Today's Riot Grrrls

The Riot Grrrl movement started in the 90’s alongside the grunge and punk movements, with not many differentiating features of the grunge style besides it’s blatant stances in socio-political matters of women. This on-the-forefront feminist message created a whole new genre of music for women as well as a whole new way of life. The Riot Grrrl movement pushed for a DIY attitude on and off the music scene and called for the notice of injustices towards females across the globe. The movement also called for leading ladies to take charge and become role models towards other females in order to inspire and encourage other women to be everything that they’ve been told that they could not be. Although the movement mainly took up space with in the music world, this was to be applied to everything. If women could make and be serious about music, play instruments and write meaningful music, then they could take charge of business industries, science fields, and their own lives. Bands such as Bikini Kill, Pussy Riot, and Babes in Toyland encouraged women to get loud about the problems within their lives caused by a patriarchy. Although the actual punk and grunge movement is much smaller and less talked about, many women within pop culture today have taken to talking openly about the injustices of women, and yes they are still just as angry as the original riot predecessors.

For example Ladyfest started in the early 2000s, a whole festival devoted to all types of female artists, and all female bands like Nimmo, Skinny Girl Club, and Slutever have been popping up singing about the same problems the original Riot Grrrls have been loudly singing about for years. Even with more popular stars we see a comeuppance of feminist ideals within musicians especially. Pop artists such as Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé are often criticized for their produced music however it is very noticeable that they’ve slowly been introducing feminist issues and making statements for a long time on feminist issues. Whether music and media producers like it or not the feminist messages will not be going away anytime soon, or at least until some real changes are being made. It’s sad to think that today’s women are still singing about many of the same injustices as they were in the 90s, however with a larger force of leading ladies in music speaking out about feminism they can continue to riot louder than before – and sooner or later everyone will have to listen.

Blog Post 5

Hannah Dickie

2/26/15

Blog Post #5

Too Sexy Too Young

            In today’s society girls are being introduced to the idea that they are supposed to look a certain way at a very young age. They should have that skinny little body, the perfect hair and smile and always look pretty. In The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas she talks Toddlers and Tiaras a TV show on the TLC network. In this show young girls some still in diapers are sprayed tanned, teeth bleached, hair and makeup done all to be judged on how they look. The young girls think this is normal to and most of them are very proud of how many trophy’s they have won because it makes them pretty. Many of those young girls are begging to think all that matters in life is how you look which is sad. They aren't being taught the concept that it’s not what’s on the outside that counts it’s what’s on the inside. In one episode I remember watching one of the girls (who was probably barley three years) was dressed up as the prostitute Julia Roberts played in Pretty Women. She was on stage shacking her butt and dancing kind off provocatively for a three year old. The crowd filled with not only women but old men also was cheering laughing and clapping for her making her think this was okay. I mean really how is that okay? The little girl had on thigh high boots, a midriff tank top shirt and a very tight little skirt. This was teaching not only that little girl but all the little girls at the pageant that it’s okay to act this way as long as you’re going to get something out of it. In another episode a little girl dressed as Dolly Parton but this time the little girl had padded breasts and butt on so it made her look like she was Dolly Parton. What was the mother thinking though? Did she really think this was okay to put breasts on her three year old? This is just showing these young girls that if you don’t like something on your body just get surgery to make it the way you want it. I don’t agree with this show at all I think that once a girl is able to decide pageantry is something she wants to do then she should but moms should not be allowed to dress their three year old up as thirty year old women with barley anything on just to win a crown bigger than their kid.

