There's no twerking, sure, but there is enough rump-shaking to suggest that Lambert is well aware of the connection between bro-country's brand of objectification and its precedents in hip hop. After passing Lambert, the maid (played by a woman of color) heads into a room to clean, boogieing sensually and occasionally checking herself out in the mirror. "It ain't my fault when I'm walkin' jaws drop" - except, of course, she's careful to let you know that it is.įor all her swagger, though, Lambert's distaff take on bro-country continues to show some inevitable signs of strain. Women can be sexual objects and stars and express sexual desire all at the same time in hip hop and rock, and Lambert's determined to do it all in country as well.
The Vegas rock music, complete with a mimed air guitar solo, harks back to Van Halen - lines like, "You're just tryin' to slow this rollin' stone, but I'm onto you babe," rival David Lee Roth in their lusty vaudeville insouciance (albeit with more of a twang.) "I play guitar and I go on the road and I do all the shit you wanna do," Lambert proclaims in a quasi-spoken rap. Once we've established that, Lambert can head out to the pool, where she and a shirtless, ab-tastic pool boy get to exchange significant glances, too. And if that's the case, then women are not just objects, but are also objectifiers not just the looked at and sung about, but also the singers looking. Women in videos are not just objects of male desire, but objects of female desire as well. Breathing "oooooh! Ahhhh!" in a Donna Summers vein, she scopes the other woman out and is blatantly scoped out in return. The steamiest moment in the video is when Lambert passes a maid in the hallway. "You can't ride in my little red wagon / the front seat's broken and the axle's draggin'," she coos as she bats her eyes flirtatiously at the desk clerk in order to get him to bring her foofy little lap dog into the hotel.īut while she enjoys being the bro-country object, she's also the bro-country objectifier. Lambert enjoys being a sexual object in the video, teasingly withholding and manipulating her various viewers, on-screen and at home. The plot of "Little Red Wagon" involves Lambert pulling into a motel off the dusty interstate, but the real point is to watch her strut about in various outfits, including (inevitably) cut-off shorts and a very red vintage swimsuit. Lambert thinks the tropes are funny, too - but she also wants to embrace them as a way to be sexy and sexual herself. Maddie and Tae are out to show how stupid it is to treat people as objects they're criticizing the sexism and the cheesy sexuality of bro-country tropes. But where Maddie and Tae engaged in explicit parody, Lambert's video is more complicated and more ambivalent. Miranda Lambert seems to have been watching her new single "Little Red Wagon" (written by Audra Mae) is also, arguably, a response to bro-country. The song hit number one on the country charts - a rare success these days for female performers. "Like all we're good for is looking good for your friends on the weekend," singers Maddie and Tae sang acidly in " Girl in a Country Song." In that video, a trio of scantily-clad guys pour water over themselves and eat strawberries in slow motion, gender-swapping and mocking standard bro-country tropes. But in country, the anonymous video honeys in the cut-off shorts are window dressing. Country radio is overwhelmingly - almost exclusively - male right now. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Iggy Azalea, Jennifer Lopez and innumerable other women artists can be both sex symbols and stars in pop. While still reticent by the standards of a Nicki Minaj, perhaps, bands like Florida Georgia Line stock their videos with wall-to-wall gyrating women in bikinis and cut-off shorts, but that obsession with female bodies hasn't translated into opportunities (however limited) for female artists. But, at least as long as they conform to particular beauty standards, it doesn't stop them from performing.Ĭountry music, though, is different. The fact that pop music has to be sexualized limits their options and robs them of respect. All of them of course take crap for it they're often accused of being only talentless bodies rather than musicians, or of damaging women, or of being immoral. Performers like Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Katie Perry, and Lana del Rey all use sex, and the sexualization of the female body, as a selling point. In most parts of the pop landscape, female artists routinely capitalize on the mainstream obsession with sex and sexuality.