Music, and mostly music videos, were found to be an effective medium to speak up about social and controversial issues since music is considered to be a powerful tool in the development of our societies because of its ability to affect the human emotion. Creators have found music videos to be very expressive, which is why they tend to use it to create visual art and showcase their creativity. While a large percentage of music videos, about 85 percent, propagate sex and use it to push sales, most of these also conform to and portray gender stereotypes. The videos that get extensive coverage and make more deals are those in which the women are objectified and sexualized by their male counterparts. Despite efforts by female musicians to bridge this gap and release videos that exhibit equality, they are still few in the industry, and the majority are unpopular. Hip hop and RnB music as current popular trends, in which women are more likely to appear in revealing clothing as compared to men.
Additionally, lyrics are often promoting dominion over women and their role as sexual objects. In the music video “Anaconda” (2014) by Nicki Minaj, Minaj decides to use her sexuality and body as her form of expression. Whether she intended to objectify or empower herself and women, in general, depends on the person’s interpretation of the song and music video. While women’s sexuality has been a controversial subject, especially when the perception of empowerment is taken into consideration, the use of this concept in music videos is instead an exciting aspect where sexuality serves more objectification rather than empowering.
Misogynistic stereotypes are imposed on us deeply that self-objectification became a thing. For instance, Minaj in “Anaconda” (2014) managed to use the usual traditional ways of sexualizing women in both the music video and the song lyrics. Minaj is seen half-naked, constantly twerking and dancing sexually. This example further explains that Minaj, herself, sees herself as a mere object for the heteronormative male gaze. Minaj managed to reinforce misogynistic sentiments as soon as the song started. For example, “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hun” (Anaconda, 2014). Minaj used these catchy lyrics that were constantly repeated in the song, which implies that women need big “buns” if they wanted a man’s “Anaconda.” Despite her intention, she continues to enforce these ideas that a woman’s importance is directly measured by whether or not she is attracted to a man.
Substantiating this notion, the result of these sexist stereotypes did not only result in women objectifying themselves, but it also rooted some false representations of the genders. As seen in an earlier study, it was claimed that the stereotypical appearance of women in music videos hypothecates that men are usually seen as strong and dominant. In contrast, women appear as weak vessels that were sexually objectified to satisfy men’s pleasures (Macnamara, 2006). The portrayal of women in music videos is nonsense; it just demonstrates women’s entire existence as sexually alluring, not as entirely rational human beings. Consequently, with this type of thinking, any worth in the diversity of women or their different attributes such as intelligence or interests are being demolished, and women will continue to be seen as sexual objects for men only.
Videos that portray sexual music have influenced our thinking capacity in so many ways; for instance, it has dramatically affected the behavior of humans and how they view things. It has been proven that adolescent girls mostly make use of music for the emotional reflection of what they are facing. On the other side, Men like to utilize music for the creation of a positive image on themselves, and it gives them more energy to move on. Most of the musicians present their musical lyrics by referring to the sexual act, violence, and the use of drugs by portraying them in music videos. Through watching such music in the media, there has been an increase in adolescent’s behaviors negatively (Pennell and Behm-Morawitz, 2015). The actions shown by artist, together with the sexuality of humans in videos through music, has impressed the viewers positively and negatively. Music has provided the engagements of romance, which helps in the establishment of relationships in different ways. Adolescence has used music in methods of identifying themselves formally, and the music they prefer helps them identify themselves to fit in a group. It has also helped the adolescent to integrate into cultural youths. Music that is played popularly has provided adolescents with various ways of solving conflicts that relate to particular developmental stages. Adolescence differs what they chose to listen, and how they react to what the music interprets. For instance, sexually active youths, after viewing video music, has the mentality that their age mates are also busy sexually. Original music videos have misogynistic texts and imageries, which has led to criticism among the views. It has been believed that sexual music videos show the images of ladies being used as an object that is willing to satisfy men sexually. By watching such videos, young boys are taught that girls can engage in sexual activities, even though it is they have never attempted. One reflection that relates to women showing the state of misogyny in original music videos is the belief that women always refuses to have sex when they wanted.