Young Female Popstars

There seems to be a very particular image that goes into being a young female pop singer in the United States:

Camille Paglia, a highly respected feminist, analyzed the "insipid, bleached-out personas" of the young women like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus in an editorial for The Hollywood Reporter that I remembered from a few months ago. She is most concerned with the power and influence that are given to these young female celebrities who are often accused of producing "bubblegum music" for the rising pre-teen, teenage, and young adult generations.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/taylor-swift-katy-perry-hollywood-398095

The public images of these girls has been molded by their industry and is expressed by the individuals themselves in such a way that they are presented as ageless, meaning older women should try to look and act younger, like popstars. Younger girls are taught by these "American Idols" to outfit themselves to flaunt their physical maturity, but maintain a "forever young" level of emotional and professional development.

In short, today's young female pop stars represent a dangerous and limiting model for what professional success looks like for a woman: white, suburban, simple, concerned most with appealing physically to men, and incapable of maturely starting, handling, and possibly ending meaningful relationships.

Ultimately, the music that these young stars produce is simply a way of propagating this image as popular, normal, and acceptable in a way that many (as you can tell by the artifacts provided) are cynical and critical of. What these girls say is so much less important then the image that they radiate while they say whatever it is that the situation could be perceived as comical:

In short, celebrities like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry are doing more harm than good with the rich and power adolescent image that they exude. Both men and women of various levels of maturity are becoming aware of how uncomfortable they are with the propagation of this image. 

-Bryant Bienz