Found this...somewhere. Oooops. I'd been hearing about it for a while, so was excited that it could be previewed for free. That said, it really lays out everything that I've begun to feel about music videos and hip hop culture.
+ I never realized how pervasive these images are in videos. I guess, because I came of age watching them, that I just thought it was normal. I realize now that there aren't many music videos that I can think of that don't have unrealistic sexual images of women.
+ I think its ridiculous how so many female artists have become the video "hos" in their own videos. It's like they don't realize who buys their records. The straight male viewers who they're shaking their asses for ARE NOT BUYING THEIR ALBUMS, for the most part. So who cares if men think that they're hot? Now, I don't think that every one who the narrator mentions are just trying to appeal to the male gaze. Janet Jackson did start off innocent and become...freaky, but I think that the freakiness is all her, not just an act for the cameras. I kind of feel the same way about Christina Aguilera, but she may just be fucked up in the head.
+ I've always been someone to deny how much the media affects our behavior, but good Lord, I wonder now. I always thought that nothing can make a man behave in the ways that this movie shows (groping women, tearing their clothes off, etc.), that men who do this are just sexist assholes. But I see now how being inundated with images of a "dreamworld" where all women are ready and willing can make a teenager (or loser) who has little experience with real women outside of their families think that all women want this, especially if they're dressed similarly to the women in the videos.
+ Is this why men get pissed when I don't respond to their rude comments on the street? Because they think that, as a young black woman, I must want to fuck them because we're all nymphos? But these men tend to be older, old enough to be my father, in fact, so why would they be so influence by music and videos made by men half their age?
+ I'm debating deleting the few Snoop Dogg songs that I have, after all of that "another bitch broke" stuff. I should, the only one that I would miss is "Drop It Like It's Hot".
+ Those comments at the end by "real" men are really frightening. And of course, the fact that 1 in 6 (although I've always heard 1 in 3) women are sexually assaulted. Either way, it means that it's just luck that I've never been a victim, that no one ever wanted to "take me down a peg".
1 comment:
Very interesting insight. True, these videos seep into a male or female mind even if it is subtle. I know what it is to be harassed on the street by men and being afraid if I was alone, what would happen to me if I didn't respond the way they wanted. Respect begins at home, but if it doesn't, these videos only reinforce unacceptable behavior later.
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