The Talented Freak Essay -- Music, Lady Gaga, Sex

The music industry has taken a wrong turn, and it affects our new generation; music videos becoming more like pornographic trailers causing men and women to objectify each other as a sex object. According to Camille Paglia (lecturer, educator, and feminist) in â€Å"Lady Gaga and The Death of Sex,† â€Å"Hollywood discovered that sex was great box office† (2). Because sex sells, it is a market technique used by record companies to sell more record. So does sex usage really empower women? In Paglia’s article, â€Å"Madonna I: Animality and Artifice,† she claims that dominatrix (used by Madonna) empowers women, and it should be praised by all female musicians (89). I agree to Paglia’s claim that sexuality sometimes empower rather than exploit women to act sluttish; however, in music, I believe the line between a woman using sexuality and promoting herself as an object is unnoticed because it changes depend on who dominate. When male musicians dominate a certain type of genre (hip-hop), many new musicians (women included) degrade women to jumpstart their career because sex sell. For instance, before Nicki Minaj gets famous, she started her career by degrading women in her mix tape, â€Å"Sucka Free,† cover picture because most people think hip-hop is only male profession, and it has little respect for women because mostly men listen to hip-hop. And so for female rappers to get the attention from those men, she has to jumpstart her career by using her sex appeal image. In addition to her degrading cover pose, that might caused young women in our society to accept it as a norm, she was criticized by many because that posture was not only inappropriate, but it was copied from Lil’ Kim. In fact, it was the same pose Lil' Kim uses on one of her older cover... ...a blame Gaga for killing sex. Personally, I think Paglia argument that blames Gaga for not being sexy did not explain enough about Gaga who know how to play piano, write music, sing great live, dance, and make fashion (Needham 2). It mostly comparison to her â€Å"long-term crush† (Needham 2) Madonna who is, as Paglia stated, â€Å"the future of feminism† (â€Å"Madonna I: Animality and Artifice† 90) now seems â€Å"marooned in the past† (Needham 2). Overall Gaga is empowering everyone respect each other and love themselves, unlike Rihanna who exploiting women to be a slave for men. I believe Rihanna not only degrading women but also exploiting kids by sing to them inappropriate song for their age. Regardless if number of musicians like Rihanna increase, I think Gaga will accomplish far more success than musicians who choose to follow rather than lead.