Dear Readers,
At this point, no apology I make can make up for the fact
that I have not written you for so long.
I have tried. This is the
fourth or fifth time I have started writing on a post, only to leave it behind
because I did not have time, or did not have enough to say on the subject. I also know that I promised you all a
review of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. Please bear with me a
while longer on that review. I was
only able to see the film once in the cinema, and I have not had an opportunity
for a second viewing yet, which I prefer to do before I write a major judgment
on the film.
Instead of looking at The Hobbit, I have decided to give you all a brief glimpse into
what I am doing for college, and what has been going on in my head lately. Basically, I am going to talk about
feminism. Please don’t run away, I
hope to deal with the topic in both an entertaining and hopefully thought
provoking way. If you start,
please keep reading to the end; I am dealing with a very complicated issue, and
many of the things I am saying, taken out of context, will place both myself
and the subject of my analysis in a bad light. Hopefully by the end, I will be able to draw this all
together into a cohesive whole, so please bear with me.
The idea for this post came a couple of days ago, when my
current favorite band, Home Free, released a music video entitled “The Butts
Medley.” I am including a link, so
you guys can go check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA0WCc3vTls. The song, as the title suggests, is a
mash-up of country, rap, and pop songs that talk about women’s posteriors. It is very funny, but as a female
viewer, I was mildly disturbed.
Each of these songs is objectifying toward women, reducing them from an
individual with a personality, thoughts, and feelings, to a singular sexually
charged physical attribute, a.k.a a butt.
The women are only present in these songs to be looked at by the men,
for their viewing pleasure and gratification.
This perception of women as existing only in relationship to
the men looking at them is a problem in a lot of music, but especially at the
moment in American country music.
Maddie and Tae address this issue in their comic video, “Girl in a
Country Song” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MOavH-Eivw. With lines “like all we’re good for is
lookin’ good for you and your friends on the weekend” and “we’re lucky if we
even get to climb up in your truck keep our mouth’s shut and ride along,”
Maddie and Tae highlight the massive subjection of women to the male gaze in
current country music songs and videos.
To highlight the problematic way in which women are portrayed in country
music videos, they gender bend their video, placing male characters in the
situations and positions in which it is common to see women in country music
videos.
Which brings me back to Home Free’s “Butts Medley.” One of the most recognizable figures
from the Maddie and Tae music video is a rather heavy man, who in the gender
bent section of the song, is dressed in a pair of cutoff overalls with no shirt
and one strap undone. Appearing in
a variety of poses common to women in country music videos, this character
provides most of the humor and ideological punch in the song. A very similar character also appears
at the end of Home Free’s video, dancing with the band, and a line-up of
average “country” girls. Such an
instantly recognizable homage to the “Girl in a Country Song,” in a medley that
is blatantly about the objectification of women initially seems odd.
But a closer look at the video quickly reveals the nature of
the inclusion. Because while the
band is singing about looking at women’s butts, the camera is focused on the
backsides of the men. There are
several shots of the members of the band from the back, walking up stairs,
dancing, posing, as well as a number of partial body shots emphasizing legs and
crotch. In contrast, the women are
generally portrayed in longer shots from the front. It is very rare for the video to portray a woman from
behind, and it is never the specific focus of a shot like it is for the
men. So as the men sing about
objectifying women they are being deliberately objectified by the camera and
the viewer of the video. The
inclusion of the character from “Girl in a Country Song” demonstrates the
awareness of the creators of the video of the feminist difficulty with their
material, and their response to it.
The lyrics of the song do objectify women, but the video makes it clear
that they are doing so ironically.
Does the fact that a works is beings ironically sexist make
it any less objectionable? After
all, the majority of people are not going to look at a music video and think
“Hmm, this is being ironically misogynistic in an attempt to undermine the
gender stereotypes perpetuated by mass media culture.” The average viewer is going to watch
that video, think “that was fun,” then proceed though the rest of their day,
maybe humming the tunes or singing the un-ironically sexist lyrics. By using sexist conventions to attempt
to subvert the misogynistic message of the song, could the video actually be
perpetuating problematic perspectives?
Or is the inclusion of subversive material in a video seems to
perpetuate gender norms an effective way of communicating that subversion?
Yes. No. Maybe? I don’t know.
The more I consider the issue, the more uncertain I become. And I have finally decided that is
alright. Because this is a
complicated issue, and it involves a series of questions that each individual
will answer differently. For me,
the video is a good feminist critique of country music and the objectification
of women in the genre. That is
because I read the “text” of the video in a particular way. Others might read it entirely
differently.
If this reading is ultimately subjective, what was the
purpose? If I can come to two
opposite conclusions about a single video in the course of two paragraphs of
analysis, what is the point? There
are two answers to this question.
First, the portrayal of women in mass media is an important issue in the
debate about gender roles in our society.
Recognizing that debate, and placing this video in that perspective
allows me to recognize the issue and contextualize it in my own
experience. The second reason that
I found this analysis valuable is that it forced me to think about the
different possible perspectives on the subject, both those with which I agree
and those with which I do not.
This enforced change of perspective allows for a greater recognition of
the opinions of other around me, and an appreciation for the diversity of their
points of view.
I have run out of time for writing. I hope that this was entertaining,
interesting, and thought provoking, and that I was able to bring all the
tangled web of my thoughts into some sort of coherent form. I will admit, I am not the most
informed or the best analyst on the topics of media studies or feminism. If there are people out there better
informed or with differing opinions, I invite you to comment here. I am looking to learn, and I would
welcome conversation. I ask only
that you be polite and considerate.
I want this post to be a forum for congenial conversation not another
internet page where people take out their own insecurities with their opinions
on others in the form of bitter or bilious comments.
Well, back to reality.
