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Women in the music industry: Intersectionality, double standards, feminism, and more.

What is intersectionality?

Intersectionality is a term that came about in the late 1980s when Kimberle Crenshaw was searching for a word to describe the discrimination that often occurs when different social factors, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and age overlap with each other (Dillbray and Edwards). While Crenshaw was originally attempting to describe the discrimination that black women face all too often, the term has been expanded to include anyone and everyone who experiences discrimination as a result of a combination of social aspects. In fact, women in the music industry have been viewed as less than equal to their male counterparts, time and time again, especially in recent years. This has prompted several female musicians to speak out and take a stand for themselves and their fellow artists. 

This blog will take you on a journey through some recent examples in popular music where women have been overshadowed, told to “step up,” and when they have spoken out on topics such as gender inequality, double standards, feminism, and intersectionality. 

Chart: yw Boston

Nicki Minaj calls out the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards 

It would not be an award show without some controversy which is what came with the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards when Nicki Minaj, rightfully, expressed her disappointment with the nominations. Her video for her hit song “Anaconda” broke records when it got 19.6 million views in just one day yet failed to be recognized for its choreography and overall artistic vision as video of the year (Mei). “Anaconda” without a doubt had an impact in 2014 as one of the most watched and discussed videos of the year. Minaj took to Twitter to express her disappointment, saying “When the ‘other’ girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.,” possibly referring to Miley Cyrus’ video for “Wrecking Ball” which had previously held the record for most views in one day. Minaj also tweeted “If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year” likely referring to Taylor Swift’s video for “Bad Blood” which was nominated in 2015, although she said she was not referring to Swift. It turns out that Minaj was subtly calling out racism within the music industry and her disappointment came when past videos that were deemed controversial (Brittney Spears’ “Toxic,” Emily Ratajkowski in Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”) were all labeled “impactful,” praised, or awarded. Minaj’s on the other hand was without a doubt impactful but not recognized as such. The major difference between Spears, Ratajkowski, Cyrus, and Minaj is that the former consists of white female bodies while the latter is a rapper who just so happens to be a woman of color. Unfortunately, Minaj was experiencing intersectionality as a woman of color. Simply just being a Black woman is what put Minaj at a disadvantage in this situation as well as others. Race and gender overlap here, and played a huge role in Minaj not being recognized while other female artists like Brittney Spears and Miley Cyrus can create controversial videos but are praised as white women. 

Photo: Kevin Winter/MTV1415/Getty Images For MTV

Few female artists insight at the 2018 Grammy Awards 

The 2018 Grammy Awards ceremony was a controversial night as female musicians were not honored like their male counterparts were. Of the eighty-four awards handed out, only eleven were awarded to women and some questioned the winners (Zielinski). Many were upset when Ed Sheeran won for Best Pop Solo Performance for his hit song “Shape of You” when his competition were all females and included powerful songs such as Kesha’s “Praying” and Lady Gaga’s “Million Reasons.” Another big criticism of the ceremony was all of the nominees for one of the top categories, Album of the Year, were all male except for Lorde. However, the bigger controversy surrounding Lorde and this category is that all of the Album of the Year nominees were allowed to perform solo while Lorde was only offered to be apart of a tribute performance. Many questioned why her male counterparts were allowed to showcase their work that was being nominated but not Lorde. In response to this, Grammy executive producer, Ken Elrich, said that it was because there’s no way that they can “deal with everybody.” However, rock band U2 performed at the ceremony and they were not even nominated for any awards this year. The overall treatment towards women at the 2018 ceremony created a buzz which prompted the Recording Academy President, Neil Portnow to respond. When asked about gender representation he responded that women who “have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level” need to “step up (Coscarelli).” The truth is that women did “step up” and have been “stepping up” for years especially within the music industry. It just appears that some people within the industry refuse to acknowledge the impact women have made given that over the last five years, only 9.3% of Grammy nominees have been female (Zielinski). One could argue that simply just being a female put these talented musicians at a disadvantage at the 2018 Grammy Awards ceremony. While there were no overlapping social factors for Gaga, Kesha, or Lorde this night, they were instantly overlooked and it appears that they were not deemed as worthy or valuable as their male counterparts.

