Women, Pop Music, and Pornography

Musician and feminist Meredith LeVande noticed a dramatic shift in the appearance of female pop stars in the late 1990s. This essay shows how the connection between media ownership deregulation and the mega-media companies that profit from adult entertainment have pushed pornographic imagery into the mainstream. Nowhere is this situation more evident than with women in popular music whose images have become increasingly hyper-sexualized. Through various narratives circling women in music, this essay explores how the 1996 Telecommunications Act has made pornographic images omnipresent.