Britney Spears

Britney Spears 'Work B**ch' music video came out in October 2013 causing more attention for the pop star yet again. In the video Spears over sexualizes her female backup dancers by is having them wear sexy leather outfits, hitting some of them with a whip, having them on leash while wearing animal ears acting like dogs, and a girl being gagged with a huge white Dr. Dre beats pill. But even though there are these elements at least Spears is wearing just as revealing outfits and her and her dancers do most of the same dance moves. When she performs on stage she sexualizes the male backup dancers just as much as her female dancers. One example of this is was during her Onyx Hotel Tour, "Britney Spears's white terry-cloth robe dropped to the floor, revealing a sequin-covered body stocking. She stepped into a bathtub that, like her bodysuit, was see-through. In shadow to her left, like silhouettes seen through hotel room windows, men and women in beds mimed passionate sex with one another.

Beneath them a man wearing only tight white briefs splayed his legs and gyrated on a bed. After her mock bath Ms. Spears, wearing a pink bra and panties, rolled around in bed with him as two male dancers to their left took off each other's pants and danced suggestively together.". 

Sarah R.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/arts/pop-review-suds-sequins-and-even-a-little-song-from-spears.html

Offline Source

Hypersexualized Women Say "Come Hither" http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=120c24bc-ac80-4b88-bb54-8b0863fe6bd5%40sessionmgr113&vid=8&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=69861448

In this article, the sociologists state that the sexualization of men and women in pop culture has increased in recent years. It is common for performers to use their sexuality to gain fans, however this is becoming more common amongst women. The article gives statistics showing that over the years the male performers are less sexualized and the women performers are increasingly used as sexual objects. This directly relates to how the performers tend to use male backup dancers versus their female backup dancers. As seen in many of our posts, the performers tend to use men extras on stage while the female backup dancers are increasingly sexualized to the point of sexual objectification.

Rihanna

In Rihanna's early stages as an artist, she was not as sexual as she is today. Rihanna, especially in this video is wearing more clothes than she usually does. Her background dancers were not sexualized in Pon de Replay as they are in her music videos today. In Pon de Replay there are many background dancers and they are all wearing proper clothing and not dancing in provocative ways. This compared to her newer music videos such as Cockiness. 

As Rihanna matured as an artist, so did the content in her music videos. In Cockiness, not only Rihanna is sexualized, but her background dancers are as well. Compared to Pon de Replay, where she had many background dancers, both male and female, she now goes to having just a few female background dancers. This makes the message  of her music video seem more sexual and derogatory of women. 

Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake ‘Suit and Tie’ music video the male backup dancers, Timberlake, and Jay-z are all wearing suit and bow ties, the male backup dancers are doing the same dance moves as Timberlake and are being sexualized at all throughout the whole video. While the female backup dancers on the other hand are being sexualized by wearing skimpy lingerie, while sensually dancing with a microphone stand and rolling around and more sensual dancing on the floor in a pool of water. Timberlake’s music video for his song ‘Tunnel Vision’ was banned from YouTube last summer for violating the nudity policies. The music video features Timberlake and Timberland goggling at three nude female British models walking around and, “The models danced around strategically covering themselves at points with their arms and were also partially obscured by mist.” This video is said to follow in the footsteps of Robin Thicke’s unrated music video for his song ‘Blurred Lines’, which was also banned from YouTube.  But in one of his appearances on Saturday Night Live Timberlake got a chance to be a sexualized like a female backup dancer by doing a skit with Beyoncé in one of the 2008 episodes. The skit showed Timberlake, Andy Samberg, and Bobby Moynihan replacing Beyoncé’s female backup dancers for her ‘Single Ladies’ music video and yes they still wear the leotards and high heels.

