American pop music culture: Are women winning the battles but losing the war?

This is an updated version of my International Women's Week postscript from 2020.

As my regular readers know, I dedicated the rest of 2022 to Women in Music. Around the world, women are taking the lead in music, creatively, technically, and commercially. Unfortunately, the music industry, like Hollywood, has long been one of the worst when it came to how women are treated. In some ways it has changed, but when it comes to the American music scene, there is a big elephant in the room.

Overall, when it comes to taking women seriously, it’s safe to say we’ve made great progress. Over 70% of high-school valedictorians are women, as are more than 60% of college graduates. The numbers of women in political and business leadership keep climbing. In fact, companies led by women do better than companies led by men, as measured by stock market performance. Female superhero movies are now a thing. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

One indicator of progress was the general realization that treating women as a commodity to be consumed is not a good thing. This consensus transcends the usual divisions of left and right, liberal and conservative. Feminists and traditionalists alike have opposed the sexualized packaging of women for commercial purposes, seemingly forever. As women gain power, one would expect them to embrace the freedom not to pornify themselves.

In the world of popular music, women are in fact at the top of the heap, at least in the U.S.  Most of the biggest, richest pop stars in the U.S. today are women. In theory, they hold enormous power, especially over how they market themselves.  So would someone please explain this? 

Ariana Grande, looking for all the world like goods for sale:

Beyonce, twerking like a stripper (and dressed for the part):

And just in case the message wasn’t clear, let's remove any doubt, shall we?

Doja Cat, on display for a "client":

Lady Gaga, who has made a point of her woke politics (stemming in part from traumatic childhood experiences), being pawed by a crowd of rough-looking men:

Heck, let’s go all the way, and give the guys a lap dance complete with some intimate viewing:

In case the message isn’t raw enough, here is Katie Perry being kneaded and spread prior to being deep-fried:

To top it off, here she is, being fed into the cauldron.  Note, this is not presented as some dark, Margaret Atwood-y dystopian nightmare. The title of this song is "Bon Appétit" and one of the lines is "You've got me spread like a buffet".  Perry thinks this is sexy!

What the hell is going on?  I’m no prude--I know where to find porn if I want it.  But these people are supposedly music stars.  Their stuff plays in the background everywhere—in shopping malls, gyms, and on the radio. Trouble is, it all sounds vaguely the same, because it is mostly written by teams of anonymous songwriters in office parks, using well-tested templates for writing catchy, non-threatening music. Maybe it’s not really about the music at all?

Some people claim that because these women have control, they are not being exploited.  Do you buy that? It looks to me like standard laddie magazine jerk-off fare, on an industrial scale.  Phyllis Schlafly said that a woman’s greatest power was her ability to manipulate men through sex. She warned that asking to be treated equally in school or the workplace would require giving up that power.  She needn’t have worried.  In American pop culture, women are embracing the hooker esthetic to get our attention, the music be damned. 

Given that these performers are our biggest cultural icons, do we really think that teenagers are going to pay any attention to our boring schoolroom lectures about self respect? What does this teach young people about setting boundaries? Why are more and more kids sending naked pictures of themselves to each other, only to regret it later?

By the way, for those who think I’m being unfairly critical of the women, let’s be clear: The men are largely absent, having abandoned the field.  There are currently no major male pop stars who even merit a discussion (I mean, really… Justin Bieber? the Jonas Brothers? Bruno Mars? Seriously?) In terms of commercial and cultural impact, the women rule. So why are so many of them recycling old misogynistic tropes?

Did women win the battles only to lose the war?