The Music Industry Dishes Out Double Standards

From rap to pop to country, the music industry is guilty of playing the double standard game. Sex appeal is still overshadowing the most talented female musicians.

We’ve seen it all before. Rap stars are thugs, pimps and bros. Women are sluts, skanks and hoes. This seems like an old conversation, one that has been beaten to death, but much like women in movies, women in music still face the same dilemma.

It’s rare to see a man wearing a barely-there outfit in a music video, staring into the camera longingly. Sexy eyes and loose hips have become the art of seduction in music videos that feature scantily clad women. Just look at Jennifer Lopez in her new video (not to mention all of the women in gold bikinis that are the main scenery in the video).

The barrier young women are constantly coming up against is that sex sells. At the beginning of a young woman’s music career, she’s sweet and innocent. Look back to Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Miley Cyrus as prime examples. The world was just waiting for them to bust out (literally) of their cardigans and pigtails and give us what we all wanted. Who wants to see a music video without a little skin? These women couldn’t maintain an image of innocence very long in the music biz. It’s not that they sold out, it’s that they knew what it is that people wanted to buy.

Madonna told women it was okay to express themselves and she wasn’t afraid to do what not too many women were doing at the time. But as liberating as it was, it only served to reinforce a sticky double standard. Men are celebrated for their musical genius, but all we care about with female pop stars is if they’re hot or not (although I won’t discount the power of a catchy tune). Sex trumps talent.

This is not to say that talented women in music aren’t getting any recognition. Make no mistake, lots of them are. Celine Dion has managed to stay fairly conservative and has been a huge success worldwide. But one little step beyond their boundaries and women are facing the music.

LeAnn Rimes has had to deal with a lot of criticism from the music industry for her illicit affair with Eddie Cibrian, something which is very taboo for a woman in music, especially the country genre. As Rimes rightly points out, country music legends like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson were considered rock stars in their time. They lived large and got away with it. She has an affair and she’s suddenly black-balled in the media. It’s frowned upon that she wants to sing about her real experiences when it’s a given that a male country crooner wouldn’t even question it. He might even be praised for it.

There are still women, though, who defy these expectations. They throw out the window what we think a female musician should be or represent. Courtney Love and Alanis Morissette are two examples that come to mind. I’ll never forget Alanis’ angry-on-the-verge-of-crazy album, Jagged Little Pill. Alanis was angry when no one else was. Talking frankly about her breakup, Alanis flipped the double standard on its head. Quite improper! These women may be considered a little nuts (especially Love), but at least they don’t fit into some neat little package.

Sometimes it may seem like we face major setbacks, as in Rimes’ case, but there are women who are given a big powerful voice and a guitar and we rock out and forget those double standards ever existed.

Contact the author here: tinybart@morningquickie.com