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Here in the United States, we may be living in turbulent times, but there is one thing that has not changed: The belief in the American Dream. The “rags to riches” motif is alive and well in all forms of media. It gives us all hope that we can catch a little of that success and ride it to a better life for ourselves and our families.
While we will always be a nation that believes in the importance of hard work and success this comes with inherent obstacles or challenges as well. This is extremely evident when we discuss the way success narratives are covered when gender is added to the equation. The media continues to exalt the success of multiple males at any given time, but if two females are considered to be successful the media often runs with stereotypical headlines that pits the women against each other. Nowhere is the currently more evident than in the coverage of this year’s GRAMMY Awards – or as the media portrays it: The Diva Battle Showdown between Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.
There can only be one woman on top, and having her on top comes at the cost of all other women being beneath her.
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Flipping through the headlines of a Google News search of Beyoncé and Lady Gaga The New York Times, Reuters, and other major newspapers around the country all feature words like “showdown” and “Diva Off” or phrases like “Battle Royale” and “Clash of the Titans.” You could argue that diva has lost the negative connotations of its original use – that of a demanding, temperamental women and has transformed into powerful and hardworking women who was achieved success. Beyoncé herself gave the word its own definition. However, after closer examination of the articles it is clearly evident that it is not meant to celebrate the success of two women. It is meant to elicit a reaction and cause people to join a side and declare either Team Beyoncé (The Beyhive) or Team Gaga (The Little Monsters) – and this creates 3 huge problems.
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The first problem we should have with this is in the coverage itself. Most years two solo women are not up for Album, Song, and Record of the Year. Ironically enough the last time it happened was 2010 and the two women were Beyoncé and Lady Gage. Since it happens so infrequently it is easy to see why the narrative arises, but it still has a slight sexism to it. Last year I do not recall a single newspaper (admittedly I did not read every single one) that ran a headline pitting Bruno Mars and Ed Sheran against each other. By covering men and women in music differently it sets a precedent for the argument to be made that what they are doing is not the same thing, not worth the same, etc.
While the coverage itself is a problem I do not think it is the biggest one. The biggest problem is by far the message that it sends to young girls out there. It paints the message that success for women comes with a cost. There can only be one woman on top, and having her on top comes at the cost of all other women being beneath her. Why would we ever want to limit or sisters, daughters, and friends in their thinking? To reinforce the belief that it is not ok for there to be multiple successful females across multiple platforms and disciplines? It doesn’t make sense and it is not far to half of the general population.
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The final problem it creates is it often (especially in the music industry) leads to fighting between both the artists being pitted against each other as well as the fans and supporters of the entertainers. Instead of the media celebrating multiple solo female singers they seem to love their role in relegating women to the same “cat-fight” type of storytelling, and it happens over and over.
For some reason the media loves to cover (and many in society love to indulge in the coverage) Madonna and Lady Gaga and pit them against one another. This has caused their fans to go back and forth on social media and it has caused each artist to say less than flattering things about the other in interviews over the years. It does nothing to further women in the entertainment industry. It also adds women and age into the equation, by that is a topic for another day.
In years past fans of Rihanna and Beyoncé have also traded barbs on social media as they have been pitted against each other. Rihanna herself took a stand on the coverage of the two stars and the media’s role in perpetuating the story that was actually a non-story.
If we want to live in a society where men and women are truly equal on all accounts that starts with recognizing the problem. All women, and more importantly, all men should reject the narrative that multiple women cannot succeed. We owe it to all women to make sure everyone knows that all people value the success of women. If we don’t change the narrative, we are resigning ourself to unfair coverage of people we know, love, and respect; and god help us if this happens and we have two female presidential candidates one day. I can see that narrative beginning now.
**(Authors Note: For the sake of brevity I am going to focus exclusively on the GRAMMY Awards, but certain aspects of this can apply to other award shows or areas where successful women are pitted against each other as well)
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Photo Credit: Flickr/Emily Campbell