Introduction
Sexualization and objectification of women in the mass media has been a common practice by majority of the media outlets in the Western world. This practice has been fueled by the perception that sex sells. Sexualizing images have therefore become prevalent in corporate advertising and popular media. A significant industry that has capitalized on sexualization and objectification of women is the music industry.
The phenomenon has spilled over to the print advertisement where young female musicians have their images displayed. A report by the American Psychological Association (2007) asserts that the sexualization and objectification of girls through mass media has broad and far-reaching harmful effects on women. This paper will discuss the effects of sexualization and objectification of young female musicians by the print media.
It will begin by highlighting the influence that young musicians have on the society to underscore the impact of their sexualization. The paper will then expound on the numerous negative effects of this objectification by the print media.
Young Female Musicians and Society
Young female musicians have significant influence on American youth of all ethnic and racial heritages. Artists especially in the hip-hop genre have influenced the youth who make up the bulk of this genre’s audience and customer base. Studies reveal that popular culture in general and hip-hop culture in particular heavily influences teenagers and informs how they make sense of their lives and the world in general (Emerson, 2002).
The society is therefore likely to view the female musicians as role models, and copy some aspects of their lives including fashion. For their part, young female performers are required to live up to the prevalent notions of physical attractiveness and measure up to the rigid standards of beauty; a fact made clear by the lack of variety in body size and weight by the many female music stars currently enjoying widespread success.
The musicians who try to define themselves differently often face opposition and their commercial success may be hampered. This is in line with findings by Gordon (2008) which declare that young female artists who refuse to be defined by their sexuality and try to project a positive sense of self often risk alienation and marketing invisibility.
Negative Effects of Objectification/Sexualization
The objectification of young female musicians in advertisements has led to higher levels of body dissatisfaction and lower self-esteem and body esteem by women in the general public. Lavin and Cash (2000) suggest that this objectification of female musicians negatively influences how women feel about their bodies. Objectification of female musicians leads to self-objectification by women in the general population.
Calogero (2004) declares, “All women who live in a culture where the female body is treated as an object to be evaluated and measured are at risk of self-objectification (p.20). Women have come to expect that their bodies are constantly on display, and this anticipation of being the object of an observer’s gaze trigger the negative consequences associated with self-objectification.
This self-objectification is developed as an adaptive strategy by women who anticipate being focused upon by men and judged based on their appearances. Women therefore grow to be over conscious of their physical appearance even when no one is looking at them. Research by Calogero (2004) states that when women are conditioned to anticipate a male gaze, they experience greater body shame and social physique anxiety.
This causes negative emotional experiences that are detrimental to the mental health of the women. Sexualization of young musicians in print ads helps perpetuate the stereotypes of women. Sexualization of young musicians in the print media distorts the ideologies of women’s sexuality by reinforcing the stereotype of women as sex objects.
Aubrey, Hopper and Mbure (2011) argue that the images portrayed are often constructed around the “pornographic imagination” in which women are simply sex symbols existing primarily for the pleasure of male spectators. This is especially the case with Black women representations that exacerbate the exploitation of the African American woman’s body.
Research by Emerson (2002) demonstrates that video and print appearances of African American music stars emphasized on black women’s bodies. Black women are often presented as hypersexual, promiscuous and of low moral standings. Young female musicians are used to portray the idealized body shape that is tubular and thin.
In the context of the print advertisements, these famous girls are used to promote the idea that the ideal body shape is tubular and thin and that achieving it is relatively easy. Monro (2005) demonstrates that in most of these advertisements, the images portrayed have been heavily edited and refined with computer software.
This leads to significant body dissatisfaction especially among adolescent girls who read magazines that contain these advertizing images. Studies demonstrate that after viewing magazine where thin ideal media images were portrayed, the subjects experienced greater body dissatisfaction (Monro, 2005; Cattarin, et al., 2000).
The media has significant effect on the attitudes and beliefs of its audience. The Cultivation theory suggests that regular media exposure will result in an adoption of beliefs and attitudes similar to the messages conveyed in the media (Gordon, 2008). Regular exposure to the sexualized and objectified young musicians in print ads will therefore lead to the gradual adoption of the values that such messages convey.
Teenagers and youth are particularly prone to these media influence due to their significantly high levels of media material consumption. Sexualization has also served to inform women on what it takes to be successful (Labennett, 2011). The female musicians represented in advertisements are often beautiful and they are judged and evaluated primarily based on their looks.
Gordon (2008) states that such a portrayal leads women to hold the view that physical beauty is an important asset both for attracting partners and for being successful in life. Sexual images are not only dangerous to the youth but also to children aged between six and eleven. Sexualization of young female musicians in print media is hazardous to young children.
Egan and Hawkes (2008) demonstrate that when these children are exposed to the images of their pop stars, they become unduly concerned with activities such as applying makeup and imitating the dressing of their favorite musicians. Such preoccupations distract the children from the developmentally appropriate activities that they would otherwise be engaging in at their age.
Children are pressured to adopt a certain look that is deemed desirable. Through the images of the young female musicians, they are encouraged to develop anorexic tendencies therefore creating body images issues in young girls. Hobbs (2011) notes that young girls evaluate their bodies within the context of their culture, which is mostly informed by the young musicians.
The negative effects of sexualization are not only limited to girls as young boys are also introduced to habits such as “checking out a girl” and they learn to view women as objects of pleasure at an early age. Objectification and sexualization plays an important role in facilitate acts of violence against women.
