Party Girl Pop: Empowerment or Sexism

Originally published on Miss Representation and cross-posted here with their permission.

Social Action Representative Melissa A. Fabello takes on “the girliest trend in contemporary popular music right now” — “the anthems to pre-gaming and morning regret” also known as party girl pop music.

Using a feminist lens, Melissa asks whether the likes of Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” are truly empowering, “or just sexism presented in a different package.”

What do you think?

*NOTE* regarding my statement about artists who don’t write their own music: I do NOT mean to imply that the likes of Katy Perry and Ke$ha do not contribute their own material. Rather, most of their songs have three or four writers credited, most of whom are men. And the people who approve of and produce those songs are usually men. So, even IF a song is fully written by a female artist (which hardly ever happens — for all artists, not just women), it still has to gain the approval of the people who own that media (most of whom are men).

Melissa A. Fabello is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism, a feminist blogger and vlogger, as well as an online peer sex educator, based out of Philadelphia. She is a second-year graduate student, working on an M.Ed. in Human Sexuality. She can be reached on Twitter @fyeahmfabello.