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Daily Mail: "Miley and Rihanna damage girls' self-esteem"
Quote:
Raunchy, hyper-sexualised popstars like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna damage girls' self-esteem - and could harm education and job prospects - says leading academic
- Birmingham university's Dionne Taylor says stars give 'mixed messages' to impressionable girls
- Points out men are clothed in pop videos while women are scantily clad
- Says 'video vixens' make sexualisation of women 'part of everyday life' and fuel negative attitude towards women
- Says girls' confidence, education and even employment will suffer
Teenage girls see sexualisation as ‘part and parcel’ of their lives because of the raunchy behaviour of pop stars such as Rihanna and Miley Cyrus, an academic claimed yesterday.
Their skimpy outfits and sexual dance moves are ruining the self-esteem of girls, according to Professor Dionne Taylor, an expert in criminal law.
She found the explicit dance moves and foul-mouthed lyrics fuel negative attitudes towards women and affect women’s confidence, education and even their employment prospects.
Professor Taylor’s comments come as Miss Cyrus, 20, promotes her new single Wrecking Ball.
The song’s racy video, which features the pop star swinging naked on a demolition ball, was unveiled online just days ago and received more than 19million views within 24 hours.
Its release follows Miss Cyrus’s controversial performance at the MTV Music Video Awards last month. The singer paraded on stage in a bra and knickers and gyrated wildly during a duet with Robin Thicke, prompting criticism from parents.
Professor Taylor accused stars such as Miss Cyrus of giving ‘mixed messages’ to impressionable young women.
‘She has appropriated the video vixen persona,’ she added.
‘There was a part where she had backing dancers and she smacked their bottoms. It was ignorant. The men we see in these videos are fully clothed and women are scantily clad.’
Rihanna has repeatedly come under fire for her skimpy clothing and lewd song lyrics.
Professor Taylor, a criminal lecturer and researcher, studied black women aged 15 to 29 from Birmingham and London.
She said they saw sexualisation as ‘part and parcel of life’ and added that she had experienced the problem first-hand.
‘As a teenager I was told, “you’ve got a big bum” – the focus was always on my body parts.
‘There was a feeling that you had to conform in some ways to these images to be worthwhile.
‘I have a younger sister and she used to say she didn’t feel confident in herself and that was mainly derived from popular black music genres.
‘The majority of my participants said the hyper-sexualisation of music videos and magazines impacted on their confidence, education and employment. It damaged their self-esteem.’
An independent review into the sexualisation of childhood, carried out by Mothers’ Union chief executive Reg Bailey in 2011, recommended that the Government introduce age ratings on music videos.
Last year music mogul Mike Stock, who wrote Kylie Minogue’s hit single I Should Be So Lucky, also complained about the ‘****tish’ lyrics of pop music, in particular those of Lady Gaga.
Mr Stock said: ‘It’s easy – if you haven’t got much of a sell, stick some sex in the video and it’s job done. It’s both easy and lazy.
‘It’s largely the Americans, to be honest – the new breed of rap and Lady Gaga types. They’re all just ****tish.
‘And young girls think they are someone worth emulating.’
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The black Madonna and the white Rihanna