            In the class discussion this we also discussed Abercrombie and the message their sending to children. I don’t know if you've ever been in their but they literally have pictures of guys with no shirts on and girls barley dressed hanging on their walls. Not only that but their clothes are three times smaller than they should be meaning a small in Abercrombie is like an extra extra small at any other store. It’s not only that they sell to older teenagers they have a children’s store that sells pretty much the same stuff as the one  for adults except it’s in children’s sizes. There is no way a seven year old needs to be wearing the same shirt as an eighteen year old. I used to shop in the kids store for jeans because of how short I am and they were the only store where I could buy jeans that didn't drag all along the floor. They had belly shirts in there for little children and there is no way their shorts could cover anyone’s butt and they were supposed to be for young children. One skirt I did buy there didn't even last me from the begging of summer to the end because it was so short and tight. Stores are pretty much marketing sexiness to young children only the children don’t understand this they just want to wear what everyone else in their class is wearing. Pink a branch off Victoria’s Secret is doing the same thing selling push up bathing suits and bras to young girls. It’s almost impossible to go into Pink and find a bra that doesn't have some sort of padding in it. Why do girls so young need this? Why does anyone need this? Does anyone ever really buy push up bras for themselves, I doubt it girls buy it with the attention of attracting boys. It’s a problem that girls so young are being taught that if they don’t have big breasts by the time their like fifteen they need to buy s 50 dollar to push up what they do have to make boys like them. In the end most things are done to please the males in society and this really needs to change.        

Blog Entry # 5

Lorena Labour Aguasvivas

27 February 2015

Professor Santos 

Women and Sexuality 

      

            According to Chapter one In Douglas, focused on what our society has done to encourage and applaud sexuality among women. All the movies, Advertisements, magazines, in general always fill the women’s lives with the wrong example of that men what men expect from women, Media does not care about the reputation that you will have in the future, that’s why dressing a certain way (Sexual) is what really benefits them. And In another hand with have the male audience learning how to dominate women and the importance of their body image. Media has the power to change that. Because it’s perhaps the new normal. Today in class we talk about music and how women’s music is citizens and always giving credit to the man’s music.  The first music video that we watched was “ Girls, Girls, Girls” by the Motley Crew. The video shows a man going to a strip club and watch the strippers dance in front of them. I would say that, even though, this was in the 1987 I think it was controversial, not I compared to today, not really that controversial, because in the video the women are in a strip club, so that’s what you do in the strip club. However in today’s world women dance in a sexy way not matter the place, they feel that they have to show off their bodies in order for them to produce the way that they are producing. I think that guys do not even look at the lyrics of the song because they are too focused on what the video is showing. I think this is the women’s job to put a stop to this because they are not force to do these things they do this because they want to show off their bodies and what they don’t realize is that they are sending a wrong message to this new generation.  Girls would think that if they don’t expose their bodies to the world they will be less important and relevant to this society that in my opinion I think is wrong.

Blog Post

Mindy Lara

February 27, 2015

Blog Post

Music

            In class this week I learned that the way the media and men view women has changed in such a bad way over time. First off with the different videos we watched in class it clearly showed how we are just entertainment for guys and over the years are just viewed so terribly. It has gotten so much worse based off of the videos. The one that was showed to us by Nelly was practically porn as a music video and it’s so sad. This was the one out of the three videos that shocked me the most. The fact that anyone, no matter how old you are, can go on YouTube and watch a video like this is ridiculous. People that watch the video are so shocked by just the visual that they don’t get the chance to listen to the lyrics. Nelly states, “It must be her ass, cause it ain’t her face.” That has to be one of the most disrespectful things I have heard. He also states, “Girl with a great body, but a fucked up face.” This video and many like it today send messages to women that men only want them for their bodies and that getting judged off their bodies is just how things have to be, in my opinion this is how I see it. Instead of having women doing things for the right reasons, you only see them as objects for the attention of men because this is the only thing media buys.

Music in general has changed so much over time and there’s no understanding of where it will head towards in the future because of the way it is now. Music used to mean something and now some of it is created with little intention of being special. It’s a few words with a nice beat that is really catchy and that’s it. We see this a lot in genres like pop, hip hop, rap, and r&b. I believe that is one of the reasons that the videos to some of these songs are extremely ridiculous especially with women now since people know that it will get many people talking about it weather it’s in good or bad way, it still gets the attention and the views. I hate that this is the way things are and wish things could change but I feel like if the media makes people more successful by showing women the way they are doing then it’s just going to get worse every single time. Not many artist speak up about it and that just shows that they are all for that which is really sad. 