Sarah R.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2355433/Justin-Timberlakes-new-Tunnel-Vision-video-gets-banned-featuring-topless-models.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1603682/justin-timberlake-on-coaxing-beyonce-into-snl-skit.jhtml

Britney/Justin Differences and Comparisons

Throughout Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s careers they have both kept up with the rapidly changing/explicit music video from where they started where they didn't need to be sensual in there videos. Spears has come from Mickey Mouse Club to ‘Baby, One More Time’ to ‘Oops I Did Again’ to ‘I’m a Slave For You’ to ‘3’ to ‘Work B**ch’. Timberlake has come from Mickey Mouse Club to Nsync to ‘Rock Your Body’ to ‘Sexy Back’ to SNL/Lonely Island favorite to ‘Suit and Tie’ to ‘Tunnel Vision’. Not only are they been sexualizing themselves but their backup dancers as well but here are some similarities and differences of how they use there dancers in their videos/concerts. Timberlake and Spears both tend to sexualize their female dancers is some way, but when it comes to male dancers that’s where they tend to differ. Britney sexualizes her male dancers either at the same level and sometimes more than her female dancers. While Timberlake hardly ever sexualizes his male dancers. But they both treat their dancers well and have even had either relationships or encounters with their dancers.

Sarah R.

Chris Brown-Backup Dancers

Much like Usher, Chris Brown also performs with male background dancers rather than females. (shown below) However, in many of his music videos, Chris, is shown with many women. This may be expected from Chris considering all of his songs are about girls, relationships, sex, and partying. The women in his videos and his performances are not always sexualized, especial not as sexualized as the women seen in Rihanna's music videos. With Chris Brown, his women background dancers in music videos such as, Say Goodbye, are more so used as props, or to help tell a story rather than just sexual items that are pleasing to the eye.

OMG: Usher ft. Will.I.Am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RnPB76mjxI&feature=kp

In Usher's song OMG featuring Will.I.Am, the use of women in order to sexualize the video is prevalent. Granted the song is about a man who falls in love with a woman on the dance floor because of the sexy way she is dancing, but also the outfits are sexualized for the mans eye, as the women are wearing a sparkly bra and panties, black stiletto boots, and a mens dress coat. Usher and Will.I.Am's dances are quite different than the female backup dancers. One particular thing I found interesting in both Usher and Beyonce's video's are that the comments don't mention anything about the sexualization. However, when I was searching for the over-sexualization of men and women as backup dancers, I did not find much. This tells us that the sexualization of them is a common occurrence in today's society. Only when I search Beyoncé in particular did I find people being disgusted at how sexual her performances are. This explains that the use of backup dancers are simply a prop and it does not matter if they are sexualized.

THEN VS. NOW

Over ones career in the spotlight, especially in the music industry, it is hard to not conform to society. The changes in a performers appearance are very clear over time. A great example of this is Miley Cyrus. Not only did Miley herself change, but her background performers also changed with her. As Miley became more sexualized so did her backup dancers. In the beginning stages of her career, Miley dressed appropriately and so did her backup dancers. Not only this but they also danced in a non provocative manor. As you can tell by the pictures below, this is far from how Miley and her dancers are today. 

RuPaul is Shaking Things Up!

Most of the time when it comes to background dancers it usually the females that get over sexualized more than the males. Well thanks to well-known drag queen RuPaul is starting to change that with their new music video Geronimo. This video features RuPaul herself and said to be twerk champion Julian Serrano; during the video the camera going back forth to solo shots of RuPaul singing and dancing some and Julian dancing and mostly twerking with either a full back body view or close up to his behind. This video finally gives girls a chance to take a break and act like men do when they see girls twerk (with I believe Julian does better than most girls anyway). But even though this video is one of the rare examples of male backup dancers being overly sexualized; it did not get really any negative feedback like music videos where female backup dancers are sexualized. Which seems unfair and sort of relates to its ok if a man does it but it’s shameful and disgusting if a woman does it.

Some of the comments on the video:

 "Note to Miley Cyrus: THIS IS HOW YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO TWERK"

"I used to be disgusted by guys that loved watching girls twerk, but then I saw a man twerk and Lawd... _ I have seen the light. I live, hunty! I live!"

"I am tired of people just seeing us men as meat ;O. Lol."

Sarah R.