All musicians write about love, why is Taylor Swift the only one getting hate for it?

Love is a popular topic to write about but why is it that Taylor Swift is the only one who receives backlash when she writes about the men she has dated? Male musicians such as Drake and Ed Sheeran never receive backlash for their romantic lives and instead receive praise. Taylor Swift, on the other hand, gets made fun of and has memes and shirts made mocking her dating life. In 2014, she penned her hit song “Blank Space” as a way to let the media know she knew how she was being portrayed by them. Just recently, Billboard named “Blank Space” as a song that defined the decade. In a recent interview with Billboard, she explained that she wrote the song in response to the “overly harsh depiction” of herself in the media and that she was “meeting and dating people the way that everyone should be allowed to [in their 20s] (Atkinson).” There is a clear double standard between men and women in the music industry because when a female writes about her own experiences she might be labeled as a “serial dater” and be publicly shamed, while a man can write about his relationships and be praised. On her most recent album, Lover, Swift wrote a song titled “The Man” where she addresses double standards and sings about what it would be like to be a man in the entertainment industry.

Source: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3qjd15

Photo: Imgur 

Women in country music: Jennifer Nettles, the 2019 CMA Awards, and more

The 2019 CMA Awards was supposed to be a night of celebration and appreciation for the women of country music, however the attempt went downhill as the night went on. While many females were showcased through their performances, some felt that they could have been awarded more - particularly in one category. Entertainer of the Year is the top prize at the CMA Awards and Garth Brooks took it home this year...for the third time in four years (McKenna). This year, all the Entertainer of the Year nominees were male except for Carrie Underwood who was generally favored by most to win (McKenna). The attempt to celebrate women in country music comes after a study of country music radio was done and found that women in the genre receive far less radio airplay than their fellow male musicians. Dr. Watson of the University of Ottawa published a report in April 2019 that examined country music radio airplay for women artists and male artists from 2000 to 2018. Dr. Watson’s study found that by years-end in 2000, women held 33.3% of songs on country airplay reports but by 2018, they held only 11.3% which is a 66% decline (Watson). Even more recently, in 2018 the ratio of men to women on country radio was 9.7:1 (Watson). The most shocking finding from Dr. Watson’s study is that over the last seventeen years (883 weeks), male artists spent 749 weeks (14.4 years) at the top spot while women spent 98 weeks (1.8 years) (Moss). These findings are shocking and prompted leader of country band, Sugarland, Jennifer Nettles to make a statement at the 2019 CMA Awards. On the red carpet for the event, she made her outfit her own by writing “Play our f*@#in records please and thank you” across it with the female gender symbol displayed on her leg. When asked about her outfit, Nettles responded that she was trying to “send a message to the industry” as well as gain the public’s attention. Lack of airplay for women in country music has increasingly gotten worse but thanks to those who are paying attention, like Dr. Watson and the women of country music, hopefully improvements will be made in the very near future.

Photo: John Shearer/WireImage

Photo: ABC

Works Cited

Atkinson, Katie. "Songs That Defined the Decade: Taylor Swift's 'Blank Space'." Billboard, 21 Nov. 2019.

Coscarelli, Joe. "Grammys President Faces Backlash After Saying Women Need to ‘Step Up’." The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2018

Dillbray, J S., and Griffin Edwards. "An Empirical Analysis of Sexual Orientation Discrimination." The University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 86, no. 1, Jan. 2019. 

McKenna, Brittney. "The 2019 CMA Awards’ Attempt to Honor Women Goes Sideways." Rolling Stone, 14 Nov. 2019.

Mei, Gina. "A field guide to Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, and intersectionality." Hello Giggles, 22 July 2015.

Moss, Marissa R. "New Study Examines Impact of Country Radio Programming on Women." Rolling Stone, 26 Apr. 2019.

Watson, Jada E. "Gender Representation on Country Format Radio: A Study of Published Reports from 2000-2018." WOMAN Nashville, 26 Apr. 2019.

Waxman, Olivia B. "Pound the Alarm! Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' Video Breaks Record." Time, 22 Aug. 2014.

Zielinski, Noelle. "The 60th Grammy Awards stir up controversy." The News Record, 6 Feb. 2018.