Tuesday, May 5, 2009
YouTube Keyword Search
The YouTube clips that I refer to in my critical analysis are embedded in an older post, Week 7: "Reading YouTube"
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sampling of Media Expectations for Adolescent Females
FINAL PROJECT: CRITICAL MEDIA ANALYSIS
Cultural Expectations for Adolescent Females as Represented in Media
To summarize, my findings are…
Adolescent females are expected to be physically perfect.
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
Conversation in my class April, 2009
“I prefer to go by Ms. du’Monceaux rather than Mrs. Du’Monceaux”
“Why?’
“Well, why does a woman’s title have to include whether she is married or not? I wear my rings just like a man does…. And a man’s title doesn’t indicate if he is married. Why should mine need to? I also didn’t take my husband’s last name; why should a woman need to literally change her identity because she chooses to be in a relationship with a man?
“Isn’t that unprofessional though? That’s what my mom says.”
“Very interesting that you point that out; it is likely considered unprofessional, but I would rather be unprofessional than unequal.”
Intro
I am very fascinated that many of my young female students do not feel or notice that we live in a culture that favors white males, that has unfavorable and unjust expectations for young women. And my male students don’t seem to notice when they contribute to the culture that perpetuates the objectification of women. Many would even argue that our culture does no such thing, but I have spent a semester with these ideas percolating in the back of my mind. What follows is a look at media representations that reveal the differing gender expectations for adolescent females.
THE EVIDENCE
YouTube
While the ability for anyone to publish videos to YouTube makes it an often very unreliable source for information… it is a very reliable source for finding out cultural values. After all, YouTube hosts more videos and views than any other website. So it is an excellent place to answer the question, what are people recording and watching about adolescents.
I will begin with the resulting videos for the search “adolescent female.”
[embedded clips can be found in “Reading YouTube” blog entry]
First, an amateur re-creation of the popular Trogdor cartoon Teen Girl Squad which consists of four characters, “the cheerleader,” “so and so,” “the ugly one” and “what’s-her-face.” In each episode, the girls do stereotypic activities like going to the mall and putting on makeup. Usually everyone dies except the cheerleader, who ends up going on a date.
Second, a video that explains the pressure on young women to fit the bust – waist – hip ratios of 36-24-36. Girls speak candidly about their own negative body images while flipping through beauty magazines. This video makes real the expectations that girls feel are on their shoulders.
Third, an extended academic seminar piece on anorexia.
Fourth, an Asian music video featuring a very thin and pretty young singer.
Each of these videos emphasizes the expectation that a young woman is valued for her appearance – to be valued, she must be thin, beautiful and sexy.
Next I did a YouTube search for “teen girl”
First, the original cartoon series Team Girl Squad from the makers of Trogdor (described previously).
Second, a restricted video titled Naked Teen Girls Learn to Kiss. I expected to find videos of this nature, but looking at the search tags, I became appalled. Search tags are key words that a video up-loader lists to help people find their video using the search tool. These were the search words used: lesbian kiss, sexy girl, teen, cute, rape, licking, make out, dykes, bathing girl ...
Third, a TV interview showing a young female who has been beaten by a police officer.
Fourth, an academic piece on hormonal differences between genders.
Fifth, the only video clip that shows American culture valuing a teen girl for something other than her body… a six foot eight basketball player. So the one time we have a teen girl show up on YouTube not being beaten or objectified, she is valued only for her stereotypic male attributes – sports prowess and unusually “heightened” physical size.
Lastly, a video response to a YouTuber who has been chronicling his middle-aged romantic obsession with a seventeen year old female; the original videos have been removed by YouTube.
THE IMPLICATIONS (TOPIC SEARCH ON YOUTUBE)
Adolescent females are expected to be physically perfect.
The video titled “36-24-36” features interviews with girls who directly say that magazines and TV show you what a girl is supposed to look like. One young woman states how no one with an eating disorder chooses to have an eating disorder. The video “From Ophelia to Anna” is likely too long for most viewers, but details from a very academic standpoint the pressure young women face. The Asian music video gives an example of what an adolescent girl “should” look like; thin, sexy, blemish-free, beautiful.
