Malala Yousafzai, the activist schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban, has said she is angered by how pop music represents women. The 17-year-old campaigner has claimed most female artists in the West have accepted that they should be ‘‘treated like objects’’.
– Neil Lancefield
Saddened but not angered, although I can understand why some people would be. At the end of the day, judging people right or wrong for how they live their lives based upon your own beliefs, culture, upbringing, religion, etc. is the root cause of most of the world’s problems today. Who really has the right to decide how another should live their life? Having said that, in objectifying women, I do find that Western pop music is travelling down a dangerous path, further normalising the sexualisation and degradation of women to the point where women not only seem to seek out being treated like objects, but base their entire happiness and subsequent self worth on their external appearance and sexuality. What will happen when they have damaged the self esteem of a generation of young women and normalised excesses of male power over women is extremely worrying when we really could benefit from heading in the opposite direction, fast! Women in pop music could be demonstrating a new model of female power, one that unites, not divides, one that includes, not excludes, one that uses the female’s strengths to showcase a way forward where we celebrate the qualities and ability of a person more than just the appearance of their body. Step up Pink!