Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dreamworld 3 displayed some horrific information about violence and disrespect for women in music videos. The movie later shows examples of how the line between music videos and real life is becoming blurred. The author of Dreamworld blames the directors of these music videos and for the content that they display. However, the directors have a point. Their music videos sell, and the content in those music videos is selling it. Thus I am proposing the following questions:
Why do these music videos sell?
What happens during our development as young men and women that attracts us to these music videos?
How do we develop our male and female gender perceptions that allow us to watch such horrific events?
As a developed society, how have we become so desensitized to these types of videos?
How have we evolved as a society to condone this type of treatment of women?
Please comment. I ask these questions in effort to gain a larger perspective than my own!
5 comments:
I'm just going to go down the list of your questions and give you my own opinions;
Why do these music videos sell?
They sell because as a society, we are fascinated by sex. Every one of us, whether we'd like to admit it or not, is attracted to a sexy, half naked person of the gender we prefer. The models in ads and the dancers in videos use their bodies seductively to appeal to our innate need for sexual fulfillment... and it works. Although ads and videos don't necessarily make you like an artist or want to buy a product, they sure do get your attention.
What happens during our development as young men and women that attracts us to these music videos?
As I mentioned in the paragraph above, I think some of it is innate to a certain degree. Evolutionary theory suggests that it is because we need a partner to thrive; resources to help us succeed. However, I think more of it has to do with simple biology. We all have hormones. It is natural for hormones to react to sexual stimuli. Another thing that comes into play is the taboo nature of sexual topics. Because as a child these things are hush-hush, you naturally want to know more and become interested in discovering what the secret is all about. As we grow up, this goes away to some extent but the "behind closed doors" factor stays the same. We want to know!
How do we develop our male and female gender perceptions that allow us to watch such horrific events?
I don't know that it has as much to do with the way our perceptions are developed, I think it has more to do with sheer quantity of similar messages. It's easy to become de-sensitized to things... these images of scantily clad women gyrating have become common-place, normalized if you will. Therefore, instead of reacting negatively, we barely notice what's going on unless we really take the time to focus in and think about it.
As a developed society, how have we become so desensitized to these types of videos?
Again, I think it all comes down to quantity. These days, you can see some pretty steamy stuff just on network tv. That being the case, kids are being exposed to that kind of imagery at a very young age. Growing up with it in your living room and all over the internet makes it a lot easier to stomach, and even ignore.
How have we evolved as a society to condone this type of treatment of women?
I'm not sure if it has as much to do with condoning it as it has to do with ignorance of it. I know that I had never really thought about all these videos and such in negative, derogatory terms to such an intense degree that it really pissed me off until we watched Dreamworld. I would venture to guess that a lot of others are the same way. It's not that we condone it, we just are so used to it that we often don't recognize that it's happening!
Hope this helps you!!!
I thnk you said it the best when you posed the question what have we done as a society to condone this type of behavior towards women. I think that it goes way beyond music videos. I think that the fact that we as a society have been desensitized to the graphicness of this and it has made us not educate the younger generations about the wrongfulness of the situation and has created almost a fascination with sex. Rather than teaching the future generations respect for women and the fact that they are not merely sex objects, we are allowing another generation of people to carry on this "legacy", for lack of a better word, and continue to create an appeal for this type of media. I think by being ignorant to the fact that we are passing on a bad lesson and continuously supporting this type of media, we are condoning these actions with little effort yet making a big impact.
Sex is obviously an important part of our culture. First of all, I think part of it is because compared to some other countries especially those in the Middle East and Africa, we are free to be openly sexual, at the same time though, not overly sexual. It is an interesting paradox because we turn on the television or open a magazine and there it is, sex is everywhere. As children we see it and as teenagers it’s a typical topic of conversation because it’s something that is illusory, mysterious that makes us makes us think of ourselves as adults. So of course people of this age demographic are attracted to these ideas in music videos that strip clubs are full of hot women who are always willing to shed their clothes and please whoever’s there. I’ll admit that when I was a teenager my parents had HBO and I would watch Real Sex or that stupid Bunnyranch show. Why? Because I was interested. Why was I interested? Maybe it’s because my family never discussed sex. My parents never had that conversation with me. I know in the book it talks about how parents generally talk more to their daughters about sex and condom use, and as a girl my parents did that. I constantly heard, “Remember, no glove no love.” It was also interesting that the book said the more mothers talk with their daughters about condom use, the more frequently daughters follow that. So maybe my parents are to blame for my intrigue with sex.
Going back to what I was saying earlier, I think as teenagers, who are the biggest consumers of music videos, we see what’s happening and fantasize about that in our own lives. But when does the fantasy end? When does reality set in? By constantly pitching these mediated messages about sex, we start to think that it’s what really happens. Also, the idea that teenagers want to mature and be adults as fast as possible has its affect. With shows like “My Super Sweet 16” and “Real housewives of Orange County/New York City” we see children ages 12-16 who look like they are our age! I am constantly amazed when they show their real ages and a 14 year old is buying a $1,400 dress or receiving a brand new Mercedes Benz. There is this idea in our society that you can have it all, but you have to get it now. And the idea of sex is no different. Being promiscuous is being portrayed as sexy, being sexually active is seen as normal, and dressing in skirts that show the bottom of a girl’s butt is hot. But why? When did we stop riding bikes or going to the gas station for candy? When did we stop enjoying being young? Has capitalism gone too far here? Is this product of sex making kids grow up too fast? I think so.
I think an important fact to keep in mind is that these videos and overall the media, is controlled by white, middle aged, financially successful men. This idea is really scary because this actually pinpoints the culprits. It shows that this demographic is the one which condones this type of treatment toward women. Why? Because it was how these men were raised. Saying that our generation is one where fathers are not present is an understatement. With the fracturing of the typical family unit fathers do not play a huge role in their children’s lives. As the cognitive development theory tells us, if boys do not have these masculine role models in their lives, they turn to their peer groups or the media which breed this uber-masucline idea that women are sexual object, that they can be controlled, and it is your right as a man to control them.
As a developed society, how have we become so desensitized to these types of videos?
This is a great questions and I agree with kiki, we see sexual images everywhere, billboards, commercials, cable TV, music videos, etc. It's hard not to see sexualized people in our culture.
I have a younger sister and a young boy in our class asked her to see her chest the other day. She is in 6th grade, I could not believe it. How do people learn to be so naughty and inappropriate at a young age? It disgusts me and I think we should address the issues. We should be discussing these issues at a much younger age and pointing out what is normal and what is just in music videos. We have a lack of sexed classes at a young age, so children grow up with what knowledge of sex? With what they see on TV and around them, they see that as the "norm."
I think our society has certainly become desensitized to sexuality because it is absolutely everywhere! It seems nearly everything has some sort of a sexual implication to it. These sexual images are definitely distorted but because they are so frequent in our culture people have accepted them as normal. Movies make sexuality into common practice. I’ve even noticed that more and more sexuality has been allowed into PG and PG-13 movies which is crazy. “Something’s Gotta Give” (rated PG-13) contained FULL frontal nudity! TV shows are sexually charged more than ever. When “I Love Lucy” was on Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds. Today, sexual content is much more explicit. I just watched an episode of “Family Guy” which focused on the father’s envy over his son’s much larger penis! I didn’t even know some of that material could be shown on primetime television. Music also explicitly expresses what the individual would like to do with another individual. It's so hard to avoid our sexually-charged society!
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