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
“Teen Girl Squad” and the independent re-make of it summarize this idea easily; each cartoon centers on a trivial activity resulting in the arbitrary death of everyone except the cheerleader. For example, the cheerleader suggests, “Let’s get ready to look so good” then each character dies – by arrows, robots, and a dinosaur. In the end, the cheerleader agrees to go on a date while standing in the grave yard of her friends. While mocking in tone, these cartoons acknowledge the expectation that teen girls are shallow
Even the character names in “Teen Girl Squad” mock the way that women are perceived as fitting into only three categories 1. Pretty but shallow (cheerleader stereotype, “the cheerleader”), 2. Ugly (“the ugly one”) or 3. Unmemorable. The characters who are not memorably pretty, shallow, or ugly, is just unidentified… “what’s-her-face” and “so-and-so.”
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
Young women are sexualized most clearly in the blocked YouTube clip, “Naked Girls Learn to Kiss.” The link between teen girls and their value as sex objects in culture is so clear here that there is hardly any explaining to be done. The only argument I can see coming up that this video is supposed to be about beauty, not objectification. A look at the search tags for the video, however, will clearly refute the “natural beauty” argument.
The "search tags" are: lesbian kiss, sexy girl, teen, cute, rape, ,licking, make out, dykes, bathing girl ...
In what world should “cute” and “rape” ever label the same thing? And what hope is there to argue that this video is beautiful and non-oppressive in nature when the video’s publisher flags it with the highly offensive word “dyke”? Is this a case of a few bad apples? Before viewing this video, you first read these tags, then you are given a warning for explicit content, then you must sign in to a google account to view it. That’s a lot of steps… you have got to really want to see what is advertised as “rape” and “licking” and “lesbians” to get to this video (which I didn’t even do)… but the video has over 40,000 eager viewers. That is a lot of bad apples.
TOP OF THE MUSIC CHARTS – CONTENT AND IMAGES OF POP MUSIC
Now, I will turn my research from YouTube to the Music Charts. Popular music can reveal a lot about a culture. It can show us universal values and ideas because, after all, it is free and low-cost entertainment and we as listeners choose what to listen to, request, and purchase.
Low Flo Rida #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 2008
[Intro - T-Pain]
Mmmmmmmm
Let me talk to 'em
Let me talk to 'em
Mmmmmmm
Let me talk to 'em
C'mon!
[Chorus (T-Pain):]
Shawty had them apple bottom jeans (jeans)
Boots with the fur (with the fur)
The whole club was looking at her
She hit the floor (she hit the floor)
Next thing you know
Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low
Them baggy sweat pants
And the Reebok's with the straps (with the straps)
She turned around and gave that big booty a smack (hey)
She hit the floor (she hit the floor)
Next thing you know
Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low
[Flo-Rida]
I ain't never seen something that'll make me go
This crazy all night spending my doe
Had the million dollar vibe and a body to go
Them birthday cakes they stole the show
So sexual
She was flexible professional
Drinking X&O
Hold up, wait a minute, do I see what I think? Whoa
Did her thing seen shawty get low
Ain't the same when it's up that close
Make it rain I'm making it snow
Work the pole I gotta bank roll
I'm gonna say that I prefer the no clothes
I'm in to that I love women exposed
She threw it back at me I gave her mo
Cash ain't a problem I know where it go
[Chorus (T-Pain)]
[Flo-Rida]
Hey shawty what I gotta do to get you home
My jeans filled with guap and they're ready for showing
Cadillacs laid back for the sexy grown
Patron on the rocks that'll make you moan
One stack (come on), two stacks (come on), three stacks (come on)
Now that's three grand
What you think I'm playing baby girl I'm the man
I'm dealing rubber bands
That's when I threw her legs on my shoulders
I knew it was over
That heny and Cola got me like a soldier
She ready for Rover, I couldn't control her
So lucky on me I was just like clover
Shawty was hot like a toaster
Sorry but I had to fold her
Like a pornography poster
She showed her
[Chorus (T-Pain)]
[Flo-Rida]
Whoa shawty yeah she was worth the money
Little mama took my cash
And I ain't want it back
The way she bent that back
Got all them paper stacks
Tattoo above her crack
I had to handle that
I was zoned in sexy woman
Let me show it make me want it
Two in the morning I'm zoned in
