In lieu of a song today, I just wanted to write down some ramblings about how we as a culture treat our wonderful female performers. These things apply to all types of female public figures (actresses, politicians, athletes, etc.), and some of them even apply to men, but I'll put it in terms of female musicians because of the past month. This is something I have a serious problem with.
Instead of being judged on their musicianship, most female recording artists are judged first and foremost on their appearance. If they're not pretty, they get sent into the background. This is one of the sad side-effects of the music video generation: Now that we can get these performers on our televisions/computers, they have to capture our eyes. This happened to one of the most influential female bands of all time--Heart.
Heart was on top of the world with Dreamboat Annie and the singles that came off of it. Then came the 80s, and they fell behind. Why? you might ask. One reason could be their shift from hard rock songs to overwrought power ballads that took over the music scene in that time. Another reason was the emergence of music videos. While the Wilson sisters that lead the band started out as sexual icons in the 70s, a problem arose when Ann started gaining weight. This led to a less attractive presentation of the band in their videos which led to less people enjoying their videos. The quality of their music didn't matter to people; they ignored them on the merit of their videos alone.
Even with a more modern conception of beauty, this problem has not gone away. We still look at our female artists and judge them on how good they look. Nikki Minaj puts on makeup until she looks like a mannequin. Miley Cyrus was sexualized before she even turned eighteen. Even Lady Gaga, a self-imposed spokeswoman for individuality and inner beauty, looks like a supermodel and makes herself into an otherworldly being.
Speaking of Gaga, there was recently a highly publicized comment on her part where she calls Grammy-dominating-artist Adele fat, essentially breaking down everything Adele had achieved by a highly-respected artist that doesn't fit in with the common conception of beauty. This was later revealed to be a hoax (something I fully believe to be true), but just the fact that someone put it out presents another problem of portraying women as catty bitches.
And now for the big one. About a year ago, the music world was taken by storm. Not in a good way, sadly, but by a perky high school girl that made a huge mistake. Rebecca Black made her musical debut with the over-autotuned, cheaply-rhymed ode to the start of the weekend, "Friday." I'll be the first to admit that the song is bad. I'll even admit that I laughed at the video. What I didn't do is leave comments about her appearance, call her a "stupid whore," or tell her to kill herself.
The sad thing is that these comments show up not only on her video (which has over half-a-million "dislikes" on the currently posted version and a whole lot more on the version that had to be removed because of all the nastiness) but on pretty much every video of a woman that people don't like. I make it a general rule to not read YouTube comments, but I occasionally find myself scrolling down and being sad. As if that isn't enough, look at the Urban Dictionary entries for "Rebecca Black." Go ahead; I'll wait.
It's not that bad, right? Some sarcastic jokes about how she's "learning the days of the week." But scroll down to definition number 12. It begins, "The bitch who made the most annoying song in the history of the world." The word "bitch" is a whole problem in and of itself, but the fact that someone felt the need to call a thirteen-year-old girl that name just because she had a bit of fun and put out a bad song is pathetic.
That's the lesson that girls are learning today--put out something bad or be anything less than "beautiful," and people will call you a "bitch" or a "whore" or tell you to end your own life. This leads to an obsession with weight and appearance (along with the infamous anorexia blogs) and a fear of going against the grain or being creative at all. It's a problem that needs to stop.
It's not all bad, though. As I mentioned earlier, Adele is opening the door for women that have body types that aren't "twig." Lady Gaga is pioneering self-confidence and individuality. My future wife, Zooey Deschanel (along with her friends that run the website Hello Giggles), works tirelessly to make women feel good about themselves--both in appearance and in their original, quirky personalities.
Someday--hopefully soon--we will be able to look at women in terms of their talent instead of looks. Each and every woman is beautiful in their own way. That sounds like a load of bullshit, but I promise you it's true. Appreciate the small things that make you different. Be who you want to be. And above all: Never listen to anyone who tries to tell you you're not good enough. We will resume our regularly scheduled misanthropy tomorrow.