            

Women and Pop Culture Entry 5

Alexandria Scudder

27 February 2015

Entry 5

Pop Culture and Pornography

            Over the years expectations of women have changed drastically.  I have realized this a lot through the years but this week during class it became clearer to me how much the views on women have changed.  I realized this while watching the music videos by the Mötley Crüe, Tupac, and Nelly.  Seeing how the images of women changed from the late 1980s to the early 2000s was shocking.  In the 1980s women were criticized for acting the way they did in the Mötley Crüe video “Girls, Girls, Girls” but the way the women acted in the video “Tip Drill” by Nelly was out of control.  Seeing women degrade themselves the way they did in that video after so many women have worked for equality was very disappointing and not a good image for girls to look up to.

            There are a lot of negative influences for young girls to look up to but not very many positive influences.  Negative influences can be found in music, television shows, and movies.  In the music industry most women only have successful music because of the sexual content they have within their lyrics.  Along with the sexual content in music it is also on the television.  Television shows portray negative body images, false relationships, and also unreal expectations.  Watching reality television creates a negative atmosphere for young girls to grow up in.

            By creating a better atmosphere for young girls to grow up in I believe that women would have an easier time becoming equals to men.  Seeing how men are portrayed in the media, music culture, and television compared to women is disappointing because it is believed that women have made such great strides but we are till constantly being held back.

Images of Women

Gina Lagrotteria

February 27, 2015

Blog Post #5

Women in Music Videos & Advertisements

This week in class we discussed the images of women that are portrayed in music videos and advertisements. The videos of the way women present themselves over the years in music videos have changed. Music Videos are now basically pornography’s rather than normal music videos. In class we watched music videos that toke place in different generations.

The first video that we watched was “Girls, Girls,Girls “ by the Motley Crew. This video was made in the year of 1987. In this video, it shows bikers going to a strip club and watching the strippers dance. Obviously the strippers are dancing in a sexual way but the moves that they do in the video, I would not consider what is todays sexual moves. They did have skimpy clothes on though, but were more covered in areas that you usually do not find in music videos today. The men were throwing dollar bills at the women as they danced on the pole. Even though this is disturbing to see women act and portray themselves in such a degrading way, Comparing with the music videos that come out now that this is not considered as bad. At the time period were it toke place, it was probably a very controversial music video as women were dancing on the pole and were not wearing clothes in some places that they used to.

One of the other videos that we watched was “Tip Drill “ by Nelly. This video actually made me uncomfortable to watch and the only thing I could think about while watching this video was why would girls even want to show themselves in this way. This was not a music video, it was a pornography. In this video, you see girls showing themselves in a highly sexualized way, they were all barely clothed and at some points they were not even clothed at all as there was boobs and ass shown. You also see girls rubbing up against one another. Seeing this video was a huge difference in the change of music video as compared to the one produced by the Motley Crew in 1987.

Seeing these videos makes me wonder, why do these girls show themselves in this way? Is it because they want to show their “power” or is it because the advisement is controlling them. I do not know how anyone could ever want to show herself in such a sexual manor. These videos are so easy to access these days because of technology. It is not like no one is going to see these videos; you can have these videos at the click of a button.

Pornography is a huge part of today’s society. In the reading “ Women, Pop Music and Pornography” by Meredith Levande she states, “ Pornographic images are everywhere, but they did not magically appear. They are becoming increasingly corporate and are part of larger business model. From the auto industry to wireless services to hotel accommodations, pornographic imagery has crept into the mainstream because it is owned by everyday companies”. When you have these well known companies , portraying girls in sexual ways to promote their company it does not help the view and images of women as a whole. This week my class was assigned a homework assignment to find pictures of women that are used in advertisement to promote a product in a sexual or offensive way and tweet it with the hash tag not buying it( #NotBuyingIt) . By doing this ,we want people to understand that showing women in this such a way is not going to make your product well known, companies need to find other ways than using a girls body to promote their business.

I am astonished of how the images and videos of women are now days. I do not even want to think of how women are going to be seen in 10 years, is it going to be normal to see all body parts? I feel like seeing women portraying themselves in such a way, is almost like showing they do not respect themselves and how can someone respect you, if you do not respect yourself.