Them rosee bottles foaming
She wouldn't stop
Made it drop
Shawty dipped that pop and lock
Had to break her off that guap guap: a word meaning “mad dough”
Gal was fine just like my glock glock: a pistol
[Chorus (T-Pain)]
IMPLICATIONS (CONTENT OF POPULAR MUSIC)
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
The music of this song is what many would refer to as “bump and grind” meaning the song has a beat that can be danced to in the highly sexual “grinding” style. The sexual content of the song is not only suggested through the beat, but directly stated in the lyrics. The song is about a woman, who is unnamed but referred to as “shawty” who hits the dance floor, smacks her tightly-clad butt, and “gets low” or grinds in an increasingly “authentic” position. The singer likes the things that are sexual about her, saying “the whole place was looking at her,” “I ain’t never seen nothin’ that make me go this crazy,” and “Oh shawty yeah, gotta get you home.” If any sexual references are ambiguous for the audience at this point, Flo Rida makes it completely clear when he sings, “I'm gonna say that I prefer the no clothes I'm in to that I love women exposed.”
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
The singer gives the woman money like a stripper “Work the pole I gotta bank roll,” which she throws back at him (potentially in disgust; it is unclear if she is a professional dancer), “She threw it back at me I gave her mo.” Here it’s clear that the singer assumes the dancer is motivated by money, insisting on it even when she throws the money back to him.
Eventually the narrator gets the woman drunk and pays her three thousand dollars to have sex with him. Language at the end of the song makes it clear that the woman is motivated only by money and easily manipulated with drink
Patron on the rocks that'll make you moan
One stack (come on), two stacks (come on), three stacks (come on)
Now that's three grand
What you think I'm playing baby girl I'm the man
I'm dealing rubber bands
That's when I threw her legs on my shoulders
The “next day,” the singer reflects that “yeah she was worth the money […] the way she bent that back” and he makes it clear that the woman only wanted his money, not his love or personal satisfaction when he says, “Had to break her off that guap,” guap a slang term for a large sum of money.
IMAGES OF POPULAR MUSIC STARS
2008 Top Male Artist Chris Brown
2008 Top Female Artist Rihanna
IMPLICATIONS (POP MUSIC IMAGES)
Adolescent females are expected to be physically perfect.
This image of Rihanna clearly reveals that role models for adolescent girls (famous and successful women in popular culture) are setting increasingly high standards for sexualized physical beauty.
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
Rihanna emphasizes her sexuality by showing much of her breasts and by tilting her head, looking coyly at the camera. The photographer emphasizes these two elements by choosing a tight crop that shows little more than Rihanna’s body
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
As it happens, this photo was taken at a fundraiser for stem-cell research, but the philanthropic goals of Rihanna are literally cropped out of the picture.
CONCLUSION
As I began this project, I anticipated that expectations for adolescent females revealed through media would be centered on sexuality and physical appearance -- and my project proved these two expectations prevalent through popular music, images of popular females, and YouTube results for teen girl and adolescent female.
I was more surprised by the expectation for adolescent females to be shallow, but found that it was backed up with comical pieces on YouTube, and the content and imagery of popular music.
Further Research
As I started following the trail of 2008’s top male and female artists Rihanna and Chris Brown, I realized that another more subtle implication is out there. I have chosen not to explore the relationship between the two pop stars for the purposes of this project, but I find that the domestic abuse case and subsequent excusal are pivotal moments in the pop culture scene. Not only do we have media that sets a sexualized, physical, and shallow standard for young women, but we also see that when physical violence happens against females, it often is excused. A similar moment resulted in my YouTube search with an interview with a young woman who had been beaten by a police officer and needed to struggle to have the officer reprimanded. Here I found to most shocking expectation of all: that young women are expected to forgive physical abuse at the hands of men. If I were to do another project, I would focus on this disturbing hypothesis.
