Toxic Environment Created by Music Videos
An exotic yacht dominates the computer screen as a young girl watches the music video to her favorite song. The video showcases a gorgeous man of great wealth, dressed exquisitely in a white custom-made suit, standing on the deck adjusting his designer watch. As the girl continues to watch, the video moves from focusing on the man, as he stands there self-assured and poised, to the beautiful women surrounding him. The women have perfect air-brushed bodies, displayed in sexy bathing suits. These women are arranged standing and laying in positions that best show off their long, smooth legs and large breasts. Each woman has a prominent alcoholic beverage in her hand. As the young girl watches the music video, “Fun” by Pitbull and Chris Brown, whether she critically analyzes it or not, she is influenced and is pulled into the toxic cultural environment we live in today. Music videos today promote standards of behavior, attitudes about gender roles, and ideas of what constitutes beauty in society.
Music videos today are all over the Internet. With millions of views, songs like “Fun” by Pitbull and Chris Brown appear on the top of the pop charts. Young teenagers and adults listen and jam out to these songs, and their videos become a major source of cultural influence. Artists often, whether consciously or not, promote cultural biases and prejudices through their songs. Many music videos and lyrics sexualize and dehumanize women. For example, Chris Brown sings “Loosen up your body baby come undone” (Brown). The song’s lyrics encourage the view of women as sexual objects, who must obey or are used by men. In the “Fun” video, the artist shows women swimming behind a glass porthole in the wall. Displaying women like fish you would find in an aquarium dehumanizes them. It suggests that women are animals, to be confined and controlled. These videos subtlety promote misogynistic ideas through their lyrics and images that create a toxic environment for women.
When the viewers critically analyze videos like these, they see the traditional portrayal of men in positions of power and wealth and women as possessions and sexual objects. The music video “Fun” endorses traditional gender roles and societal norms. For instance, the women are shown in little to no clothing. Despite the fact that they are wearing bathing suits and supposedly swimming or sunbathing, they all have full faces of makeup and their hair is perfectly curled or straightened. This is an absolutely unrealistic scene, and yet many people do not take the time to question its absurdity but begin to accept it as normal. Many viewers start to believe these women portray normality and therefore compare themselves to them, when little do they know these women do not look like that, especially when they are in bathing suits about to swim. In an enlightening lecture by Jean Kilbourne, she discusses advertisements and social media today:
Just as it's difficult to be healthy in a toxic physical environment... So, it’s difficult to be healthy in what I call a ‘toxic cultural environment,’ an environment that surrounds us with unhealthy images and constantly sacrifices our health and our sense of well-being for the sake of profit (Kilbourne).
She explores the idea that in today’s society we are surrounded with images of false reality. This means models and images in advertisements are not real and not whom we should compare ourselves to. These advertisements and music videos influence our views and promote stereotypes and emphasize societal "norms," which in turn creates a toxic environment. In the music video “Fun,” all the women look similar, they are all white, with large breasts, large butts, and skinny waists. This promotes society’s ideal form of beauty as singular, uniform and unrealistic. Many viewers of music videos are young girls who grow up trying to emulate these homogeneous, fake images and feel inadequate when they do not resemble them. Instead of music videos promoting positive messages to boost confidence levels of girls and women, they reinforce unhealthy stereotypes that contribute to a toxic environment.
Another important criticism of the music video is how it objectifies women. In “Fun,” the women are consistently portrayed as objects rather than individuals. The women act as men’s counterparts; they are filmed surrounding the men or surrounding fancy objects such as cars and boats. They are positioned around these men or things to enhance their image. Their primary purpose is to make the men or objects look more powerful or desirable. Additionally, the camera focuses on women’s body parts, particularly their butt or breasts, which also supports the idea that they are only a source of interest due to their sexuality. Another subtle theme promoted by the video is that the women are shown drinking alcoholic beverages. This is noteworthy because it glamorizes the idea that beautiful women should drink and are more fun under the influence of alcohol. The video encourages the view that men should supply women with alcohol, and then it will result in a loosening up of inhibitions and an increase in women’s sexuality. Men seeing these videos may believe they should replicate those actions and when they do, it can result in serious sexual toxicity. Jean Kilbourne emphasizes similar messages. In her lecture about culture criticism, Kilbourne acknowledges:
...The body language of girls is usually passive, vulnerable, and very different from the body language of boys and men. Women are often shown in very silly poses, whereas men are generally afforded dignity and strength, even as children (Kilbourne).
She explains that women are presented in ways that influence other people’s actions. Sometimes when they are shown as passive and accepting, men then are violent and overpowering because they believe that it is their role. Kilbourne also mentions how men are portrayed in the videos. In “Fun,” both the men in the video are shown as successful dominant males who have power and money to do anything they wish, while the women are under a spell to serve them. In today media culture, we need to think critically and understand that these objectified women do not represent women as a whole. Thinking critically is an important skill to master in today’s society with all the false news and fake propaganda.
Women and men receive messages constantly through art and media, which in turn reinforces or creates standards of behavior, attitudes about gender roles and ideas of what constitutes beauty in society. Consumers of music, art and media need to educate themselves and think critically about the cultural messages they are seeing. Viewers need to unite together and make it known by not supporting music or media that foster toxic societal themes. Being active in society and supporting events, such as marches or speakers who educate others on the topic, is essential. Also, we need to create awareness by teaching people how to think critically, especially when they are young. Many people may say they turn a blind eye to all these images or don’t listen to them, but whether they know it or not, our world is filled with these images and everyone is influenced. When a society is taught to think critically, it is better able to see through the toxic environment presented by media today.
Works Cited
Brown, Chris. “Pitbull- ‘fun’ ft. Chris Brown.” Youtube, uploaded by Pitbull. Jun 19, 2015, http://www.youtube.com/?v=jKbR7u8J5PU October 19th, 2018.
Kilbourne, Jean. "Killing Us Softly 4 Advertising's Image of Women." Youtube,uploaded by openmieyez. February 7th, 2018, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnAY6S4 October 19th, 2018.
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