Degrading Women Through Song

In todays society, whatever is put out into the world, wether it be on YouTube, Radio, blogs or facebook, many people can view it and learn a lot from it. There is a rapid wild spread of sexual exploitation of women in songs and even in music videos. Genres ranging from country to pop to hip hop to rap usually have traces of degrading women, or women singing about fulfilling sexual desires, etc.

Many influential artists like Pitbull, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Trace Adkins put out good beats, that once heard we just want to dance to and sometimes we forget about the true meaning of the song. But when listened to closely, we see these artist exploit women. They talk about them sexual, disregard their intelligence and only talk about their appearance and they sometimes sing about getting violent with women.

                                           Songs degrading women

What kind if right do these men have that allow them to link sexual references and violence together. These  influential artists have big influences on society, where millions of people ranging from 10 up listen to these songs and learn from them. Brian Primack, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh,did an analysis on Billboard 2005 magazine issue and revealed that  103 of the 297 songs referenced sexual activity. Out of those, degrading references occurred 65 percent of the time, whereas non-degrading lyrics occurred 36 percent of the time. Even nine of the top 20 Billboard hits of 2011 were found to contain an overall theme of explicit sexual references.  

Many people listen to these songs and soak up this information, thinking it is okay to speak and treat women the way they are treated in songs. Many of these songs are inappropriate and only portray women as these sex slaves without any thought to them. Songs like these should not be allowed to be played on radios especially since it reaches such a young audience. Though these are catchy songs made by powerful artists, some of these songs should be banned due to their explicit content. 


citation

Popular song lyrics contain sex, alcohol and no regrets. Tori Ackerman. Desert News. 4/12/2012. desertnews.com