Bro-Country Objectification of Women Bad Sign for Country Music, Society

by Julian Spivey
I’m going to preface this by saying that I’m fully aware that many of you will think I’m making a big deal out of absolutely nothing and that I should learn how to have a little fun.
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But, something is going on in today’s country music when it comes to male singers and their objectification of women that I don’t believe is good for the genre or for society in general.

Country music is a world that for the most part has always been dominated by males, and is now more so than ever during the current heyday of what’s been sometimes affectionately called and oftentimes maligned as “bro-country.” There has been much made about the “bro-country” style of the genre led by artists like Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line and how it frequently views the women in its hits as objects rather than human beings. In many of these songs women are merely something for men to stare at and admire as they shimmy out of their cutoff jeans into the bikinis underneath. Now, don’t get me wrong, a beautiful woman should be admired … but, it shouldn’t be the only thing admirable about her. The women in these songs should be women, but lately they’ve been turned into nothing more than sex objects, and the music videos for these songs frequently drive home that point.

“Bro-country” has been incredibly popular among both men and women listeners and has become one of the hottest commodities in the music industry today, despite it saturating the genre and being just as maligned as it is popular.

Much has also been made recently, at least by critics and fellow musicians, about the great wave of female singers in the genre (Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark, Ashley Monroe, Caitlin Rose, and on and on), but unfortunately only Lambert seems to find success on the radio. Musgraves has found success when it comes to award shows, winning at the Grammys, CMA Awards and ACM Awards, but how often have you heard her music on the radio? The others have all but been ignored by radio and fans.

This could very well be because the demographic listening to country music today doesn’t care so much about artistry as it does about partying and hot women – and these previously mentioned women are damn sure not going to allow themselves to be objectified or prostituted.

“Bro-country” and its treatment of women may only be a fad, a short-term popularity of the moment, that writers and singers are jumping on to score big hits and paychecks, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s the new way of life for today’s country music and today’s generation. Has objectifying women become so commonplace in country music because it’s just a means to make millions because it’s popular among the masses or has it become this way because the people recording this music are in fact chauvinists who believe women are put on earth for their pleasure and to be their play-things?

Something I saw re-tweeted by country superstar Dierks Bentley on Twitter and thought was distasteful and indicative of today’s country music, while most probably found it humorous, caught my attention. It was a re-tweet of a tweet by fellow country singer Chase Rice, some young “bro-country” punk I’m not too familiar with, nor do I want to be, who’s opening for Bentley on his “Riser” tour posted about another opening act Jon Pardi. The tweet said: “Welp @JonPardi called a nice pair of boobs out on stage. Man they were good ones too.” I quickly realized that women at their concerts are no more human to these guys than the nameless characters in their songs. They are just tits and ass there for their pleasure.

That tweet was on May 30 and I haven’t forgotten it, but didn’t really know what to do about it other than feel disgusted. Looking back at Rice’s Twitter profile I seem to have spotted a theme as two days later Rice tweeted a photo of his band leering out of their ride’s windows at attractive fans below with the caption: “My horny band tryin to get girls to flash em on our escort out from the venue. Boys will be boys.”

And, then I saw a tweet from Bentley’s Twitter account on June 14 that featured a shirtless woman, now wearing only her bra, sitting atop somebody’s shoulder and receiving a guitar from Bentley (the photo that’s featured at the top of this article). The photo came with the caption: “well... didn't mean to start this. another t-shirt in exchange for one of our guitar player @brianlayson guitars!”

That tweet was in reference to something Bentley tweeted last week when in concert a female concertgoer removed her shirt and gave it to him on the stage. Bentley gave the woman one of his guitarist’s guitars and seemingly started a trend.

I understand that nobody is forcing these women to remove their clothing and that it’s 100 percent their right to do so. Telling a woman what she can and can’t do with her body is just as bad as objectifying it. But, I can’t help believing that a woman prostituting themselves for guitars is something that’s both a product of the “bro-country” objectification of women and something that continues to entice the men to continue this behavior.

Many would say songs are just songs and shouldn’t be taken so seriously or literally – going back to what I prefaced at the beginning. But, songs can also be a telling sign of society and its attitudes and beliefs. And, if you ask me … today’s society as shown by the movement of “bro-country” and the statements/attitudes of some of these performers lead me to believe they need to be taught some manners and lessons when it comes to how to treat the opposite sex … and taking off your shirt for them ladies is not exactly the way to go about doing it.