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Something to Think About

Each one of these women, with the celebrity they hold, with the power and authority they have, are continuously fighting against the objectification of women. They show regular people like you and me that we don’t have to be 110 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes to be beautiful, but rather, that we can be ourselves and be just as beautiful. They fight the standards held for women; to be quiet, to be less seen, to not have opinions, to not stand out. They show women and little girls that they have power, that they are powerful and strong and beautiful and that they can do anything they set their minds to. Earlier, I had mention the two theories: social learning theory and cultivation theory. If we have more people displaying the strength and beauty in being a woman, if we have less men objectifying women, then this will become the new norm. people everyone will see women for what they are, strong human beings capable of everything a man is capable of, and their attitudes towards women will shift exponentially.

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Halsey

And finally, we arrive at Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, better known to the world as, Halsey. Halsey began as a Tumblr girl, posting lyrics to songs she had made and phrases and prose she had comprised throughout her lifetime. She is a biracial queer artist with endometriosis and a passion for equal rights and opportunities for all, as well as a vocal speaker regarding women’s rights, that does not fit into one singular music genre. She has music in which she describes relationships with males and well as ones with females, and she is not afraid to voice her opinion on politics. Her entire discography can be used to portray her fight against hegemony and the powers of society and rich white men, but I will be focusing on a single song and music video, Nightmare. Let’s start off with the visuals; throughout the entire video, you will only see females. There is not a single male in the video, nor was any part of video’s creation due to a male. The editing, the production, the choreography, the costume design, the makeup, the special effects, each and every single aspect of the music video was formed and created by females. And you start the video with flashes of Halsey wearing different outfits; you see her in a leopard print leotard and flaming red hair with a vacuum cleaning the house, you see her in a mosh pit like area in rock themed clothes and hair, you see her in a more masculine looking outfit with her hair slicked back, in a tight black leather outfit with a whip like a dominatrix, in classy all white lingerie with Louboutins in a fancy room surrounded by women wearing the same, in an alley way wearing a black leather jacket and blood smeared all over her, in a school girl outfit with little kids by her side near a bus, and as a bad dream caught in a dream catcher. Now there is a lot to unpack here, so bear with me as I go through the visuals. The various outfits or personas she holds throughout the video portray the various types of women there are: the housewives, the dominants, the more masculine, the more feminine, the classy and the young. And each one of them is being displayed not as objects, or as people to be judged or put down. But rather, she embraces all these types of women, and portrays to the audience that they can be whoever they want to be. Now we move onto the lyrics of the song: ‘Broke down and put myself back together again’, ‘I've pinched my skin in between my two fingers, And wished I could cut some parts off with some scissors’, ‘I'm tired and angry, but somebody should be’, ‘No, I won't smile, but I'll show you my teeth’, and ‘I'd rather be a real nightmare, than die unaware’. With the first lyric, she is talking about how she has been hurt by men, but she has always picked herself up, she’s always come back stronger. Then she mentions something that all women, at some point in their lives, have thought… if only I could cut this fat off me. She mentions how tired she is of constantly being mistreated and undervalued by men in this patriarchy. When a woman speaks up for herself, she is told that she is a real nightmare, and here, you have Halsey embracing the term, claiming that she would rather be a nightmare than someone who stays quiet and allows for the mistreatment of women to continue. This video is not the only one that stands against societal expectations of women, nor will it be last by Halsey. She has speeches discussing women’s rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights and the rights of all people regardless of skin color, sexual orientation or gender. She fights the powers that are in control by showing her power.

Nightmare Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_dqfcvTZik

Speech at Women’s Rights March: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpq8pHLhdV0

Speech at Glamour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCWRdp5NAFI

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This gif is taken from gfycat. The link is below.

https://gfycat.com/metallicgrossalbino-nightmare-halsey-smile

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This gif is taken from gfycat. The link is below.

https://gfycat.com/measlyminiatureeyra-halsey-hopeless-fountain-kingdom

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This gif was taken from Pinterest. The link is below.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/710794753670747595/

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Beyoncé

Next we have Beyoncé. In the year 2016, which now that I think about it, feels like it was just yesterday, Beyoncé released her album titled ‘Lemonade’ on Tidal. Tidal is a streaming service that incorporates music videos, and that is exactly what Beyoncé did with her album. She released a visual album, and in between each of the songs, she had quotes and lyrics of female empowerment from various artists, poets, and celebrities. One of my absolute favorite poems was used in the album, and I will be linking it at the end of this blog post for anyone that would like to read it. The album Lemonade puts the viewer through a scenario in which a husband cheats on his wife, and she has to go through certain stages; anger, grief, loss, and arrive at some conclusion. Instead of creating an album full of sad songs about how unworthy she felt after the affair, she has songs on her album like ‘Hold Up’ that portray what he lucked out on when he betrayed her. You hear lyrics like ‘Never had the baddest woman in the game up in your sheets’ to show that she knows her worth and what she had to offer to the relationship. In the song Don’t Hurt Yourself featuring Jack White, you have lyrics like ‘You ain't married to no average bitch boy’, ‘Beautiful mane I'm the lion’, and ‘I'm just too much for you’. All three of these lyrics show her strength, her individuality, her power to be stronger than the pain that a man has caused her. The album continues with women empowerment songs. An absolute masterpiece song by Beyoncé is the song Pretty Hurts. In the music video, which will be linked for reference, Beyoncé is seen in a beauty pageant, and asked the question ‘What is your aspiration in life?’ to which she responds, ‘To be happy’. Throughout the video, you see both Beyoncé and the other pageant members struggling to make themselves look ‘beautiful’. You see them starving themselves, swallowing cotton balls, throwing up in the bathroom stall, faking smiles and attempting to fix every physical aspect of themselves that society has deemed ugly or unattractive. The lyrics of the song try to portray to the audience that no matter how much of the outside you change, it won’t matter, because it is the love you have for yourself, or the lack thereof, that needs to change. This is to show women that they do not need to live up to what society’s standards of beauty are, but to recognize their own, to understand that they are beautiful in their own unique ways. In a society that praises women who are quote on quote, beautiful, and creates this sense of ‘other’ in women that do not fit this standard, it is a breath of fresh air to see a celebrity of such status allow women to be beautiful in their own ways.