Toddlers and Pressures

Chelsea Morganelli

ENG 199-003

Professor Santos

2/27/15

Blog post 5

            In the world today, it seems that young girls are growing up faster than they should be. During the summer I work at a camp and I have seen these young girls chasing after boys and calling them their boyfriends. It’s cute when they have a crush and then forget about it five minutes later and go play. But it seems to take up all their time and energy to get this boy to like them. They obsess over how they look and all about what the boy is doing instead of enjoying their childhood. These kinds of pressures are already hitting girls at this young age.

            This thought came to me in class during the discussion of chapter “Sex “R” Us” in Douglas’s book. Douglas writes about young girls in pageants that are dressing up like grown women and wearing a ton of makeup. Mothers at these pageants are encouraging their daughters to look and act grown up in a competitive way. This is clearly unhealthy for them and Douglas states, “Child psychologists who denounced the emphasis on looking good and pleasing others as unhealthy for girls” (Douglas, 159). These young girls are already feeling the pressure to look like adults. The television show Toddlers and Tiaras is a great example of the kind of pageants I am discussing. In the show, young girls parade around on stage with a face full of makeup and a glittery outfit on competing to win the pageant. The little girls in pageants may now have it in their head that they must compete with other girls to get what they want. They now think that they have to look a certain way because their mothers or pageant coaches are telling them they have to.

            I remember when I was that age; I couldn’t care less about what I looked like. Maybe once in a while when I was shopping with my mom I would find a shirt I liked with a dog or something on it. For the most part, I just wanted to play with my friends and be a kid. Now, young girls are growing up faster and want to be older than they are by dressing and acting older. 

Music/ Pop Culture

Lauren Turcotte
Feb. 27 2015
Blog post

Music/Pop Culture

In class today we talked a lot about grunge music and how it was pretty much male dominant. Women eventually started to emerge and produce this particular type of music. Gender is what plays the major role in this topic. Women were supposed to be into pop music and not to be taken seriously. Women were supposed to write pop music and be cute. I think at first the media wasn't sure what to make of it because it seemed like such a male type of style. It was very rock mixed with a lot of yelling in my opinion. The women who participated in this style of music were really showing what they were feeling. They expressed their views on the world and I think people found it kind of intimidating. This is what lead into the idea of the disappearing women. The fact that women were not supposed to be into this type of music the media decided that it would be best to pretend they didn't exist. Because the media was trying to ignore the women and their grunge style music, they were able to produce their own music.

Women in pop culture, even today never seem to be taken seriously. Taylor Swift for instance, all her songs always seem to revolve around ex -boyfriends  and she gets a lot of slack for it. On one side people feel for her because she is really singing her feeling in her her songs, but on the other side people could take it as she is trying to get attention by the media. Some people feel that if an artist doesn't write their own music then it isn't sincere or true. I think that it depends on the way the artist sings the song. Obviously they wouldn't sing the song if it had connection to them at all. The artist can put all the feeling into the song then it doesn't really matter whether or not they actually write the song. 

Music/ Blog 5

Morgan Bilodeau

February 24, 2015

       Music

            In class this week we talked about women in music and how they are shown in music videos. Some music videos show women in extremely sexual ways. For example some videos shown in class were “Girls, Girls, Girls” by the Motley Crue and “Tip Drill” by Nelly. “Girls, Girls, Girls” is from 1987. It’s a song about strip clubs and girls that work in them. The video is showing girls in strip clubs stripping while men are watching them. The girls have lingerie on but there isn’t really full nudity in this music video. The next song we talked about in class was “Tip Drill” by Nelly. This video was released in 2003. It shows women in skimpy bathing suits at a mansion. Some of the girls were even naked in a bathtub. One girl lifted up her bathing suit bottoms and exposed her vaginal area to the world. Women have always been portrayed in music videos in sexual ways but as you can see by these music videos that every year they get more explicit. From 1987 to 2003 music videos just keep getting worse and still are today. To me this is disgusting. The fact that a woman is exposing herself in a music video is absolutely repulsive. When I saw this I immediately thought that she must not have much respect for herself. It’s so sad to be in world where women show themselves in such a provocative manor and think nothing of it. Music videos these days have gone way to far in my opinion by showing too much of the sexuality of women. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a music video of a man naked from the bottom down. So why does this make women think its ok to do this and why does it make men think its ok to put this in their music? Also why do men think they can write such provocative songs about women and get away with it?