Even though I was not in class on Friday to watch this movie due to my squash tournament, I did look it up on the Internet and did some research on it. As soon as I watched one of the segments of the video on YouTube, I realized that I had watched this in Race Gender in the Mass Media last spring with Professor Harris. It didn't take long for me to feel sick about how awful the portrayal of femininity is in music videos. What I found most interesting is how it is seen across the board in different genres of music -pop, rock, hip-hop, and country music videos. However, it made me start to think how the images of femininity varied. From my experience, in pop music videos, females are "cute" and try to portray an image of an innocent girl who turns into a sexualized character behind the scenes. In rock music videos, the females are groupies, girls who follow around the band, and idolize the artist as the ultimate male. In hip-hop music videos, females are there purely for sex and to show off their body. And finally, in country music videos, the females are part of a sad love story that are hurt by men, but always will go back to the man. It's crazy to think that even if the lyrics of the song in the background of the music video doesn't have anything to do with females at first glance, it is somehow tied into the video. But, what I keep thinking about is the popularity of the music videos now. I know when I was a teenager, I did watch music videos because they were on Total Request Live on MTV (a countdown of the top ten music videos of the day). However, I couldn't tell you the last time I intently watched a music video. My question then becomes, what would be the equivalent to a music video for us now?
Another element that stood out for me was the prevalence of sexual harassment in every day life. In one of the segments of the film, there was a clip from the documentary titled "War Zone". It reminded me of working in New York City. Whenever I walked from the subway station to work, I would pass a group of construction workers. Every single day, they would make some type of comment along the lines of "Wow, look, it's Miss. America" or "Damn! How old is your mother". While these comments are typically regarded as offensive and rude, I literally would walk right past them and not even think twice about it. While in a way this is a good thing, it also is awful because I am recognizing how normal and expected it is, which speaks to the greater society.
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