Cultural Expectations for Adolescent Females as Represented in Media
To summarize, my findings are…
Adolescent females are expected to be physically perfect.
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
Conversation in my class April, 2009
“I prefer to go by Ms. du’Monceaux rather than Mrs. Du’Monceaux”
“Why?’
“Well, why does a woman’s title have to include whether she is married or not? I wear my rings just like a man does…. And a man’s title doesn’t indicate if he is married. Why should mine need to? I also didn’t take my husband’s last name; why should a woman need to literally change her identity because she chooses to be in a relationship with a man?
“Isn’t that unprofessional though? That’s what my mom says.”
“Very interesting that you point that out; it is likely considered unprofessional, but I would rather be unprofessional than unequal.”
Intro
I am very fascinated that many of my young female students do not feel or notice that we live in a culture that favors white males, that has unfavorable and unjust expectations for young women. And my male students don’t seem to notice when they contribute to the culture that perpetuates the objectification of women. Many would even argue that our culture does no such thing, but I have spent a semester with these ideas percolating in the back of my mind. What follows is a look at media representations that reveal the differing gender expectations for adolescent females.
THE EVIDENCE
YouTube
While the ability for anyone to publish videos to YouTube makes it an often very unreliable source for information… it is a very reliable source for finding out cultural values. After all, YouTube hosts more videos and views than any other website. So it is an excellent place to answer the question, what are people recording and watching about adolescents.
I will begin with the resulting videos for the search “adolescent female.”
[embedded clips can be found in “Reading YouTube” blog entry]
First, an amateur re-creation of the popular Trogdor cartoon Teen Girl Squad which consists of four characters, “the cheerleader,” “so and so,” “the ugly one” and “what’s-her-face.” In each episode, the girls do stereotypic activities like going to the mall and putting on makeup. Usually everyone dies except the cheerleader, who ends up going on a date.
Second, a video that explains the pressure on young women to fit the bust – waist – hip ratios of 36-24-36. Girls speak candidly about their own negative body images while flipping through beauty magazines. This video makes real the expectations that girls feel are on their shoulders.
Third, an extended academic seminar piece on anorexia.
Fourth, an Asian music video featuring a very thin and pretty young singer.
Each of these videos emphasizes the expectation that a young woman is valued for her appearance – to be valued, she must be thin, beautiful and sexy.
Next I did a YouTube search for “teen girl”
First, the original cartoon series Team Girl Squad from the makers of Trogdor (described previously).
Second, a restricted video titled Naked Teen Girls Learn to Kiss. I expected to find videos of this nature, but looking at the search tags, I became appalled. Search tags are key words that a video up-loader lists to help people find their video using the search tool. These were the search words used: lesbian kiss, sexy girl, teen, cute, rape, licking, make out, dykes, bathing girl ...
Third, a TV interview showing a young female who has been beaten by a police officer.
Fourth, an academic piece on hormonal differences between genders.
Fifth, the only video clip that shows American culture valuing a teen girl for something other than her body… a six foot eight basketball player. So the one time we have a teen girl show up on YouTube not being beaten or objectified, she is valued only for her stereotypic male attributes – sports prowess and unusually “heightened” physical size.
Lastly, a video response to a YouTuber who has been chronicling his middle-aged romantic obsession with a seventeen year old female; the original videos have been removed by YouTube.
THE IMPLICATIONS (TOPIC SEARCH ON YOUTUBE)
Adolescent females are expected to be physically perfect.
The video titled “36-24-36” features interviews with girls who directly say that magazines and TV show you what a girl is supposed to look like. One young woman states how no one with an eating disorder chooses to have an eating disorder. The video “From Ophelia to Anna” is likely too long for most viewers, but details from a very academic standpoint the pressure young women face. The Asian music video gives an example of what an adolescent girl “should” look like; thin, sexy, blemish-free, beautiful.
