Class on May 15th dealt with how women must negotiate with sexuality and womanhood in their everyday lives. Through television and other forms of media that portray women, women have a harder time getting started. Men have the responsibility for how women are depicted. In music videos women are objectified. They are shown as hypersexual, someone’s baby’s-mamma, just over all not usually respected. The reason that they are shown like that is because we have a very sexual culture. Males want to feel cool and the cool guy is always surrounded by hotties. These pretty women are shown to have their sexual desires fulfilled by being with the men. The problem is especially in rap music some of the lines about women are very degrading and then glorify the man. Then there are the women dancing to that music. There is now the question, are these women degrading themselves. I think that that should be left to them. If these women who are beautiful feel good about what they are doing I don’t think that there is a reason to get upset. They don’t have to be video girls. In America we can choose our jobs. The other side of it is that it is harder for women to make it in showbiz, there are more obstacles. The reason that they are brought down is because women are objects of male pleasure. Many black women artists are presented to the public under the guidance of a male sponsor. Men run the world making it harder for women to establish themselves. If women are being hurt by doing what they chose as their jobs then they should quit. If they like it they should keep doing it. The women that think that it is degrading and feel that there is only one view of women showed should figure out a way to band together. That would make it so all types of women are showed. An example of this starting to emerge is House Wives of Atlanta. The women show what it means to be a woman, they have their man but they also have their life. There are more emerging angles of women coming onto television because of the fact that the best way to depict something is by showing all the sides. When women are shown doing things besides acting in a hypersexual manner people can open their eyes and learn to show a little respect and not try to learn from the depictions of most music videos.
By: Grayson Goodstein
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I agree with most of what Grayson is saying. Black women in America have the option to choose their own careers. The televsion show Candy Girls follows the life of so called "video vixens". These women could be considered as stereotypes of black women as sex symbols and divas. I think we often forget about the positive images of black women and focus on the images that are considered negative. We should not always look toward reality tv and tv shows that are meant for entertainment for a positive image of black women. What about women in political office, like Michelle Obama and Condoleeza Rice. We forget the important black women and are too focused on the ones that act a fool and are not taken seriously. I don't take anyone on reality tv seriously, and I think people should be more educated that anything on tv is not real. Reality tv is just that reality on tv, but it's not my reality.
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