This is because when a person has been objectified, their perceived moral status is reduced and this precipitates less moral treatment of the objectified other. Loughnan et al. (2010) suggest that objectification contributes to the perpetration of violence since when a person is objectified, they are depersonalized and it is easier to treat them in a depraved manner.
Sexual objectification by young musicians also creates a distorted view of female sexuality and encourages interpersonal violence in sexual relationships. When female musicians engage in the sexual objectification of their bodies through the print ads, they create a negative perception among men. Aubrey, Hopper and Mbure (2011) suggest that an adversarial sexual belief is developed by young men who perceive that women use their bodies and sexuality to manipulate men.
Such a mentality increases the rates of sexual harassment that women in society experience since sexually aggression related attitudes are fostered. A study by Burgess and Burpo (2012) revealed that viewing highly sexualized portrayals of female artists by college males led to a higher acceptability of date rapes.
An even more troubling result of the sexualization of young musicians is that it promotes pedophilia. Some of the musicians who are sexualized and objectified through print ads are in their teenage years. Their images perpetuate the “grooming of children for pedophiles” (Egan & Hawkes, 2008, p.307).
In essence, sexualized images of young musicians send a message to the public that children are sexually available and this might have dire consequences. The advertisements, which contain sexualized youngsters, also promote the early development of sexually expressive behavior among children. Rush and Andrea (2006) state that sexually expressive behaviors such as provocative dancing and flirting is normalized through the advertisement.
In some cases, the images promote engaging in premature sexual activity since sexual relationships are made to appear commonplace. The objectification of female musicians encourages the viewing of women as objects of appetite. A common phenomenon in the images of young musicians is that they are pictured with little clothing on.
Their sole purpose appears to be coming across as sexually desirable in order to attract male attention (Cattarin, et al., 2000). Because of this reduction to the status of sex objects, the women are reduced to being body parts instead of individuals who have thoughts, desires, and feelings of their own. Loughnan et al. (2010) states that objectified people are denied humanity and they become merely need-satisfying objects.
Such advertisements therefore encourage society to view women as non-human entities. Objectification leads to an increased focus on appearance and encourages people to scrutinize the acceptability of the body’s shape and size. This is why most of the men who are exposed to the objectified images of young female musicians will ogle at women as though they were not individuals who have mental states and moral status.
Arguments Favoring Sexualization
Some scholars argue that sexualization and objectification of young female musicians contributes to the empowerment of women and helps them gain confidence and assertiveness. Vanwesenbeeck (2009) specifically states that sexualization and objectification can be “self-controlled, intrinsically positive, and empowering” (p.269).
The author further argues that the objectified images in print ads that radiate sexiness also reveal strength and they have therefore empowered girl’s sexuality. The images also affirm the sexual power that women possess. While all this positive attributes of sexualization and objectification do exist, this sexual optimism is misleading. The positive outcomes to women and the society from objectification and sexualization pale in comparison to the numerous negative impacts that this paper has articulated.
The sexualization of young female artists in print ads damages their credibility as serious performers. In spite of the talent that these artists might perform, they are reduced to being first and foremost objects of male desire. Emerson (2002) reveals that because the role of the female musicians is primarily sexual, they cannot be taken too seriously and their legitimacy as instruments of change through their music is diminished.
Vanwesenbeeck (2009) argues that the sexualization of female musicians is not necessarily a negative thing since it has empowered the woman and put sexuality on the public agenda. In the past, the topic of sexuality and especially women’s sexual power was kept outside the public sphere. Because of these images, sexuality is on the agenda of young people at a historically unprecedented level.
Unquestionably, the sexualization and objectification of young musicians in print ads has brought the topic of sexuality to the public sphere and people today talk about sex more openly than they did in the past. However, this is hardly a positive thing since the overexposure to sex has led to a normalization of sexual perversity in modern society.
Discussion and Conclusion
This paper has demonstrated that objectification is hugely detrimental to the wellbeing of women in our society. This outcome is in line with the objectification theory, which states that “the implicit and explicit sexual objectification of the female body in Western culture produces a multitude of negative consequences for women” (Calogero, 2004, p.16).
Admittedly, not all women are affected by the idealized image presented through print advertisements to the same degree. While, those who suffer from a low self-esteem or have their attention focused on appearance are likely to be more vulnerable to the adverse effects that these images cause, most women will suffer from the impacts of these practices.
The value of women in the society will also be downgraded due to these habits. Gordon (2008) declares that this objectification and sexualization sends a single message to society: that a woman’s’ worth lies in “her physical appearance and sexual appeal (p.246). This paper has addressed the issue of sexualization and objectification of young female musicians.
It has shown how this phenomenon reduces women to decorative eye candy who lack sexual diversity and are not allowed to be artists in their own rights. The paper has demonstrated that objectification causes mental health issues for women, distorts the value of women in society, promotes pedophilia, and exposes them to sexual violence. It is therefore integral for a solution to this issue to be arrived at.
Admittedly, Dealing with this problem is going to be hard since major corporations, media organizations, and the society have been accustomed to the notion that “sex sells”. To make matters worse, female artists are likely to objectify themselves without even being compelled to in order to increase their public visibility.
However, considering the numerous negative outcomes of sexualization and objectification of young female musicians have, taking steps to mitigate this behavior is a vital objective that must be achieved in spite of the resistance.
References
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