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
“Teen Girl Squad” and the independent re-make of it summarize this idea easily; each cartoon centers on a trivial activity resulting in the arbitrary death of everyone except the cheerleader. For example, the cheerleader suggests, “Let’s get ready to look so good” then each character dies – by arrows, robots, and a dinosaur. In the end, the cheerleader agrees to go on a date while standing in the grave yard of her friends. While mocking in tone, these cartoons acknowledge the expectation that teen girls are shallow
Even the character names in “Teen Girl Squad” mock the way that women are perceived as fitting into only three categories 1. Pretty but shallow (cheerleader stereotype, “the cheerleader”), 2. Ugly (“the ugly one”) or 3. Unmemorable. The characters who are not memorably pretty, shallow, or ugly, is just unidentified… “what’s-her-face” and “so-and-so.”
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
Young women are sexualized most clearly in the blocked YouTube clip, “Naked Girls Learn to Kiss.” The link between teen girls and their value as sex objects in culture is so clear here that there is hardly any explaining to be done. The only argument I can see coming up that this video is supposed to be about beauty, not objectification. A look at the search tags for the video, however, will clearly refute the “natural beauty” argument.
The "search tags" are: lesbian kiss, sexy girl, teen, cute, rape, ,licking, make out, dykes, bathing girl ...
In what world should “cute” and “rape” ever label the same thing? And what hope is there to argue that this video is beautiful and non-oppressive in nature when the video’s publisher flags it with the highly offensive word “dyke”? Is this a case of a few bad apples? Before viewing this video, you first read these tags, then you are given a warning for explicit content, then you must sign in to a google account to view it. That’s a lot of steps… you have got to really want to see what is advertised as “rape” and “licking” and “lesbians” to get to this video (which I didn’t even do)… but the video has over 40,000 eager viewers. That is a lot of bad apples.
TOP OF THE MUSIC CHARTS – CONTENT AND IMAGES OF POP MUSIC
Now, I will turn my research from YouTube to the Music Charts. Popular music can reveal a lot about a culture. It can show us universal values and ideas because, after all, it is free and low-cost entertainment and we as listeners choose what to listen to, request, and purchase.
Low Flo Rida #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 2008
[Intro - T-Pain]
Mmmmmmmm
Let me talk to 'em
Let me talk to 'em
Mmmmmmm
Let me talk to 'em
C'mon!
[Chorus (T-Pain):]
Shawty had them apple bottom jeans (jeans)
Boots with the fur (with the fur)
The whole club was looking at her
She hit the floor (she hit the floor)
Next thing you know
Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low
Them baggy sweat pants
And the Reebok's with the straps (with the straps)
She turned around and gave that big booty a smack (hey)
She hit the floor (she hit the floor)
Next thing you know
Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low
[Flo-Rida]
I ain't never seen something that'll make me go
This crazy all night spending my doe
Had the million dollar vibe and a body to go
Them birthday cakes they stole the show
So sexual
She was flexible professional
Drinking X&O
Hold up, wait a minute, do I see what I think? Whoa
Did her thing seen shawty get low
Ain't the same when it's up that close
Make it rain I'm making it snow
Work the pole I gotta bank roll
I'm gonna say that I prefer the no clothes
I'm in to that I love women exposed
She threw it back at me I gave her mo
Cash ain't a problem I know where it go
[Chorus (T-Pain)]
[Flo-Rida]
Hey shawty what I gotta do to get you home
My jeans filled with guap and they're ready for showing
Cadillacs laid back for the sexy grown
Patron on the rocks that'll make you moan
One stack (come on), two stacks (come on), three stacks (come on)
Now that's three grand
What you think I'm playing baby girl I'm the man
I'm dealing rubber bands
That's when I threw her legs on my shoulders
I knew it was over
That heny and Cola got me like a soldier
She ready for Rover, I couldn't control her
So lucky on me I was just like clover
Shawty was hot like a toaster
Sorry but I had to fold her
Like a pornography poster
She showed her
[Chorus (T-Pain)]
[Flo-Rida]
Whoa shawty yeah she was worth the money
Little mama took my cash
And I ain't want it back
The way she bent that back
Got all them paper stacks
Tattoo above her crack
I had to handle that
I was zoned in sexy woman
Let me show it make me want it
Two in the morning I'm zoned in
Them rosee bottles foaming
She wouldn't stop
Made it drop
Shawty dipped that pop and lock
Had to break her off that guap guap: a word meaning “mad dough”
Gal was fine just like my glock glock: a pistol
[Chorus (T-Pain)]
IMPLICATIONS (CONTENT OF POPULAR MUSIC)
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
The music of this song is what many would refer to as “bump and grind” meaning the song has a beat that can be danced to in the highly sexual “grinding” style. The sexual content of the song is not only suggested through the beat, but directly stated in the lyrics. The song is about a woman, who is unnamed but referred to as “shawty” who hits the dance floor, smacks her tightly-clad butt, and “gets low” or grinds in an increasingly “authentic” position. The singer likes the things that are sexual about her, saying “the whole place was looking at her,” “I ain’t never seen nothin’ that make me go this crazy,” and “Oh shawty yeah, gotta get you home.” If any sexual references are ambiguous for the audience at this point, Flo Rida makes it completely clear when he sings, “I'm gonna say that I prefer the no clothes I'm in to that I love women exposed.”
