Whether Lady Gaga wants to take a ride on a disco stick, or Ke$ha wants a little love in her glove box or Katy Perry wants to take a peek at a peacock, pop stars seem fascinated with male sexuality.
I usually write about important world issues and political topics. This column is different due to the odd obsession toward male sexuality among female pop stars I have seen in the past year.
To be more exact, Lady Gaga with her “LoveGame” single, Ke$ha with “Blah Blah Blah,” and the most recent, Katy Perry with her “Peacock” single.
Usually, popular song themes among teenage girls range from social and love issues to isolation and separation.
But recently, popular songs have been related to sex; to be more precise, the glamorization of male sexuality.
These ladies teach teenage girls wrong values and morals, yet we as a society allow it to continue.
Once the catchy beat lures girls in, they listen to the words, and what do you know, Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Katy Perry are singing about how much they love or want a “man.”
These pop stars glamorize male sexuality to a new level, which I find comical yet alarming.
Girls listen to how glamorous the male is, and curiosity grows within them. The curiosity becomes unbearable to the point where a teenage girl begins to experiment, which sometimes leads to teenage pregnancy.
I don’t understand how the government can claim to want to combat teenage pregnancy, yet allows such music to be catered to our youth.
I understand the issues of censorship, freedoms and rights, but I also recognize that teenage pregnancy is a growing problem, and therefore feel the government has the responsibility to step in and do something.
I also realize certain individuals don’t want the government in their private lives, but when an issue of this magnitude is not addressed, I feel that it is the government’s issue.
So whether Lady Gaga is on a mission that involves some heavy touching, or Ke$ha is ready for the rock stuff or Katy Perry is anxious to see what’s hiding underneath, we must consider teenage girls”” even when they don’t.
Honestly, these ladies could care less about what happens to our society.
Oscar Perez is a sophomore mass communication and journalism major and contributing writer. Perez serves as senator at-large for Associated Students, Inc.
Sarah • Sep 5, 2011 at 6:00 am
Its clear there is absolutely no responsibility taken nowadays when it comes to the media and ‘entertainment’.
Alex Johnson • Oct 25, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Maggie I give you TWO THUMBS WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY DOWN!!!!
It’s a opinion piece NOT a research paper…
and Mr. Moss, of course, Oscar doesn’t know what it is to be a teenage girl, he’s male…and George Michael, are you serious…let’s NOT criticize if we are listening to George Michael…
and finally, joshua4234, I get your view point, but this is just an opinion piece!!!
Oscar, you rock and keep on writing!!!
Anonymous • Oct 25, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I realize this is his opinion, and I’m stating my opinion about how stupid his opinion is. What’s your point?
Christopher Moss • Oct 27, 2010 at 1:58 am
Alex,
You’re absolutely right, Oscar’s a male. Of course, you do nothing to answer the question of what puts him in a position to speak for teenage girls or assess what’s on the mind of a teenage girl.
As for George Michael… what about it? The fact that you disagree with my musical selection doesn’t invalidate anything I stated. Attacking my eclectic range of musical selection doesn’t make the fact that there is absolutely no proven link between sexuality in music and teenage girls becoming pregnant any less valid.
But if we can’t address the message, let’s attack the messenger. Is that how this works?
Point is, Oscar did nothing to back up his opinion when he wrote the article. You did nothing to back up his opinion, just attack the people who disagreed with Oscar’s.
And yes, I realize it’s an opinion piece. I also realize there’s such a thing as an uninformed opinion and it appears that Maggie and Joshua share that opinion with me.
Maggie • Oct 22, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Oscar, if you are going to form an opinion on a topic you should have evidence to back it up. This lacks journalistic integrity and I am disappointed the Collegian ran an opinion piece without asking for concrete evidence from the journalist.
C’mon Collegian, you’re better than this article. Two thumbs way down.
Christopher Moss • Oct 22, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Does Oscar Perez know what it’s like to be a teenage girl? I certainly don’t, so I won’t pretend to know what teenage girls are taking away from today’s pop songs.
However, I do know what it’s like to be a reasonable and logical man. I also remember listening to music from childhood to my mid-20’s present.
I grew up with George Michael singing “I Want Your Sex” with a bevy of scantily clad supermodels parading around in the music video. When Nine Inch Nails released “Closer,” I didn’t think animalistic sex with a woman would be a wonderful idea and act upon it. In “Crash Into Me” by the Dave Matthews Band, Matthews suggested a woman “hike up your skirt a little more and show the world to me.” I was a teenage male with a fresh driver’s license when “What’s Your Fantasy?” by Ludacris was a chart-topping hit; I did not try to persuade women to get in my back seat with the windows up. And yes, I enjoy all four songs mentioned.
I’ve heard over 20 years worth of music in my lifetime where male musicians objectify women or sex with women. I didn’t turn into a sexual deviant or malcontent. To think girls or women will do the same because female musicians are singing about male sexuality is a rather sexist and bigoted opinion.
Besides, did you just turn on the radio yesterday? Madonna is the top-selling female artist of all-time and she’s made a 20+ year career objectifying males and glorifying sex. Christina Aguilera was encouraging people to get “Dirrty” earlier in the decade. Janet Jackson was telling men “Anytime, Anyplace” back in 1993 – complete with suggestive music video. Vanity 6 had a club/dance hit with “Nasty Girl” back in the 80’s. Sade has seduced with her voice and sexy lyrics for two decades now. The DiVinyls sang about touching themselves back in 1991. And, well before I was born, Arthea Franklin’s signature hit “Natural Woman” is about – you guessed it – sex with a man!
To go on a tirade about women sexually objectifying men but not mentioning the many more multitude of songs where men objectify women is a sexist stand to take. To analyze a teenage female’s state of mind when you’re in no position to do so from either experience or a psychological perspective is ignorance. To draw the opinions and correlations you have between teenage girls and the music they listen to without any supporting proof is not only hearsay, but an insult to those who actually have journalistic integrity. To simply ignore or be unaware of the history of the topic of female musicians and sexuality but have such a strong opinion about the unfounded consequences of it is insulting to music fans and females.
Mr. Perez, next time you want to stand on your soapbox so arrogantly, please do more than wax philosophical on a faulty premise without any ground to stand on besides your own clouded opinion.
Anonymous • Oct 22, 2010 at 7:33 am
If we want to combat teen pregnancy we could do things like, I don’t know, have more comprehensive sex education classes in lieu of ‘abstinence only’ classes where they exist or possibly have more easily available and less stigmatized contraceptives for younger people. The culture war against more sexuality is finished already. You’ve lost. This is the new world we live in and we can either work with the climate and come up with realistic solutions to these types of problems or try to change something that, quite frankly, is not going to change.
Anonymous • Oct 22, 2010 at 7:33 am
If we want to combat teen pregnancy we could do things like, I don’t know, have more comprehensive sex education classes in lieu of ‘abstinence only’ classes where they exist or possibly have more easily available and less stigmatized contraceptives for younger people. The culture war against more sexuality is finished already. You’ve lost. This is the new world we live in and we can either work with the climate and come up with realistic solutions to these types of problems or try to change something that, quite frankly, is not going to change.