Sexualization of Women in Beyoncé's Baby Boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ucz_pm3LX8 

In this video, Sean Paul is sitting in a chair that resembles a rulers’ chair, while Beyoncé and the other women in this video are hyper-sexualized. They are glistening with sweat while wearing short skirts and sparkly material covering their breasts. Beyoncé roles in what seems to be animal fur and looks as if she's being held there. In the following seen, Sean Paul is lying in the center of a room of half naked women which resembles an orgy. When the women are dancing on the stage, the outfits are what creates sexual atmosphere seen. Later in the video, Beyoncé is chained to a tree, which shows the 'Damsel in Distress' play on women that they are not capable of fending for themselves. 

Beyoncé's Backup Dancers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY 

Beyoncé and her backup dancers do just as Usher and his backup dancers did. It seems as though when performers are with their own sex of backup dancers, the dance is the same as the backup dancers. Whereas, when a male performer has female backup dancers the dance is typically sexualized. The same goes for females as well. The thing that differentiates the main performer from the backup dancers is the slight difference in costume and the fact that the performer is always at the center of the camera. In Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” video, the three women are dancing with a neutral background, as if they’re in the club and saying to the men across the room, “If you like it then you should have put a ring on it”. This statement focuses on the man’s inability to want a committed relationship. The female dominance in this video is very prominent.

Backup Dancers in Pop vs. Backup Dancers in Alternative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTJkE8Ki3Gg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU

The first link is to All Time Low's music video too I Feel Like Dancin' Tonight and the second link is too Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. There is a major difference between the use of backup dancers in pop/rap music and alternative/indie music. All Time Low are an alternative band and in their music video, they sort of make fun of other music videos. Their female backup dancers are jokingly beginning sexualised. By this I mean, yes the girls are only wearing bras and underwear and they are doing inappropriate dance moves, but the reason All Time Low has them doing this is because they are making fun of the typical music video where this happens. But in Robin Thicke's video for Blurred Lines, the backup dancers are completely oversexualised on purpose. The girls are all in small, tight clothing, and there are some scenes of them almost naked. The dancers are shown licking their lips and doing other inappropriate moves with their bodies and mouths to the men. In most videos in alternative or indie music, there are either no backup dancers at all or if there are, they are rarely doing inappropriate things. While often in pop or rap videos, the backup dancers are doing many inappropriate moves.

Janet Jackson's Backup Dancers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRhnMNS2pVI

The link above is Janet Jackson's first music video, Dream Street. The video is a young girl's rise to stardom. In the video she is trying to make it in Hollywood. Seeing as she is so young in the video, Jackson is not sexualised in anyway, nor does she sexualise any of her backup dancers.

The picture above is from Jackson's performance on the 2010 finale of American Idol. The backup dancers in this performance are all male and they are being slightly sexualised. They are all shirtless, in tight black pants with black collars on their necks. And they are touching and dancing around Jackson. In comparison to other music performances, the backup dancers here are not being too overly sexualised, but they are still being sexualised.

Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_Criminal#Music_video_and_live_performances

*start video at 1:05*

"Smooth Criminal" is the 7th single from Michael Jackson's Bad album from 1987. The song is about a woman named Annie who is attacked in her apartment by an assaulter. In the music video, Jackson originally planned to have it set in a western genre but then decided to go with a 1930's nightclub scene. In the video, both the women and men are doing 1930's style dance moves. There is no sexualisation of any of the backup dancers. Both the women and men are just doing basic dance moves. There is no grinding or thrusting or anything of that kind.

Usher's Male Backup Dancers

In Usher's performances he uses his backup dancers to emphasize his presence. Although they (Usher and his male backup dancers) all have a similar dance routine, he differentiates himself by wearing a more prominent color and is at the front of the group. The reason for his background dancers is to put on a great performance for the paying audience. Usher’s use of his male backup dancers is neutral- there isn’t any amount of sexualization to the dance, or demeaning nature to the male dance role. This is important to note because he uses his male and female backup dancers in different ways.