The Sociologist Series: Feminism and Women in Music

For a long time now more and more women have been making their way onto the charts and have been winning big time at award shows for music. Despite this growing representation of women in this section of the media, is there an institutionalised sexism in the music industry?

The first thing I should mention is that I am not in any way musically inclined, I only listen to what's on the radio and I am a massive mainstream pop fan because I love singing and dancing and that genre is easy to listen to, sing to and dance to, but I feel like for this topic it is the only section of music that is a necessity for me to look at as this is the music that every generation will hear when they are driving in their cars, shopping, or just watching tv.

The first female artist I want to look at is Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj is, perhaps, the most successful female rapper in history, for this reason she gets a lot of negative comments. Your basic "She can't sing" "So much autotune" "She's not as good as [insert male rappers name here]", but she also gets called a "bitch" for demanding respect from those around her and she is called a "slut" because apparently she is fucking every other male artist out there. This is the kind of abuse that someone like Drake or Lil' Wayne or Eminem would never suffer from. (Literally the only male artists I can name off the top of my head) They don't suffer this kind of abuse because if they slept with multiple women or had them gyrating against them in music videos (which they do) they are players, they are male role models. If one of them demands respect they are given the respect they crave. Nicki isn't. And Nicki knows that. In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzGZamtlRP0) she talks about the sexism against her in the industry she has chosen to go into. (I will not be mentioning the recent spat with Taylor when talking about Minaj's career and experiences as a woman because Minaj's problem was not about gender, it was about body image and race)

However, speaking about Taylor Swift we can mention this spat. In case you haven't heard Minaj
tweeted about the unjust nominations for the VMA's Music Video of the Year. Minaj's Anaconda was snubbed for the award despite it breaking multiple records and influencing our culture. After she tweeted Taylor Swift took it personally and basically called it "girl on girl hate" which was, frankly absurd. For a long time now Taylor Swift has done well in promoting feminism and she has been making massive strides for female success, but she jumped the gun a bit calling Nicki out on something that was never directed towards her in the first place. Minaj is not one to shy away from conflict and if she wanted to call Swift out, she would have just done it. This is an excellent example of White Feminism forgetting that some matters are just specific to black women or minority women and that's not something that should be a problem for white feminists. If anything support black feminist and minority group feminists in their bid to end racism and sexism.

That being said, Taylor did realise her mistake, Taylor apologised publicly and privately and she and Nicki are friends again and I for one would love to see a collaboration between the two.

The last thing I want to address is the way women are treated in music videos. The most obvious example of absolutely disgusting and vile treatment of women in a music video is Blurred Lines. Not only is the song about rape and ignoring the word "no" or absence of the word "yes", the women are also naked in the explicit version of the music video and are treated like props. It's not just pop music that treats women like this either. Hip Hop and Rap has not always been a place where women are used as props, but recently Black women in particular seem to be treated as sexual objects for men to grope or oggle at. This is just not right, but more props have to be given to the women who are slaying the music industry like Minaj, Swift, Beyonce, Fifth Harmony etc. they all manage in one way or another to ignore or even speak up against all the body shaming and sexualising of themselves and they are all winning so many awards and showing the world that women can do it too.

There is so much more I could address, but I think that's enough for today.

As always feel free to comment your own opinion below,

Until next time,

Stephanie

PIXAR!!!

I have been a fan of Pixar for my entire life, they have made 15 major motion pictures and 15 consecutive blockbusters, no joke, these people know how to create a good movie. If I had access to a time machine I would, and this is no lie, I would go back to the time they were creating Toy Story (The original) just to be a part of that magic. Everything about Pixar movies makes me love them more and more.

Perhaps the only movies to come out of Pixar that I do not enjoy are all the sequels to Cars (I am including Planes etc. as sequels even if I know they aren't). But don't get me wrong the first Cars is a decent movie, it just didn't need a sequel.

In order my least favourite to favourite Pixar movies (based on the wikipedia list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_films ) are:

15- Cars 2
14- Cars
13- Ratatouille
12- Brave (I know it's very pro-women, I just love the other Pixar movies too much, they're my childhood)
11- WALL-E
10- Monster's University
9- Up
8- Finding Nemo
7- Toy Story 3
6- Monster's Inc.
5- A Bug's Life
4- The Incredibles
3- Toy Story
2- Toy Story 2
1- Inside Out

I think Inside Out and Toy Story 2 are pretty interchangeable for me, but because Inside Out is so fresh in my mind, that one is going first.

Speaking of Inside Out, I saw it today and it was incredible, I recommend it highly to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. At the beginning, before the movie there is a short called "Lava" I cried from about halfway through that to the end of the movie. I was overwhelmed with the brilliantly creative storyline, the difference and similarities between all the emotions. Riley's life in parallel was just all done so well. And the ending was so good, so funny, so heartwarming, I can tell this will become a staple in Pixar's history.

As I've gotten older I've come around to the critical thinking of most bloggers (as I'm sure you can tell based on my posts) and when watching a movie I try to look at the positives because filmmaking must be bloody difficult, but I also enjoy looking at the negatives. Call me pessimistic or picky or whatever, but it's nice, as far as I am concerned, to be able to pick apart a movie and look at it from every perspective.

