One may say that the song “Work from Home” by the all girl-group Fifth
female empowerment and feminism. Female empowerment is being proud of your sex
appeal and using it for yourself. Feminism is fighting for equal rights between men and
women. Women are still pushed in the music industry to sell songs using their sex appeal.
This is a huge reason why we still need feminism and why I believe author and
philosopher Christina Hoff Summers is wrong in her arguments against feminism. Stating
that “Feminism is drowning in myth-information, the Exaggerated claims and crying wolf
act’
The truth is that feminism is here so we all can support each other as women and
not bring each other down; we’re all just looking to be equal. Young female artists are
sending out mixed messages about sex and it’s time music lovers start understanding
SLIDE 2
Women, especially in music videos, are only showcased for their bodies. I feel
Fifth Harmony demonstrates this. Some examples being: In the first verse of the song
“Work from Home,” released in 2016, it is said that this particular woman is doing
Later, it is also implied that this same woman is sending her love interest sexual pictures
to entice him. How is this a good message for young woman listeners to hear? Not only is
this woman sitting at home doing nothing, she is naked, waiting for her man to come
home from work. She makes it seem as if her being naked is the only thing that should
Not only is the woman in the video portraying a classic damsel in distress image, but also
is taken further with her financial, emotional, and physical dependencies. As viewers,
listeners…We are standing around letting this happen. Shouldn’t we want more?
Not only do the female singers in the group degrade themselves, The rapper Ty Dolla
$ign is featured in this song and his verse completely objectives every women in the
video and they happily go along with it. Throughout his verse he makes sexual innuendos
that not only reinforce rape culture, but also show the woman as completely submissive
to him. As if that’s the way “it should be.” Stephen Zelin wrote an article for the website
“Ty Dolla $ign first appears in the song, publicizing himself as the voice of the
man, in a very domineering manner, demanding a girl to go work for him. I have a
feeling this will take a turn for the worse and unintentionally setback
feminism…Dolla $ign neatly ties the bow of this exemplary piece of English
Growing up as a woman you are constantly torn being told to embrace being a woman
and love what you are or to cover up. But when you add a verse to an all girl-group sung
by a man, who is completely objectifying the women’s bodies we should see that this
isn’t okay. Not only does him being there take away the pride of them being an all girl-
group but also he expects them to be submissive to him! Meanwhile, Fifth Harmony
sends the message out that as women, we should sit home, wait for our man to return
SLIDE 3
This whole song is one euphemism for sex. It repeats the word, “work” over 85
times. One could say to replace the word “work” with “sex” and let’s see how well it
does on the charts. But the fact is, the song would probably do better on the charts if you
replace the word “work” for “sex” and that is the sad truth of our reality. Our music
This music video is directed, produced and written by all men. Why are men
constantly in the higher chair telling women to drop their clothes? This falls into the
typical stereotype about how the only way to make it “in the business” is to sleep your
We need to work towards a place where women can sell music without being half
Christina Hoff Summers make points about misguided feminism and how woman
are too often being allowed to play victim, but never does she acknowledge what’s been
happening in the music industry. It seems that women need to be naked or have a major
sex appeal to be able to sell their album. Example of this is how women are portrayed in
their album covers, more than not, they’re made up to look “sexy.”
Now, In a recent Saturday Night Live skit taking place on November 4th 2017,
Leslie Jone’s shows the double standard of how easily men also get objective and how
everyone thinks its funny and or normal. She pretends to be a baseball fan solely for the
“fine men in their pinstripe pants.” The point can be made that if roles were reversed and
she was a man, this would be creepy and frowned upon. It shows that as a man or
woman, you will get objectified. But, in a research paper titled Sexualization of Women in
the Music Industry written by Paige Hawk, they show the statistic that:
“Researchers found that 57% of music videos included women who were,
third study showed 37% of women in music videos wore revealing clothing as
This holds truth for a number of music videos, that yes, men do get objectified but
woman have the worst end of it. Some examples of this being, “Work from Home” by
Fifth Harmony, “Make It Nasty” by Tyga, “My Neck, My Back” by Khia and just so
many more.
SLIDE 4
We are creating an unattainable image for our young people to look up to. According to
an abstract from the article “The Mediating Role of Appearance Comparisons in the
role in self-objectification among young women. The writer of this article, Jasmine
1. she weighed the similarities and differences between the usage of different media
Her studies showed that, “Facebook usage and magazine usage were correlated with
comparisons in general.”
How many times a day do we just scroll through our facebook and other social
media sites a day, seeing random videos. This proves that our young listeners to our
music today will start comparing themselves to the women in these videos and how
they present themselves. We have so many people daily comparing us to others, there
LAST SIDE:
We often forget that the true meaning of feminism is to be equal and people are
quick to say how extremist is it. They don’t realize we need some form of community as
women to stand behind each other. The women in “Work from Home” are completely
based around being submissive to their men, being sexy for men, and not themselves.
This is what proves Christina Hoff Summers wrong in her arguments against women and
feminism overall. Feminism is a real thing; it is time to stop making a joke about it and
time to focus and stand up to the man, with or without clothes but that’s our choice…not
theirs.
Verse 1: All & Lauren]
We ain't worried 'bout nothin', we ain't wearin' na-nada
I'm sittin' pretty, impatient, but I know you gotta
Put in them hours, I'mma make it harder
I'm sending pic after picture, I'mma get you fired
[Pre-Chorus: Normani]
I know you're always on the night shift
But I can't stand these nights alone
And I don't need no explanation
Cause baby, you're the boss at home
[Chorus: Lauren]
You don't gotta go to work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
But you gotta put in work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
You don't gotta go to work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
Let my body do the work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
We can work from home, oh, oh, oh-oh
We can work from home, oh, oh, oh-oh
[Verse 2: Ally]
Let's put it into motion, I'mma give you a promotion
I'll make it feel like a vacay, turn the bed into an ocean
We don't need nobody, I just need your body
Nothin' but sheets in between us, ain't no getting off early
[Pre-Chorus: Dinah]
And I know you're always on the night shift
But I can't stand these nights alone
And I don't need no explanation
Cause baby, you're the boss at home
[Chorus: Lauren]
You don't gotta go to work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
But you gotta put in work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
You don't gotta go to work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
Let my body do the work, work, work, work
Work, work, work
We can work from home, oh, oh, oh-oh
We can work from home, oh, oh, oh-oh
[Outro: All]
We can work from home
We can work from home