A performance is defined to be an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or another form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
But this generalized definition fails to capture the nuances of what performance and artistry mean against the backdrop of nuanced genre, explosive streaming capabilities, and identity.
Further, it is essential to note that this notion also falls upon a strict, yet misinformed boundary, separating men from women, and often tipping the scale toward the latter.
When looking through the lens of the top charts, these trends and tropes are meant to reflect what sells. While the music industry is complex and hard to generalize, there seems to be a common thread when it comes to what makes a female artist marketable: sex.
Madonna is perhaps the best example of a female artist harnessing and revolutionizing the performance and ownership of sex as far as iconography and marketing are concerned.
She was 26 when ‘Like a Virgin’ hit the market, and she used the ‘sex sells’ card to solidify her image. It was a power statement meant to shock the establishment and establish sexual imagery centered on the female body.
Madonna was always developing, but with the October 20, 1992 release of Erotica, she shed her effervescent ’80s pop veneer… When you pressed play on the CD, the unfathomably thick, libidinous bass line of Erotica began to vibrate throughout your body.
If Madonna’s prior work was an invitation to experience sexuality without shame, Erotica was a test, using an unapologetic, uncompromising dominatrix figure to see and potentially even partake in society’s sexual taboos. Madonna had previously addressed the masculine gaze, but with Erotica, she was inverting the gaze rather than merely staring back.
We live in a man’s world, and music is not exempt from this reality; in fact, according to a study from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report in 2021, top music industry executives are still overwhelmingly white and male.
Unsurprisingly this isn’t new, though to the average person it may seem shocking in our current climate that claims to champion diversity and inclusion.
While many more artists are choosing to go the independent route, the record labels hold an incomparable amount of cultural capital.
The power and exploitation that the industry holds over the heads of artists, notably female artists, can cause irreparable damage to the performer themselves.
Before her entry into stardom, Britney Jean Spears grew up in Mississippi, a state that was largely socially conservative evangelical Protestant like many others in the Bible Belt.
It was in a church, in fact, where her passion for singing began, singing in the church choir. Her childhood was filled with dancing, gymnastics, and voice lessons, and often won state-level competitions and children’s talent shows.
At the age of eight, she was in New York training at the Professional Performing Arts School. She also worked off-Broadway, appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and in 1992, she was cast in The Mickey Mouse Club.
In 1997 Britney’s first agent, Larry Rudolph, set her up with a life-changing audition for Jive Records. Brit was quickly signed to the label and sent to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month; those 30 days would mold her voice into the Britney Jean we’ve known and loved for decades.
Her debut studio album was released in January 1999 and it was a global sensation. For her hit single’s music video, it was Britney who suggested the final concept of a Catholic schoolgirl.
Let’s make another thing clear: from her childhood, Britney was a businesswoman and performer in all ways. She spent a year working on the choreography and stunts for the video and her Catholic-school girl vision remains iconic.
The way the uniform exposed part of her abdomen garnered 17-year-old Britney a ton of backlash for her “racy clothing”. Britney stated in an interview:
“There are so many other teenagers out there that dress more provocatively than I do and no one says anything about them…I don’t see myself as a sex symbol or this goddess-attractive-beautiful person at all. When I’m on stage, that’s my time to do my thing and go there and be that — and it’s fun”
Her 1999 cover of Rolling Stone also sparked major controversy due to her fashion choices. The media was obsessed with sexualizing Britney, even though she did not want the persona to be attached to her name or career.
In the eyes of the media, her clothing and music choices gave them a free pass which they continue to use cruelly and liberally.
When Britney performed at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000 and ripped off her black suit to reveal a sequined nude two-piece, critics added it to their file of evidence to attest to Britney’s apparent promiscuity.
When she started dating Justin Timberlake, it seemed middle-aged America had a weird obsession with her virginity or lack thereof.
As Emma Specter writes in Vogue:
“In 2003, there was apparently no bigger story in the world than the status of Spears’s virginity, and the “journalists” of the era seemed to feel inherently comfortable interrogating her about it … I didn’t have much in common with Spears as a tween — I was anonymous where she was famous, bookish where she was bubbly, brunette where she was honey blonde, chubby when she was lean — but both of us, along with pretty much every other girl in our loosely defined age group, were simultaneously expected to perform womanhood and girlhood, and God forbid we did too much of the former at the expense of the latter. Even in 2021, Black girls are routinely “adultified” and hyper-sexualized without the benefit of any of Spears’s vast wealth or international renown. That said, there’s something to be learned from the ways Spears’s fraught experience with fame taught a generation of young women across the racial and ethnic spectrum that our stories weren’t ultimately ours to tell.”
