The recent issue of TIME magazine featuring the 100 most influential people has Beyoncé on its cover. The magazine glorifies the mega star for “empowering women.” While Beyoncé is certainly talented and successful, I do not believe that her hypersexual music videos and degrading lyrics are empowering women in any way.

In her music video “Drunk in Love,” she sings about being so drunk that she cannot remember how she ended up having sex with a stranger. I understand that it is entertainment, and I have absolutely no problem with adults watching this stuff. However, I believe content like this is hurting children, and especially young girls, who buy her albums.

Unlike adults, minors’ brains and personalities are still developing. Therefore, they absorb and process sexual content in a different way. I believe Beyoncé’s sexualized music videos actually hinder a healthy sexual development in minors.

Science Daily did a study on the impact of sexualized lyrics on adolescent behavior and attitudes and published the findings in Springer’s journal Sexuality & Culture. According to the research, “teens tend to overestimate the sexual activity of their peers, and one source of this misperception is the entertainment media. For girls in particular, this can lead them to judge their personal worth on a sexual level only, leading to poor body image, depression, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Popular music can teach young men to be sexually aggressive and treat women as objects while often teaching young women that their value to society is to provide sexual pleasure for others.”

Beyoncé, along with other pop singers such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus, know that young girls are looking up to them as role models, yet they do not care about their negative influence. While young girls certainly should be taught about sexuality, it should be done in a healthy and beneficial way.

From a very young age, girls should be taught to value their sexuality and to respect their own personal worth. Although schools, parents and church are primary educators, so are pop stars that these young girls idolize. Beyoncé could be empowering young girls by teaching them to respect their sexuality. Certainly, she can put out any content she wants to, but I feel that with the statute of her magnitude also comes responsibility.

When you have millions of young girls hanging on every word you say or sing, you have an enormous power to influence their thoughts and actions. I think TIME magazine, along with other media outlets, should stop glorifying people like Beyoncé for “empowering young women” when, in certain cases, they clearly do not. A much better choice would have been Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift, who know how to be sexy without being sleazy. Music videos should have ratings just like movies do, and parents should be able to block this garbage.

Telling a child to stay away from such content might not be very effective because children are naturally curious. That is why parents should not be alone in sheltering their kids—media and entertainers should join the cause.

Some might argue that these pop stars are not responsible for our children and that it is solely parents’ responsibility to control the exposure to such content. However, most young girls idolize pop stars, not their parents. The future of our country belongs to our children, so it is everybody’s business as to what kind of adults they become.

cbauert@mavs.coloradomesa.edu