Why are women so sexualised in music videos? And what impact does it have on the audience?

I chose this subject to research because I want to peruse a career as a performer/dancer in popular music videos, most likely every video that's R&B, Hip-Hop or Rap genre has sexualised women in skimpy clothing and dancing proactively. I never realised how explicit women are in music videos because it's become 'the norm' but why? And also can young children have access to these videos? Are there age ratings? I wanted to research further as I am passionate about the entertainment industry and want to look into the impact the way women are sexualised on the audience members, both male and female. Nowadays it's all about sex, money and drugs in music videos but it doesn't have to be right?

I firstly looked into artists' opinions on sexual imagery and explicit content and I had various results, world famous artists such as Emeli Sande and Gary Barlow both believe that they are worried about how young people will have a bad impact watching these explicit videos. Emeli Sande quotes 'it's been like that for years- nothing new, but I do worry that so many young children are watching these things and idolising these people for the wrong reasons' However artist Kelly Rowland disagrees and believes that artists should be able to express themselves by quoting 'God gave us parents for a reason- what you want your children to watch, you should monitor that. It's not up to an artist'. I was shocked at this feedback as I feel like now women have been sexualised for so long in videos it's become normal and nothing's going to change? To find out even artists themselves feel that their not really fussed if children see it or not because it's not their issue I found really eye-opening.

As younger children are able to access these videos through YouTube or TV they will look at these popular artists such as Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus who encourage sexualising women for men to fantasise over them and for girls to idolise them. Also male artists such as Chris Brown and Jason Derulo particularly sexualise women in their videos so it's not just female artists as male are just as bad. It's not just the dancers that are sexualised, it's the artists themselves that are just as bad, but it's all for publicity and to heighten ratings, sex sells that's why over time the music videos have got more and more explicit, some have even been banned such as Miley Cyrus's song 'Wrecking Ball' as it was that bad in terms of nudity it was taken down. Has artists really gone that extreme in sexualising themselves and women to get their own videos banned? All I keep asking myself is why?

To find out feedback from both men and women's prospective on how sexualised women are in music videos, I created a questionnaire including questions about how it makes them feel about how the women come across in the videos (costume, choreography) , if they would change anything about the videos in itself? And also if they are the 'ideal perfect woman' in their opinion. I asked all different types of age ranges for my questionnaire to see the comparison between answers, the women I asked ranged from 17-40 and all ages agreed on feeling 'awkward' and 'degraded' from the representation of women from these videos so it's not just a main age based opinion all ages feel the same. The men I asked age ranged from 17-30 and they also didn't agree with how women were sexualised as they felt 'disgusted' and sore women as 'sex objects' through these videos, which I was shocked at by the younger generation as I thought they would enjoy it but I was completely wrong which I was fascinated by from collecting the feedback. From these questionnaires it has really opened my eyes on how degrading these videos can be, and getting feedback from all age ranges made my results interesting as so many answers were so similar.

I looked more into the impact the music videos have on these women and I discovered that it has led to eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression as they believe that they are not good enough because they do not have the same appearance as the girls in the videos. Also girls that are exposed to such sexual content actually end up endorsing gender stereotypes meaning looking/behaving like the women in the videos which leads to unhealthy sexuality and sexual problems in adulthood life. Young boys that watched these videos also has an impact on them as they grow up believing girls are only good for one thing (sexually) which is so mortifying as that's what the media is brainwashing these young people to believe.

I really took an interest into looking at age ratings on theses explicit videos because I didn't think there was any sort of age ratings at the beginning of music videos on TV or YouTube like there are before films. So I researched more into this to find out what others opinions are on having age ratings before explicit videos. I looked mainly at online newspapers as they have a lot of opinions from big corporations such as Vevo, BBFC etc. I discovered that the Government had a lot to say about age ratings 'Music Videos to be given same age ratings as films in Government crackdown on graphic content viewed by children online' as children have so much access to sexual content online and they want to protect them from viewing content that shouldn't be available to them. I also found out that the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) have negotiated with some of the biggest recording labels such as Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music to agree to produce the music videos to the BBFC first before uploading them on sites to classify if the content is appropriate to upload. However the Americans completely disagree with the system as they believe the artists shouldn't have to have their videos 'subjected to ratings'. Boss of a big corporation Rio Caraeff, CEO of Vevo also disagrees with age ratings quoting 'I don't think it's necessary and I hope it doesn't come to that'. There is a lot of mixed opinions towards having age ratings to explicit videos, it still hasn't become a serious issue for child protection as only 20% of all videos would have an age rating certificate! The main reason why big artists such as Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Robin Thicke would refuse to have an age rating as its stops viewers from watching, no matter what age as they know the higher the rating the better outcome it has for them as artist's, completely dismissing child protection as its 'not their problem' which shocks me immensely.

To conclude, after looking into these subject I have learnt so much on the impact it has on all ages of men and women, it's made me feel sad to think that these explicit videos are just the norm now, nothing will change if anything it will get worse which really upsets me as women are so much more than that. As I want to pursue a career in this industry, I feel like looking more into it I've gained so much information that I will be able to take with me in the future which I'm grateful for as after researching I've become really passionate about changing the representation of women after realising the impact it has on other people which I never even realised before. Before researching this subject I didn't really think the women were that badly sexualised and they didn't need age ratings but after researching my opinion has COMPLETELY changed. I 100% think that every explicit video, that being to do with sex, drugs etc. should have a classified age certificate before uploading onto popular online music websites as child protection is so important and I know if that was my 10 year old sister watching that sort of content I would not be happy as they shouldn't even know about that sort of explicit content at such a young age. If I had the power to I would defiantly change the system and make sure the videos are toned down to an appropriate viewing and if not making sure the age rating is clearly shown before uploading. I'm so enlightened after researching this subject and hopefully in a few years' time the system will change and this won't even be an issue!:)