Sexist Implications In Pop Music In The 1900's
Pop music has been a big part of our culture for a long time, but it has also been misogynistic and disempowering to women for even longer. Men have treated women as sex objects, and women also have put themselves down to appeal to men in songs and music videos. Although there are a lot of sexist implications in songs from the 1900’s through early 2000’s, in the 2010’s music began to get better. Pop music is better than it was in the past because it’s less sexist and focuses on uplifting women.
A good example of a classic song that has sexist implications is, the 1949 christmas song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” by Dean Martin. In the first verse, the song starts out with the man pleading for the women to stay with him in his house, “I really …show more content…
Since the song itself was written and sung by women, most would expect the song to not be sexist. Surprisingly, the girl group managed to objectify themselves throughout the whole song. In the chorus the main singer states, “I want you to loosen up my buttons baby.” In these lyrics, the women are highlighting nothing but their bodies and hypersexualizing themselves to appeal to men. Before the chorus, in the first verse, the band states, “Hardly the type I fall for… Don’t leave me asking for more.” This is harmful because it’s telling women to throw themselves at any man, even if that man is not up to their personal standards. In contrast in 2015, Fifth Harmony dropped their single, “Bo$$,” which was about women being more confident in themselves without the help of a man and focusing on their money/career. In the first chorus, the band states, “Working for the money/ Cause that’s what my momma taught me/ So you know you better show me some respect.” This lyric is empowering to women, because in music and other circumstances men are seen as the ones holding money and power and women are meant to be dependent on them, but these girls think women are more than capable of making their own. Another important set of lyrics is in verse two when the singers state, “C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T, that’s me, I’m confident/ Don’t want your compliments, use common sense.” This is empowering to women because in the
A good example of a classic song that has sexist implications is, the 1949 christmas song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” by Dean Martin. In the first verse, the song starts out with the man pleading for the women to stay with him in his house, “I really …show more content…
Since the song itself was written and sung by women, most would expect the song to not be sexist. Surprisingly, the girl group managed to objectify themselves throughout the whole song. In the chorus the main singer states, “I want you to loosen up my buttons baby.” In these lyrics, the women are highlighting nothing but their bodies and hypersexualizing themselves to appeal to men. Before the chorus, in the first verse, the band states, “Hardly the type I fall for… Don’t leave me asking for more.” This is harmful because it’s telling women to throw themselves at any man, even if that man is not up to their personal standards. In contrast in 2015, Fifth Harmony dropped their single, “Bo$$,” which was about women being more confident in themselves without the help of a man and focusing on their money/career. In the first chorus, the band states, “Working for the money/ Cause that’s what my momma taught me/ So you know you better show me some respect.” This lyric is empowering to women, because in music and other circumstances men are seen as the ones holding money and power and women are meant to be dependent on them, but these girls think women are more than capable of making their own. Another important set of lyrics is in verse two when the singers state, “C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T, that’s me, I’m confident/ Don’t want your compliments, use common sense.” This is empowering to women because in the