Warsan Shire’s For Women Who are Difficult to Love: https://genius.com/Warsan-shire-for-women-who-are-difficult-to-love-annotated

Pretty Hurts Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXQLa-5n5w

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This gif was taken from giphy. The link is below.

https://giphy.com/gifs/beyonce-flawless-beyedit-yecFMGsl1cNd6

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This gif was taken from gfycat. The link is below.

https://gfycat.com/secondsouralbatross-i-woke-up-like-this-femenist-flawless

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This gif was taken from giver.com. The link is below.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgifer.com%2Fen%2F8eMU&psig=AOvVaw2xhjyNxQ8wfRh1kZTGBPD-&ust=1589254470449000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNiTsrbwqukCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP

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This image was taken from medium.com. The link is below.

https://medium.com/beyoncé-lit-and-lemonade/what-beyoncé-says-about-feminism-beyoncé-vs-lemonade-842caf841837

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Megan Thee Stallion

Let’s start with Megan Thee Stallion. She rose to fame about a year ago, after her infamous song “Hot Girl Summer” was released in July of 2019. The song sparked a summer for women that included taking control of their bodies and the perceptions of them, from the clothes that they wear to the makeup that they put on, to the way they dance and the things they say. Instead of hiding their bodies, of being ashamed of their skin, of feeling unworthy or devalued, women took the power back. They began to dye their hair, wear bikinis and whatever else made them feel beautiful without relying on the judgement of society or on the opinions of others. Look up the words ‘Hot Girl Summer’ on Google and you’ll get tutorials on how to have one just like Megan Thee Stallion did. Listen to the lyrics of the song and you’ll hear words of power, words and phrases like ‘Got a whole lot of options 'cause you know a bitch poppin'’, ‘And who gon' tell him that my bitch is getting her degree?’ and “He be trippin' on me and I know the reason’. Instead of sounding like a woman that needs a man, or one that is dependent on one, we hear her talk about how incredible she is, and how she has options of men to pick from, but she doesn’t need one to survive. You see her thriving without a man, having fun and exploring her sexuality, and there is no judgement. No one is shaming her, she is simply confident in herself and knows what she has to offer. Not only does she have this song, but she also has the song “Savage”, in which she talks about how she is the real deal, how she doesn’t need a man to make her dreams come true, how she can do it all on her own. Apart from her music career, she is also getting her degree in Health Administration, and is not afraid of showing her fans and the people that follow her that she is working hard both musically and educationally. She shows that a woman can be a rapper, an artist, a confident woman and an educated one as well. But more importantly, she shows society that a black woman can do all.

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This image was taken from bitchmedia.org. The link is below.

https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/brands-co-opting-hot-girl-summer

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This image was taken from msn’s website which is linked below.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/girl-you-better-believe-that-all-6-of-us-are-wearing-the-same-size-swimsuit/ss-AAD0J0J

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Some Key Terms

There are a few terms I would like to discuss before I begin the actual discussion regarding these three iconic females. The first is social learning theory. This can be described as a theory that incorporates the idea of imitation based on what we see happening around us. To summarize, “the actions and consequences we observe lead us to imitate the behavior of those we aspire to be like and to avoid enacting the behaviors of those we do not want to be like” (Sellnow, 275). For years, women have been seen as objects in the music industry, with rappers, country artists and every other genre’s artists using women’s bodies to get more views for their music videos or more listens to their songs. There aren’t too many “Miss Independent” songs being written about women and far too many “Gooba” songs being made objectifying women. The second term I would like to discuss would be cultivation theory. This theory makes the claim that over time, we cultivate certain negative behaviors we see throughout our lives, and deem okay or not negative because we have become used to such behavior, words, or actions. And so here we have it, the continued representation of women as objects by people that are seen as role models to many people around the world, the mistreatment and devaluing of women by others leads to the imitation and repetition of such behavior by the rest. Young men see the way that rappers and other musicians perceive women, and in the hopes of being as ‘cool’ as them, they begin to imitate those same beliefs and values onto the women around them. But hopefully, not for long.

Sellnow, Deanna D. The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts. SAGE, 2018, https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781506315225/cfi/6/38!/4/2/16/12/2@0:34.8.

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Introduction

This blog will be focusing on the attempts by women in the music industry to fight hegemony and power when it comes to their bodies, their voices, and the things they can and cannot do based on society. I will be focusing on three artists, although there are many more: Halsey, Megan Thee Stallion, and Beyonce. Despite the efforts by society and males in the music industry to demean women, to objectify them and devalue them, these women fight against all such actions, and in doing so, teach the younger and more impressionable females as well as older ones, to value themselves and not allow for their bodies to be objectified, but rather, to own up to them, to use them as a source of power rather than a way to remove power. For far too long, and even now, women have been seen as bodies rather than human beings, as objects, as trophies, as prizes for men. They are told to smile more, to wear less, to wear more, to not have so much makeup on, to fit a certain body type, to be less loud, to take up less space, to stay in the kitchen, to be mothers and good housewives. But to these women, women that hold authority all on their own, that are like role models to females across the globe, all the stereotypical requirements of women are wiped away and they are left to show girls the power they hold rather than the power that was held over them.