If Britney had been more conservative, she would have been probed and prodded by hungry vultures, but when she confidently embraced her femininity, the crowd wanted her head.
That is the essence of the issue: knowing that women in the industry do not owe their audience any form of exposure, let alone owe them anything at all.
This logic has applied to women in the industry throughout the years; Madonna, for whom sexuality is a staple of her personal brand, has long been reprimanded and critiqued for sexualizing other celebrities.
Jill Layton wrote about what she sees as Madonna playing mama bear fetishist with a younger, less experienced pop stars, citing the iconic Madonna X Britney Spears X Christina Aguilera VMAs moment. She writes:
“Madonna was the ringleader and had her way with the two young pop stars, who were already divas in their own right, and who were dressed as Madonna from her 1984 “Like a Virgin’’ video. They were paying homage to her, but she was right there in the power position, also paying homage . . . to herself. It’s like they were paying their dues, and as if she was passing down her motherly pop star baton, except not motherly at all because she was also making out with one of them and groping herself and them.”
However, the argument could be made that there is, in fact, a baton being passed down in this case, for Madonna largely paved the way in terms of owning and expressing sexuality.
Naturally, Madonna’s age is a point of contention for many, who see her as washed up and desperate to do anything to generate shock factor and press.
However, as Beth Ashley probes in GRAZIA Magazine: Why is it okay for the world to sexualize Madonna, but she can’t sexualize herself?
“The reaction to Madonna sharing a few sexy photos paints a grim picture of how we view older women, especially in the music industry. Madonna was long considered the poster-girl for ‘sexy’, a sex symbol since the 80s … so this kind of risqué post is nothing new for Madonna’s brand… Yet, sometime around the time Madonna surpassed the age of 40, audiences started to feel differently about her. It’s difficult to remember the last time Madonna did anything slightly resembling sexy in public without an onslaught of comments like ‘desperate’, ‘cringey’ and ‘give it up’.”
Madonna has always been cognizant of the industry’s ageism. Madonna was chastised for her ‘young’ performance at the Billboard Music Awards in 2019, to which she responded: “I mean a lot of people have said: “Oh, that’s so pathetic, I hope she’s not still doing that in 10 years.” I mean, who cares? What if I am? I mean, Is there a rule? Are you just supposed to die when you’re 40? That’s basically what everybody wants people to do.’
Whether they want it or not, women and girls are sexualized as they grow up. Why is it OK for society to sexualize Madonna her whole life, but she is not permitted to sexualize herself after the age of 40 without being labeled “desperate”?
Madonna is proof that, while women will be sexualized in many ways, the public will turn its back on them if they begin sexualizing themselves, particularly if it is for performance or profit.
The music industry’s sexist and biased actions support the degradation of women because the struggle that upcoming women face has existed since the beginning of the pop genre; it’s also highly profitable, quietly and sometimes not-so-quietly insinuating to A-lister and upcomers alike physical exposure is essential for success.
Beyoncé Knowles, one of the most iconic female performers ever is quoted offering her 77 cents on the matter:
“Equality is a myth, and for some reason everyone accepts that women don’t make as much money as men do …. I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let’s face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what’s sexy. And men define what’s feminine. It’s ridiculous.”
In the ideal situation, the record label would call the shots whilst the new, pretty face on the block sits still and looks pretty. If, god forbid, she be more involved in her band or production, she ought to do so with a warm smile and batting eyelids.
As Gillian Flynn so aptly displays in her iconic Gone Girl monologue, if you’re anything, be a Cool Girl.
Women in the public eye are frequently encouraged to cater to a business where sex sells. They “belong” to their audience and rarely are allowed to live their own lives.
It should come as no surprise that younger women are readily and frequently sexualized when in the limelight, and if commodifying sexuality wasn’t awful enough, many have engaged in “waiting games,” counting down the days until they may legally sexualize girls on the brink of 18.
Britney Spears was rapidly approaching popularity and adulthood in 1999. That December, a tabloid magazine announced Britney’s entry into legal adulthood with a photo spread from her 18th birthday party.
Peek-a-boo! Britney Spears has grown up -and boy, does it show! The teen dream looks ravishing in knee-high boots and a snappy snakeskin mini-outfit. A baby no more, her darling neckline reveals the ample bust Britney reportedly enhanced with implants when she was just 17. Here the pop princess is about to slink into the trendy New York nightclub Halo for her 18th birthday bash….
