Christina Aguilera Reflection
What do you think of when you think of a successful woman in the music industry? Is it someone like Miley Cyrus who always seems to shock the world? Is it the ultimate diva Mariah Carey? Is it a “good girl?” The answer to that last question is absolutely not. Being a good girl does not maintain or elevate your status in the music industry. There is a reason why every female artist starts out that way and then slowly begins to unravel themselves until they are overtly sexual, in a downward spiral, or just become straight up outrageous. Christina Aguilera managed to hit all of these phases as she rose and fell from stardom.
The song that I remember most from my childhood is “Beautiful.” It has an incredible message behind it and sounds uplifting and inherently good. However, in the music video, Xtina has many piercings and dyed and braided hair. This looks strange when juxtaposed with the content of the video–a gay couple, a drag queen, a girl struggling with her body image. Xtina herself is being sexualized as a temptress in this stage of her career yet she is spreading the message that no matter what you look like you should be appreciated. It seems to me that she needs to listen to her own words because she felt the need to change her image in order to become more successful; not just once (from good to bad), but from good, to sexy, to pin-up, to provocateur. It’s almost coincidental that at the beginning of the song she whispers, “Don’t look at me” because it is almost like she is inviting you to look at her with her piercing blue eyes staring into the camera, but also asking that you look at the message behind the video rather than looking at her.
One comment that truly highlights how incredible this song is is simply the word “ICONIC” in all caps. Many of the comments are coming from 2017, which proves how iconic this song actually is. Christina never needed to change her image, she just needed to continue making meaningful music. She was such a huge part of how I grew up, and now she seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Once you cross a certain line from diva to provocateur, people get sick of you regardless of how talented you actually are. It’s sad to think that she kept changing her image in order to be successful, and that change was the catalyst to her slip out of the lime light.
