Kluender 1

Research Essay Proposal/Exploratory Draft

Dr. McLaughlin, WR 13300 Spring 2017

Part 1: Research Proposal

Anna Kluender

I am studying the body shaming created by the music industry

because I want to find out how the music industry endorses body shaming of many different
body types...
because I want to critique attempts to counteract traditional body shaming practices

in order to help fans of modern music understand the subconscious messages translated
through song lyrics, music videos, and performers.
in order to call attention to the nature of modern media to be one-sided and often create
negative influences on the self-esteem of adolescents.

This issue is important and timely because many teens struggle with body image in the face of
modern media, which can lead to unhappiness, depression, and possible death. While modern
media has long been focused on overly-sexualized, unrealistic body images, recent trends in
media have created a sector that pushes for accepting larger body types. This in turn can exclude
the female adolescents who idolized those thin body types, creating another sense of negativity
and conflict.

To illustrate my discussion of the sexualized nature of modern music, I plan to focus on trends in
lyrics in recent history, effects of images and messages in media on the self-esteem of
adolescents (especially females), and the response to attempts to counteract the effects of
traditional body shaming by promoting curvier figures. I will critique the attempts of modern
music to spread body positivity by comparing such methods to the methods used by the music
industry to idealize slim, overly-sexualized female bodies. Finally, I will also analyze the areas in
which these new methods have succeeded in improving self-esteem and body confidence in
women in recent years.

BODY SHAMING
-Make it a critique of attempts to promote curvy bodies
-compare to historic music industry methods (and critiques of) promoting slender figures
-counter argument in beginning of how promoting curvy bodies is helpful.

Research Sources found so far:

MLA Citation
Bell, B.T., Lawton, R., &
Dittmar H. The impact of
thin models in music videos
on adolescent girls body
dissatisfaction. Body Image,
Type of Source What does source offer?
Scholarly journal article Statistics detailing the impact
of thin models in music
videos-argument that images
in music industry negatively
impact self-esteem (will use
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vol. 4, no. 2, 2007, pp 137- to compare to new practices)

145.
Report of the APA Task Force APA Website Argument that sexualization
on the Sexualization of of young girls results in
Adolescent Girls. American mental and physical health
Psychiatric Association, problems (background)
2010.
Convertino, A. D., Rodgers, Scholarly journal article Critique/analysis of a current
R. F., Franko, D. L., Jodoin, body-positive campaign in
A. An evaluation of the prevalent media
Aerie Real campaign:
Potential for promoting
positive body image?.
Journal of Health
Psychology, 2016.
Bender, Keont. Music News article (website) Argument that music videos
Videos Raise New Body and media can body shame
Image Debate. Point Park girls from more than one side
News Service, 12 November
2014.
Bernstein, Jacob. Be News article (NY Times) Counterargument: certain
Yourself, Music Videos Tell songs promote healthy body
the Young. New York Times, image
13 August 2014.

Part 2: Exploratory Draft

I plan to highlight how modern songs and music videos that, while having honorable goals of
sending the message that its okay not to be a size 2, actually negatively impact the self-esteem
of a large part of adolescent females. I find this topic interesting because I have noticed my
friends, peers, and even myself struggling with comparing ourselves to modern media, so I
wanted to delve deeper into one way in which we are influenced by the media propagated around
us. It has already been determined that music and music videos negatively influence body image
and self-esteem, but I want to focus on the attempts to counter this and the effect they have on
these adolescents. I am curious to find out how effective recent attempts have been at promoting
confidence and acceptance of all body types and to compare these efforts with those used to
promote slender figures. I hope to broaden the conversation about messages sent through the
music industry, regardless of their perhaps noble intentions.

The intended audience for this paper is teenagers who listen to popular, publicized music, music
videos, and coverage of stars, as well as those in the music industry who distribute messages
towards teens through mass media. By becoming more aware of the messages reaching them
through less-than obvious methods, hopefully adolescents can rationalize the images they see
with what they know to be true about body image and health. This could also help shape the
music industry to be more positive and accepting of all body types, not promoting one over the
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other. Eventually, I hope artists and producers will come to move away from describing the ideal
body type in their work as it often leads to unforeseen consequences in the self-esteem of those
who listen to it.

In my essay, I will first give background on how the music industry is known to shame young
girls by promoting thin figures and a sexualized appearance. Then I will move on to my main
claim, that attempts to counteract this have effects that are equally as detrimental. I will move
through a critique of new practices that work against body shaming by analyzing the lyrics,
images, and celebrities promoting this new trend. I will also include a counterargument detailing
the successes of recent attempts to boost self-esteem and encourage body positivity in teenage
girls.

So far I have found sources that prove that the music industry historically sexualizes young girls,
which creates health and self-esteem issues and provides the background for my analysis. I have
also found a source that claims that attempts to celebrate larger figures (which are currently
shamed in most songs and music videos) actually help to shame smaller figures while doing so.
Detailed below are some additional key words and possible resources or authors which I have
found while skimming the catalog in class and which I plan to consider incorporating into my
essay.

I am concerned with having something to argue in this paper. I hope to be able to add something
worthwhile to the existing conversation about these topics while convincing my audience that
what I say is worth listening to. I am also concerned about finding enough varying, academic
resources to support my claim with enough details to provide an in-depth analysis.

Extra Questions (discussed in class):

How opposition/negative images influence teenage brains

Media, images, brains
Childhood and Adolescent Obesity: a Topic of Confusion
The adolescent brain: searching for autonomy
Adolescent consent: question, confusion, and conflict

Evolution of music/pop culture/response to negative shaming

Evolution of music themes
Arbib papereffects of music on brain
Keywords: subject music and body image

How popular culture has shaped music videos

Music videos, popular culture
Connection between drug use and music videos (Diamond, Bermudez)
Importance of gender as response to music videos (Toney, Weaver)
ABOUT POPULAR CULTURE AND MUSIC

Modern campaigns to promote positive body image (Dove)

Positive body image campaigns
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Evaluation of Aerie Real campaign

Disney waist sizes

How idealized body type has changed over time

Idealized body type, time
Fat shame: stigma and the fat body in American culture
Marwick book
Bordo book

SEARCH : body image and media--- look at 1st and 3rd sources
Female body and music and teen*---look at MTV source and 1st source

Look at three files saved in WR file

Afful, Adwoa A.; Ricciardelli, Rose. Journal of Gender Studies. Aug2015, Vol. 24 Issue 4, p453-472. 20p. 1 Chart.
DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2015.1028523.

VIEM, E NIE SI SKUTON/": ZDRAZNENIE RETUOVANIA FOTOGRAFIE ZNIUJE NEGATVNY VPLYV

MDI POMOCOU INTERNALIZCIE. By: ROLLERO, Chiara. Studia Psychologica. 2015, Vol. 57 Issue 3, p195-202.
8p.