Big Booty Bitches: A Musician's Paradise

     Miss Representation preached that women have been portrayed to people as this Midriff, this whore, this socially unable person; all portrayed to us through the middle men writing the papers and snapping the photos.  These people – Well, is that an appropriate word? What about monsters? Homewreckers? Hollywood-sons-of-bitches? We’ll stick with people, but remember the connotations – have thrust several images into our head of what the ideal women should look like, such as this one below:

     Of course, who wouldn’t recognize the infamous perfection of the Barbie Doll? This, my friends, is what they are teaching our young girls to look like: anorexic pieces of plastic that are more product than human. Well ain’t that swell! Thank you media! Little girls, at one point or another, in one form or another, and in one place or another, are exposed to the Barbie symbol. It’s a well-known fact that if you expose a child to something at a young age, when their brains are still developing and they soak up every little influence, chances are that this idea of perfection are going to stick.

      Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to talk about. No, I’d actually like to go to the complete opposite side of this image of the super model to the image of every musician’s perfect whore. I’ll be diving into various genres and songs to really show how deeply this is rooted into the music culture. So let’s start with some glam rock. 

     Now, Steel Panther may not be the best band to get the point across, because that’s really not the message that they’re trying to sending out. You gotta read into them a little more to see that EVERYTHING they sing about is just a huge joke dedicated to the dirty, nasty, and less-than-sterile era of the Big 80s. But anyway, that’s beside the point. This song will work for our purpose because it still sends out the most exaggerated form of the sexed-up image of women.

     What is it that men wish? Fat girls. I myself could never see what the phenomenon was; why having overly large buttocks and breasts was such a big deal, or why bigger was suddenly better. But I’m only one person. Many other young men have adopted this ideal that bigger is better. Right. How has that affected young women who aren’t as physically developed? This is the type of stuff that leads young women to alter their body; whether it be through excessive eating or surgery. Is that the message that we want to send out?

     Let's move onto the world of rap. Mmm... Lot to talk about here. But let me keep this one short. For this example, I've chosen none other than then the King of Crude himself: Mr. Slim Shady. 

     Don’t get me wrong: I love Slim Shady, I love Marshall Mathers, I love Eminem, and I love Ken Kaniff. Yeah, some of the stuff he writes is pretty outrageous. But again, like Steel Panther, you gotta know the context. A lot of what Eminem writes is done in the persona of Slim Shady. While taking on this persona, Eminem tends to enter the area of dark, cross-the-line humor. And how can you have that without a little innuendo? The following are, respectively, lyrics from the songs “Crack a Bottle” and “My Name Is”:

Crack a Bottle

“Oooh! Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for

In this corner, weighing 175 pounds, with a record of 17 rapes

400 assaults, and 4 murders, the undisputed, most diabolical

Villain in the world, Slim Shady!

So crack a bottle, let your body waddle

Don't act like a snobby model

You just hit the lotto

Uh oh uh oh, bitches hopping in my Tahoe

Got one riding shotgun and no not one of them got clothes

Now where's the rubbers? Who's got the rubbers?

I noticed there's so many of them and there's really not that many of us

Ladies love us and my posse's kicking up dust

It's on till the break of dawn and we're starting this party from dusk”

My Name Is

“Hi kids! Do you like violence? (Yeah yeah yeah!)

Wanna see me stick Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids? (Uh-huh!)

Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did? (Yeah yeah!)

Try 'cid and get fucked up worse that my life is? (Huh?)

My brain's dead weight, I'm trying to get my head straight

But I can't figure out which Spice Girl I want to impregnate (Ummmm...)

And Dr. Dre said, ‘Slim Shady you a basehead!’

Uh-uhhh! ‘So why's your face red? Man you wasted!’

Well since age twelve, I've felt like I'm someone else

Cause I hung my original self from the top bunk with a belt

Got pissed off and ripped Pamela Lee's tits off

And smacked her so hard I knocked her clothes backwards like Kris Kross

I smoke a fat pound of grass and fall on my ass

Faster than a fat bitch who sat down too fast

C'mere slut! (Shady, wait a minute, that's my girl dog!)

I don't give a fuck, God sent me to piss the world off!”

     As you can see in the lyrics, women are ruthlessly defamed as for items used for sex only. Farther beyond that, not only is the sexual image horrifying, but also, women are also framed in the songs as subject to abuse and violence. Words such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ and actions like ripping off women's tits and raping them simply goes too far and ends up broadcasting the wrong message.

     Regardless if these songs are joking or not, these musicians audiences are taking these messages to heart, men and women alike, and it is further adding to the degradation of the female image in media.