Sexism In Pop Videos - Blurred Lines & Wrecking Ball

Now over the years there have been some music videos that have created some controversy and can be labelled as completely bizarre. Recently there have been two key music videos that have made the headlines and they are Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines and Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. But first we have to think about whether women in pop videos are just used as sexual objects? As Andrew Goodwin as said that the camera which is used to film the female artist can be seen as a man looking through the camera making the woman look as sexy as possible. This is the main reason why there can be some many female artists and why they dominate the charts. But on the other hand, you still have the women who do not try to be sexy but still manage to sell their music, people like Adele and P!nk.

Now on to Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. This music video isn't only sexist because of the video but because there are several hints in the lyrics that can be tied to sexism. The song has been labelled as sexist because some of the lyrics have been hinted to suggest rape. The lyrics indicate somewhere within that even though a girl says no to having sex really she means yes. This song was also banned  by the University Student Union because it seemed to glorify rape and violent sex. Although there was one university which was in Exeter which did not ban the song but condemned it saying "A song that implies a woman is 'an animal' who 'wants it' because of the way she is dressed is not acceptable." As well as being banned in different universities, there are also two versions of the song with one of them being fit for viewing while the other is more explicit with topless women. Personally i believe that the explicit version has not been shown mainly because it isn't for the viewing of the younger audience, in case they see it but also because it may give the teenage audience that may be watching the wrong idea; who can see the video and tie the lyrics together which may in fact make rape and violent sex  isn't exactly that bad. Lastly, the women in the video initially may seem to be as sex objects but upon further analysis of the video and from the words of the director and the actors, apparently this isn't all the case. In fact the women in the video are supposed to be seen as the power figures because they are the ones who are in control and will tease the men but then eventually say no.

Next we will move onto Wrecking Ball. This song is really controversial because of the massive change the has come over Miley. Since she was the main star on the TV show Hannah Montanna which showed on Disney Channel, i has come as quite of a shock that she has now emerged she is older and that she does not want to be seen as a little kid anymore. She is trying ti recreate her image by using the music video and ultimately, it has worked. She has managed to claw her way back into the limelight to say that she is not a kid anymore. Although she is trying to recreate her image, in the beginning of the video she used a technique that had already been used. She copied a section of Sinead O'Connor's song Nothing Compares 2U when there was a section of the song where she cried and this has been used in her video. Responding to this being used in Miley's video, Sinead came out to say be careful and to "Not let them prostitute you!". Although sometimes the aim in a female video is to make the artist look as sexy as possible, sometimes they can go over the bar and some people may only think that they are basically sex objects.