I recently read an MTV.com article which described the videos for Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and Taylor Swift’s Mine as “two of the biggest female stars [offering] wildly differing takes on feminism and the future”. (If you can’t bear to sacrifice 8 cumulative minutes of your life watching these videos, I’ll summarize: Katy Perry revels in the freedom of road trips, single life, and unattached romps on the beach while Tay Tay gets married, has fights with her husband in white-picked-fence land, but displays her commitment to the holy sacrament in all its trials and triumphs).
"I can see it now..."
The article doesn’t offer up a particularly nuanced discussion of the two representations of what it means to be a young woman in America these days. After all, it’s MTV.com, so realistically I wouldn’t expect much more – in fact I’m mildly astounded they even used the F-word (….. feminism). But I have to take issue with the author’s disclaimer towards the end of the piece:
“To that end, while I don’t want to wade too heavily into the field of gender politics (these are, after all, just a pair of pop videos), it’s interesting — if not sort of disappointing — that neither Perry nor Swift are seen running Fortune 500 companies or piloting Black Hawk helicopters in their videos.”
Kudos to Montgomery for noting (throughout the piece) that the Perry and Swift options are by no means the only paths available to young women, and pointing out the notable absence of other empowering life choices… but WADE ON, my friend! Claiming that these representations are “just” pop videos is the most ridiculous load of defensive shite I’ve ever heard. The fact that they are pop videos makes them more, not less, important. Pop culture both reflects us and educates us; it has more cut-through than anything learned in the classroom or even coming from our parents mouths (though not necessarily their actions).
Let’s never be ashamed of reading society in cultural artifacts; that’s what culture IS. Even if you work for MTV.
