The more things change, the more they stay the same....

After watching Leslie Gore, Fiona Apple, and Lil Kim's music videos, I can't say that I think we've changed very much in the last 35 years.  It's easy to say we've come a long way since "I'll cry if I want to", but have we?  I'd argue women are being objectified more than ever, and what's worse is they're completely aware of it.  And what's even worse than that is this completely affects our students and their perceptions of society, of each other, and of themselves.

I had heard these three songs many times before, but only now really started to think about the lyrics and videos critically.  Leslie Gore epitomizes the idea of the female gender role - submissive, helpless, and defined by the man in her life: Johnny (who, on an unrelated note, makes her whiny, materialistic, and completely overly dramatic as well).  She is completely powerless (can't do anything about her current situation other than cry about it), and is viewed as little more than the (undesired) object of affection.  Initially, I thought of this as a catchy 60's song (and coincidentally the best song from one of my childhood favorites, Problem Child), but it really is so much more than that when you start to look below the surface.  What kind of message is being sent with a song like this?

I'd have to admit I feel a bit differently about the "Criminal" video than I do the other two, as I'm not sure it really falls into the same category.  As a one-time huge Fiona fan, I've heard "Criminal" about a million times.  While that doesn't necessarily make me an expert, I think that this song is definitely more of a personal reflection of her own life than it is a commentary or reflection of the social construction of gender roles.  In late middle and high school, I was a huge fan of "angry chick music", that is, Fiona, Tori Amos, Alanis, Liz Phair (whitechocolatespaceegg, NOT the recent stuff), PJ Harvey, Ani Difranco, you name it.  Like Fiona, many of these female artists acknowledged sexuality in their songs.  I don't think this acknowledgement makes Fiona an object, but is  on the contrary rather quite empowering.  Apple was sexually abused as a child, and I think that this leads to the disturbing nature of this particular video, not the fact that she is trying to objectify women.  While I don't claim to be any sort of feminist at all, I think  it is wrong to assume that any sexually submissive woman is trying to be a sex object.  Taking the "Criminal" video completely out of context of her background and other songs, it might appear that Fiona Apple is trying to use her sexuality to give her some sort of power that she wouldn't normally have.  Instead, I would argue that much of this song is actually quite masculine in nature, "I've been careless with delicate man" is a complete role reversal from Leslie and Johnny! What's unfortunate is that regardless of her intentions, the voyeuristic nature of the video, the random bodies on the floor, the blatant sexual innuendos, and the fact that Apple admits to being a sexual being objectifies women anyway, as demonstrated by this assignment.  Women who are sexually compliant are going to be seen as "sluts" by society.  That word connotes powerlessness and objectification anyway, and it is inevitable that Fiona's video is also a step backwards for female empowerment.  Too bad.

This leads me to the Lil Kim video, which, I have to admit I had heard before but had never actually seen, and was watching this video with my mouth open in awe.  Lil Kim, unlike Fiona, is blatantly objectifying women.  Yes, she is clearly going a step beyond by explicitly asking for sex instead of just alluding to the fact that it happened, but she is also presenting herself as a mass-produced commodity or plaything (dolls and candy?!)  This is seen as female empowerment, and honestly it makes me sick.  She claims to be in charge, yet she dressing that way and singing that way for 100% male enjoyment.

As I read over this blog post, I realize I'm not sure what the exact point I'm trying to make is.  But I think what we need to be doing with this information as educators is teaching awareness of it to our students.  So many of my female students go around singing lyrics to Flo Rida and Britney Spears "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy."  (Seriously, Brit?  No one's falling for that) acting like it's cute or something.  The thing is, I'm not even sure that they know the implications of that.  I also read these same girls' editorials (who all coincidentally choose to write on the same topic) against school dress codes for low cut shirts and short shorts.  It breaks my heart when I read them write things like: "unless you can see my butt cheeks, I can wear whatever I want", or "people just shouldn't look at me no matter what I'm wearing."  What they don't realize is that they are going to get treated the way they look, which is much older than 16 and 17, and society and pop culture basically justifies that behavior for both the men and women.  Not only is it socially acceptable, but almost desirable for these female students to be completely objectified.    In that sense, no, we haven't really come that far from Leslie Gore and her cry-baby ways.  Women's power is still inevitably coming from the man.  I'm not saying we should ban Britney and Flo Rida from our student's iPods, but if nothing else, we should teach pop culture in education so that students can be aware of this hypocrisy, in gender roles and in other groups in society.  We need to teach our citizens to be informed, educated, and aware citizens when they leave our classroom.  Teaching students to think critically about the information presented to them is a perfect way to do this.