FCC regulations.

I was disgusted by the video, but in a way that opened my eyes and enlightened me. I knew women were objectified in music videos, but I didn’t know exactly how bad it was considering I never regularly watched pop or rock music videos. What disgusted me the most was the idea that these videos give their male viewers a sense of entitlement of women, in addition to sending the message to girls that these are their roles in the society; women exist to serve men sexually. These videos in mainstream media normalize and perpetuate these chauvinist thoughts to the point where people merely accept that men deserve to have power over women. Women have internalized the male pornographic gaze, which makes them okay with, for example, men throwing cold cut meat at their naked bodies. Women are not mere instruments of pleasure for men, as these videos explicitly imply.

This discussion is tangential, but I couldn’t help but challenge my beliefs upon watching Dreamworlds 3. When I was watching this video, it brought back memories of a research paper I wrote last semester about feminism in pornography. I argued that because women are willingly choosing to participate in the porn, there was nothing wrong with it, even if they are willingly choosing to be degraded. Every person should have the sexual freedom to do as they please. The problem is, however, women submitting to men in porn sends the same message that these music videos send – men are entitled to do as they please to women as sexual objects. I still don’t think pornography should be illegal, but I think the main difference separating the psychological effects of pornography from that of music videos is that music videos are presented in the same stream media, whereas porn is more hidden. People are bombarded with misogynistic messages in the main stream media, and it can be difficult to choose not to expose yourself to them because they are seemingly everywhere, but with pornography, you typically need to seek these images. They are not around you at all times and available for every age group like music videos are. In this way, music videos may be even more damaging than pornography.