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
The singer gives the woman money like a stripper “Work the pole I gotta bank roll,” which she throws back at him (potentially in disgust; it is unclear if she is a professional dancer), “She threw it back at me I gave her mo.” Here it’s clear that the singer assumes the dancer is motivated by money, insisting on it even when she throws the money back to him.
Eventually the narrator gets the woman drunk and pays her three thousand dollars to have sex with him. Language at the end of the song makes it clear that the woman is motivated only by money and easily manipulated with drink
Patron on the rocks that'll make you moan
One stack (come on), two stacks (come on), three stacks (come on)
Now that's three grand
What you think I'm playing baby girl I'm the man
I'm dealing rubber bands
That's when I threw her legs on my shoulders
The “next day,” the singer reflects that “yeah she was worth the money […] the way she bent that back” and he makes it clear that the woman only wanted his money, not his love or personal satisfaction when he says, “Had to break her off that guap,” guap a slang term for a large sum of money.
IMAGES OF POPULAR MUSIC STARS
2008 Top Male Artist Chris Brown
2008 Top Female Artist Rihanna
IMPLICATIONS (POP MUSIC IMAGES)
Adolescent females are expected to be physically perfect.
This image of Rihanna clearly reveals that role models for adolescent girls (famous and successful women in popular culture) are setting increasingly high standards for sexualized physical beauty.
Adolescent females are valued as sexual objects.
Rihanna emphasizes her sexuality by showing much of her breasts and by tilting her head, looking coyly at the camera. The photographer emphasizes these two elements by choosing a tight crop that shows little more than Rihanna’s body
Adolescent females are expected to be shallow.
As it happens, this photo was taken at a fundraiser for stem-cell research, but the philanthropic goals of Rihanna are literally cropped out of the picture.
CONCLUSION
As I began this project, I anticipated that expectations for adolescent females revealed through media would be centered on sexuality and physical appearance -- and my project proved these two expectations prevalent through popular music, images of popular females, and YouTube results for teen girl and adolescent female.
I was more surprised by the expectation for adolescent females to be shallow, but found that it was backed up with comical pieces on YouTube, and the content and imagery of popular music.
Further Research
As I started following the trail of 2008’s top male and female artists Rihanna and Chris Brown, I realized that another more subtle implication is out there. I have chosen not to explore the relationship between the two pop stars for the purposes of this project, but I find that the domestic abuse case and subsequent excusal are pivotal moments in the pop culture scene. Not only do we have media that sets a sexualized, physical, and shallow standard for young women, but we also see that when physical violence happens against females, it often is excused. A similar moment resulted in my YouTube search with an interview with a young woman who had been beaten by a police officer and needed to struggle to have the officer reprimanded. Here I found to most shocking expectation of all: that young women are expected to forgive physical abuse at the hands of men. If I were to do another project, I would focus on this disturbing hypothesis.
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