The Media.

This title has a scary, ultimate Dark Lord kind of connotation when talking about women’s sexuality and body image, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot in the context of our discussions on things like hip hop/rap lyrics and porn. How bad is it really, and how far-reaching its influences?

I’ve been babysitting an 8 year old girl a lot lately and receiving quite the education in pre-teen pop culture. And I’ve made some disturbing discoveries.

Pre-teen culture is often just teen/early 20s culture. The 8 year old knows the words to Carry Out by Timbaland feat. JT, Rude Boy by Rhianna, and who knows what else. Rude Boy was sung at the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards this year. I say “sung,” but it was mostly just the beat, since none of the words could actually be spoken in front of the target audience. (Rhianna and Justin Bieber were the featured artists… I leave you with that information.)

Still, this girl sings along to lyrics like “Is it full of myself to want you full of me” or “Come on rude boy, can you get it up .... is you big enough.” The grammar is not the biggest problem with this influence.

Maybe this is hilarious more than harmful, although it’s certainly not desirable. She probably doesn’t actually understand the thinly veiled entendre. The most illicit lyrics I can remember singing along to as a child were “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover,” which has the ultimate message that "you wouldn't want me any other way." Excellent. But perhaps I’m idealizing the influences of my childhood. This isn’t meant to be a “those kids today and their rap music” type of post.

What disturbs me more than the influence of hip hop lyrics produced for an older crowd is the stuff that’s actually supposed to be appropriate for children. For example, the show The Fairly Odd Parents. Anyone who has spent any time with a child in the last 6 years or so has probably seen this; a little boy has fairy god parents, partially to make up for his hilariously stupid biological parents, and wackiness and high jinks ensue.

In one episode we watched, his parents were behaving with their usual obliviousness; his father was distracted by winning a hunk of cheese, while his mother was totally absorbed by the impractical purchasing of beauty items from a home shopping tv show…. On her husband’s company credit card.

Yes, the dad is dumb, but no really dangerous stereotypes are enforced, aside from maybe him being distant and unaware. Smelly cheese is funny. The end. Of course, the mother’s brand of comic folly is based on the obvious fact that women live only to make frivolous purchases with the hard-earned money of their spouses, often to buy products to make them more physically attractive, to have even greater powers of wheedling cash out of men.

We’re an equal or greater presence in the work force but still paid less…. Maybe that’s why we’re supposedly always after your money? I repeat: WE DO NOT ALL WANT YOU TO PUT A RING ON IT. Let’s go back to JLo… her love don’t cost a thing. Let’s run with that message.

This is one case, out of many to choose from (there are moments like this in almost every show she watches) which provides a striking example of the work feminists still have to do (despite the claims by some that the fight is over…. Yeah, just like there’s no more racism in the United States). Very little has changed about the idea that men just have to be rich to feed the material appetites of women, and they can have whomever they want, while women’s value lies entirely in their resemblance to the male ideal of physical femininity, exemplified by everyone from porn stars to “video hos” to actresses to the stars on the Disney Channel. This type of comedy, based on gender stereotypes (the ONLY representations of homosexuality in children’s programs are overly flamboyant gay men who groom dogs or work at the mall) composes one of the main focuses in children’s entertainment today. How are we going to progress if the foundations for misogyny are being fed to the next generation in their Saturday morning cartoons?

Much love,
The Librarian