So You Want to be a Vixen?

Meagan Good (center) as Lorie in Video Girl

I caught a movie on television called Video Girl, starring Meagan Good. Good starred in the movie as a girl who loved dancing, however, her dancing career doesn't really pan out the way that she wants it to. She then meets this video director named Shark (Adam Senn). Shark specializes in directing music videos. So to make a long story short, Good’s character, Lorie, has a relationship with Shark and gets in the music business as a video vixen. From a person outside looking in, she sees all of the perks of being a video vixen and thinks that this could end up being the career choice for her. She gets what she wanted and figures out that a career as a video vixen isn't all it was made out to be.

This movie really raised the question in my head “Is this how most video vixens live like?” I have watched a number of music videos during my lifetime, and up until I saw that movie, I didn't really have a problem with girls looking and acting in a seductive manner for music videos. I still don’t really have a problem with it, but I am very curious about how they enjoy that kind of lifestyle if they do in fact live like how Lorie lived in the Video Girls.

According to blootwenty2.com, a video vixen is a woman who models in a music video to enhance the video’s overall look and appeal. The website then went on to describe the stereotypical vixen, especially in the hip-hop industry as having “curvy thighs and hips, a slim waist, big breasts and the signature but of perfect circumference.” The reason behind having these kinds of physical requirements is because most hip-hop videos are trying to convey a sexual, seductive theme in their videos. Having the body types that were described are widely viewed as attractive, particularly in the hip-hop culture.

From the description that was mentioned of what a video vixen is, most people would classify it as objectifying. A lot of the lyrics said in most songs that they are in would go on to further prove the previous statement to be accurate. Various examples of objectification  can be seen here. One of those examples is Buyckcherry’s “Crazy Bi**ch” when the song says “Hey, you’re a crazy bi**ch, but you f**k I’m on top of it. To me, this suggests that everything can be wrong with a woman, but as long as she performs her duties sexually, she is still accepted. If you watch the video, you can automatically notice that this isn't even a hip-hop song.

I can’t tell artists what to do as far as their music videos go. However, the point of me writing this blog is to bring attention to the way that we are portraying these women. There are ways that we can admire the contour of a woman without using degrading actions to get our points across. Women don’t have to show an ample amount of skin to bring about attention.