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Firstly, what is gender inequality? Gender inequality also known as sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.
Sexism can be experienced anywhere and everywhere but why is it so normalized in the entertainment industry specifically? From men getting paid more than women starring in the same film to women being shamed for what they choose to sing about. This has become the normality.
Back in August 2020 two female American rappers Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, dropped their song ‘WAP’ (Wet A** P***y), this song became very popular very quickly and has had over 54 million streams since its release. However, not all comments were positive about this song. Globally the song sparked uproar because of the explicit language used and the subject of the song. Some opinions supported the song because they felt the lyrics were about female empowerment, and how women talking about their sex life should be normalized and not looked down upon, but some were the opposite claiming that the song was disgusting and made people uncomfortable because it was about female pleasure. Each to their own, but this raises the question, is their similar backslash for sexually explicit songs sung by men?
Since becoming a teenager I have heard many of my male friends sing lyrics from their favourite male artists many include rap songs that contain descriptions about sex and how women are treated when it comes to sex. One song is ‘Or Nah’ written by Tyrone William Griffin Dijon Isaiah Mcfarlane Cameron Thomaz and sung by Ty Dolla $ign, The Weeknd, Wiz Khalifa, and DJ Mustard. The lyrics in this song are just as if not more explicit than ‘WAP’ yet it hasn’t received the same criticism.
In January 2021 I created a survey that asked questions about gender inequality in the entertainment industry. It was uploaded to my Snapchat story enabling anyone to answer. After 24 hours, there were 41 responses,29 of them being female and 12 of them being male. Participants ranged from under 15 years to 30. The last two questions on my survey were about what their opinions were on two songs that are considered sexually explicit. These were ‘WAP’ and ‘Blurred lines’. Although both songs are about sex, they both have very different meanings and are sung by different genders. ‘WAP’ sung by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion and ‘Blurred Lines’ sung by Robin Thicke featuring Pharrell Williams Participants were asked what their favourite music genre was and 34.2% answered pop, 17.1% answered hip-hop, 17.1% also answered rap, 7.3% answered rock, another 7.3% answered country and 19.5% answered other. 68.3%, later on, answered that they had been offended by a singer’s lyrics in their song.7.3% said it was because it was explicit, 31.7% said it was because of its sexism, 29.3% said it was both because they found it sexist and explicit and another 32.1% said it was neither explicit nor sexist. Participants then responded to the question asking which gender was it that made them feel offended of which 73.2% of people said male.29.3% of people then mentioned that they wouldn’t listen to this artist in the future, here are some of their reasons; ‘it shows no respect’, ‘made me feel uncomfortable’, ‘I would listen if they did a non-explicit version’, ‘the values they stand for are not right’ ‘I don’t support what they’re saying’ and so on. When asked the question ‘Do you think sexist lyrics influence society and people’s expectations on how they should act?’ 82.9% of participants answered yes. 65.9% of people also think there is a gender imbalance in the entertainment industry. 95.1% of people answered yes to whether there is a gender pay gap worldwide.
The final questions asked about their opinions on the songs ‘WAP’ and ‘Blurred Lines’. All opinions were very honest, stating that ‘Blurred Lines’ was ‘offensive, degrading and sickening’, ‘supports the idea of rape’, and ‘Like many other songs sung by men, sexualizing women but being honest I rarely ever took notice of the lyrics’, ‘big influence in rape culture and that that song shouldn’t be allowed to be played it’s sexist and encourages men that it’s ok for them too rape girls depending on what they are wearing’ this particular opinion explains how sexism and rape can be normalized outside of the entertainment industry and in everyday life.’
Internationally ‘WAP’ received a lot of hate not long after its release. After seeing the hateful comments towards ‘WAP’ the opinions from my peers took me by surprise. They were a lot more positive and not derogatory. Respondents indicated that ‘I like it. It’s women talking about their bodies, not some guy sexualizing them and then profiting off of the sexualization of women.’ ‘I don’t personally agree with the lyrics but respect that the whole point was to highlight the double standard that women are told that they shouldn’t rap like that in the music industry, but men can talk provocatively and disrespectfully about women as much as they wish.’ ‘Undermines women’s attempt to counter male stereotypes.’ ‘I think the ladies have attracted more attention for singing about material than would have been the case if they had been male. I think that’s a shame in today’s world where we aim for gender equality. Personally, though I do not need to hear such explicit lyrics from an artist of any gender as I think powerful and fun statements can be made without them.’
Sexism isn’t just evidenced in the music industry; it’s also seen in the media. Take the 31-year-old American female singer, Taylor Swift. As a woman, she hasn’t had the easiest journey of fame. She’s white and now extremely wealthy but that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s experienced an easy time in the industry. For years Taylor Swift has spoken about the sexism she has faced, both in the industry and via the general public. She has frequently spoken about how male artists don’t receive the same amount of derogatory comments as women and has written a song about it called The Man. The music video shows Taylor Swift dressed up as a successful professional man who promotes self-adoration by surrounding himself with people who worship him both in business and pleasure. Even as a father figure he was congratulated and admired for taking his young daughter to the park when this is traditionally considered a ‘woman’s job’ to which women do not usually receive any formal or information adoration for
Gender discrimination is also frequently seen in Hollywood. Celebrities everyday are faced with criticism just because of their gender. Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone has commented that some of her male co-stars limited their paychecks to match hers as they had originally been offered more money. This begs the question of why men’s pay needed to be lowered rather than women’s pay to ensure equality. The publicly funded BBC has also been criticized in the past for paying women less than men for doing the same job e.g. presenting the national news. A report in 2017 showed the BBC to have a median pay gap of 9.3%. (since reduced to 6.7% but still a significant difference)
It’s disappointing that it took until 2017 for the BBC to formally acknowledge the existence of a pay gap almost 100 years after women gained the right to vote. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act made it law that women over the age of 30 who occupied a house (or were married to someone who did) could vote. This meant 8.5 million women could have their say over who was in parliament – about 2 in every 5 women in the UK. The division of pay between both genders in the entertainment industry is often based on age-old stereotypes. The percentage of women working on films on and off camera has begun to decline since the late nineteen-nineties. According to the New York Film Academy, ‘Women buy 50% of movie tickets sold in the U.S.’.
Strong female characters such as Katniss Everdeen in The ‘Hunger Games’, Black Widow in ‘The Avengers and ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’, or, surprisingly Merida in ‘Brave’ finally seemed to head in the right direction for equal opportunities in the entertainment industry promoting the empowerment of women.
The perception of women on screen is a factor that is likely to discourage many women from becoming involved in acting. Many films and dramas sexualize and manipulate female roles, so why would a woman feel compelled to work with producers and directors who create film projects like this? Some women may use these films as a challenge to implement change in the way women are viewed in the industry, but others may be put off by what could be considered a hostile environment.
In 2014 no women appeared on the top ten list of the highest paid actors. In 2018-2019 the world’s ten highest-paid actresses earned a combined $314.6 million. That’s 69% more than the previous year, but still far less than the top ten male actors’ $588.3 million.
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