So with Inside Out for instance, whilst there was a female protagonist who was able to express every emotion, not just the typically "feminine" ones, and relationships with parents and her relationship with herself were explored thoroughly, there were no primary POC in Riley's life and no real look into sexuality (although she is only 11 and was only just beginning to think about boys and such). That being said Mindy Kaling, who voiced disgust is a POC and she was freaking awesome in this movie. There was equal representation of men and women within Riley's emotions and overall I would say I have no real complaints about the movie at all. (Except my mascara ran something rotten)

But yeah, the next Pixar movie is called "The Good Dinosaur" and the first trailer has been released... I have no comment on whether it looks good or not yet as the trailer doesn't appear to give anything away yet, but it will be really interesting to see more. (Also Toy Story 4 has been confirmed so fucking get in with that one, although they are hinting it won't be about Buzz and Woody so I will be sad because Tom Hanks is my favourite actor and Tim Allen slays all my faves as Buzz Lightyear)

So to summarise, Pixar is my favourite film making company, if anyone wants to get me to the Pixar Studios I will love you forever, and if Pete Docter or John Lasseter, or any Pixar employee wants to tell me if the rumours about Toy Story 4 are true or not then feel free.

As always feel free to leave a comment below about your Pixar opinions, whether you disagree with my top 15 list or not.

Until next time,

Stephanie

The Sociologist Series: Feminism and Disney's "The Little Mermaid"

So this is like a new thing I am trying out where I analyse a popular piece of film, literature, or even a song, from the perspective of a group of sociologists. Today I have picked a classic Disney film, The Little Mermaid, and in the most obvious way possible, it will be about feminism.


Disclaimer: As I consider myself to be a feminist these are my opinions on feminism applied to this movie, but feminism is an umbrella term for many individuals who may disagree with me on this movie's positives and negatives.

Firstly it's worth noting that this movie does pass the Bechdel Test... sort of. Ariel's story does appear to focus on Eric and her mindless love for him, but she does actually discuss becoming a human with Ursula (of course one of the reasons for her wanting to become human is Eric anyway, but the discussion is not directly about him so it passes)

The Bechdel Test, of course, is not the be all and end all of a feminist movie, or at least a female positive one anyway.

The main argument for this movie not being a step forward for women is that she falls in love with a man she doesn't know, and he rescues her, she gives up her voice for him and leaves her whole family and life as she knows it under the sea for him. He dictates her every move and they get married after three days of knowing each other (of course with some set backs)

However, it is worth mentioning that Ariel was in love with the "human world" first, she always wanted to be part of our world, but she never had a real plan. How would she cope on land without a home or food or anything. So she got clever, she found a hot guy with a shit tonne of money (a prince no less!) and she got him to love her back. By providing herself with this safety net she wouldn't be homeless when she got her legs.

Well that's how I would like to see it anyway, but that's very idealistic of me. The truth is The Little Mermaid is a good female empowering film in the sense that it does give girl's the idea that it is good to chase your dreams no matter what your father or a talking crab says (and yes, Sebastian is a crab not a lobster) and it teaches girls that it is okay to be different and want different things.

On the other hand, it teaches girls to put men first, and to put all your hopes into one man and not into yourself. It teaches girls that to look pretty you have to have a tiny waist and flowing locks of hair and receive the praise of a man to feel good about yourself.

But for me there is one thing about The Little Mermaid that really makes it good in the eyes of a feminist and that is King Triton.

I know it's odd to see a man as the ultimate feminist icon (very Parks and Recreation's Ron receiving Woman of the Year) but here's the thing. Feminism isn't about hating men it's about hating the Patriarchy and one of the things that comes out of the patriarchy is toxic masculinity. And toxic masculinity is the very thing Triton, in my eyes, helps to destroy.

At the beginning of the movie, King Triton is angry and masculine almost all the time in front
of Ariel, he never seems to care about feelings or emotions or love (and rightly so in the case of  Eric, like she never met the guy and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him? Kay Ariel), but when her back was turned you could see that he was stressed, he had no idea what he was doing, it's clear the mother is no longer there (presumably death I don't know if that's in the original story or not) and Triton has been left with the responsibility of SEVEN DAUGHTERS! I would find that difficult enough let alone also being King of the Sea.

Anyway getting off track.

Triton sees Ariel putting herself in danger, going above sea to watch the human world, who would definitely catch her, run tests on her, maybe kill her (almost definitely kill her) and he panics and shouts, he becomes a typical "manly man" which drives her away.

Now we compare this to the man we see at the end. He sacrifices himself for his daughter so that she can go on with her life, he doesn't tell her "I'll do this if you stay under the sea" he just does it, because that's what a good parent does. And at the very end he goes to her wedding and gives his (presumed) blessing for her to do something he perceived as dangerous. (In the Little Mermaid 2, lord help us all, he does the same for Melody, he does whatever he can to make his girls happy and he becomes a more kind-hearted person by the end of it)

So yeah, my opinion is that Ariel has her moments and of course having the woman as a main character is great (same with most popular Disney movies) and passing the bechdel test is grand too, but in this movie, Triton, for me, does the best job in dismantling a barrier put in the way by the patriarchy.

I am aware many feminists will see this as a problem as I have named a man the feminist character in this story, but meh, I think men can suffer from the hands of the patriarchy too so... yay for smashing toxic masculinity Triton!

At the end of the day though this movie has not revolutionised the way the world sees women or men, so in times like this we turn to Sebastian for words of wisdom about this place we call home...

Truer words were never spoken.

As always feel free to leave me your opinions in the comments below,

Until next time,

Stephanie