It was also one of the earliest examples of the birthday countdown, a fixation, if not a budding national game, of counting down the days till the 18th birthday of adolescent female celebrities.
When female musicians break into the mainstream and broaden their mainly tween/pre-teen following, they are inadvertently thrust into the hypersexualization stereotype, which frequently appears in the business as prison-like confinement.
To sell albums and stay relevant, female pop musicians are expected to put their bodies on show. And it’s not like they don’t have something worthwhile to say or present. Sia and Lady Gaga, for example, are admired for their confrontation of raw emotion and femininity, and as they rose to prominence, there was a shift in performance and look that demonstrates how female musicians are expected to satisfy social demand for sex, and then are chastised for it.
Barely-legal Britney was pushed to walk this tightrope under the mistaken premise of coy techniques and sly promiscuity; twenty years later, we witness the same phenomenon emerge in the way the business continues to benefit from “legal” young pop stars.
It is both of the very same essence while unavoidably unique due to the way society evolves — Billie Eilish, for example, grew up on the internet and, like her contemporaries, is no stranger to the sexualization of female celebrities. She, like us, was inundated with the aggressive press that sexualized Britney, Hillary, and Lilo.
Her decision to dress in baggy and androgynous attire was both a reflection of her identity and an intentional protection strategy. In an interview with Gayle King for CBS, Billie stated that, like many other teenagers, she began covering up when she was 14 because of her connection with her body, and that she has worked hard to establish those limits for herself:
“Me and my body’s relationship has been the most toxic relationship you could even imagine… The way that I dress has made that relationship so much better. It’s less about ‘My body is ugly, I don’t want you to see it’. It’s more about, ‘I’m not comfortable wearing this, I’m comfortable wearing this.’”
Billie’s initiation into adulthood, like those of her female ancestors, included a twisted birthday countdown and some ugly Twitter criticism.
And, of course, Billie thought long and hard about how she wanted to embrace womanhood, as seen by her latest style metamorphosis, which has been the subject of much debate.
Mama-bear Madonna openly defended Billie for owning her sexuality, critiquing the age-old notion of the Madonna-Whore Dichotomy that being nurturing and being sexual are mutually exclusive options for women:
“The problem is, we still live in a very sexist world where women are put into categories. You’re either in the virgin category or the whore category. … Women should be able to portray themselves in any way they want. If Billie were a man, no one would be writing about this.”
It is also important to note that the subject of female sexualization is closely linked to race & ethnicity. Ethno-sexuality refers to the relationship between race and sexuality, and the latter is a facet of our identity that is constantly sculpted, influenced, and modified by our interactions with prevailing cultural forces, public policy, and the law.
The conversation of sexuality versus sexualization is one that has been ramping up in the internet age, and as the music landscape becomes more diverse.
While the primary conversation was once limited to the thin, white, girl, women of color in the industry face their own set of challenges and criticism.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include WAP, Cardi B’s top-charting single with Megan Thee Stallion that was released in the summer of 2020. The explicit sexual references in the sex-positive song highlight how they want men to pleasure them.
The music video, directed by Colin Tilley, has cameos by Kylie Jenner, Normani, Rosala, Latto, Sukihana, and Rubi Rose and has been characterized as “unapologetic in praising the sensuality and sexuality of women” by The Guardian.
WAP earned great critical praise, particularly among female-identifying communities and the LGBTQ+ community, for the fact that the verses highlight women and celebrate their strength and sex appeal rather than impressing boys.
Trinity Gomez in the Daily Trojan discusses how the upbeat tempo and catchy lyrics inspired the TikTok craze of the #WAPChallenge, where everyone and their grandparents tried their hand at the challenge.
Gomez also discusses the backlash received from more conservative audiences, such as California Senate Republican candidate John Bradley. But the USC student rightfully has a bone to pick with this “disappointed by not surprised” attitude, highlighting the double standard that women face on a daily basis.
“What the popularity of “WAP” made clear was that there is only space in the men’s locker room to talk about a woman’s body or sexuality. All hell breaks loose if a woman sexualizes themself but when a man does, it is dismissed because after all, “boys will be boys … Men, especially in rap music, create hypersexualized images of women with their lyrics and no one bats an eye… On the other hand, it is taboo for female musicians to sing about their objectification because they need to be good role models for young girls. What about male musicians though? Shouldn’t they be role models for young boys? … Any time a woman chooses to embrace their sexuality, a man is quick to express his opinion… “WAP” should stand for “We Abolish Patriarchy” because what Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion are doing is taking back power from male-dominated institutions — empowering women to choose how they wish to sexualize and sensualize their bodies.”
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