The pornofication of American culture eh? While I do agree and think it's a HUGE problem, while you may be wont to blame capitalism, might the moral relativism of liberal intellectuals and the liberals who write shows and run Hollywood and the music industry have something to do with it? Hmm?

this really isn't surprising. i've noticed that since her divorce back in the mid-90s, she has become increasingly more sexual in her persona and this is very evident in her music videos. compare "someday" from her debut album and "honey" which i think is from '97 or '98. i would have to agree that she's more hyper-sexualized than ever. maybe that stems from anxiety about being an aging pop diva, trying to compete with younger starlets, or maybe it's not even her choice and it's being engineered by a team of publicists and agents. but it is very noticeable over the course of her career. 

The thing that gets me is, since Justin Bieber is in the song that means it's marketed to young girls. You'd think there be less sexualization in the new version than the old version.

What I'm noticing in addition to the pornier new video is that this is another example of a young male teen idol getting sexual attention from an older female (recently posted about with Bieber and Jaden Smith).  If this was a young female starlet (under 18) and, say, Adam Levine, how would we feel about it?

It's just sad. Totally not just her, of course, but everyone. It's a vicious cycle of the media pushing the limit and the people getting used to it. It's hard to go the other direction (but we should!).

Is it just the screen-cap quality or is she also, uh...paler?

No, it is the screen cap quality. Watch the video.

I can't get over how they seem to have completely overlooked the blatant irony of the song being all about *not* wanting material things for Christmas, but rather a cherished loved one, while the video is deeply focused on consumer goods.  Justin Bieber sings, "I won't ask for much this Christmas -- I won't even ask for snow.  [...]  I won't make a list and send it to the North Pole."  Right afterward, his eyes are like saucers looking at a stack of Nintendo DS's, and he nonchalantly throws several in the cart.

Not exactly hard to see the ridiculous irony in that one.

What I think is most creepy is that Justin Bieber was born the year the first video was made, and that she is old enough to be his mother, but they're singing to each other about wanting each other.  Eeewww...

While I don't disagree with your "pornification" statement as a whole, it might be worth noting that Mariah had made some statements concerning how she wanted her music and image to be sexier, but while she was married to Tommy Mottola (when the original video came out) she was restricted from doing so.  From the Butterfly album on (the first album to be released after their divorce), the videos and image was much more "pornified".

That being said, this is still pretty weird.

I just wanted to clarify that Mariah Carey actually co-wrote the song and is the original performer. She's not performing a cover of it as the first sentence implies.

"At one point she runs her hand down her body, touching her breast and
moving down to her crotch; at another she just leans against the wall
with her back to us and swings her butt back and forth."

Yes, what a scandal. No, really.

It reminds me of this article I read a while ago:

http://www.creators.com/liberal/froma-harrop/middle-class-aided-its-own-decline.html

"Girls from the middle class — or from what once was — now scamper
through the mall baring cleavage, and wearing thick eyeliner and
outrageous heels. Their intellectual interests seem nil, and their
apparent need to push their sexual availability on boys depresses the
feminist soul."

I understand that some (not only Bud here) might feel upset that not everyone conforms to middle class ideas of behavior -and modesty- but this morality would not be unwelcome in a conservative forum. Unless someone put a gun to her head to dress and act that way, shouldn't we respect her decision (the whole sex-positive thing)? Or put another way, do women who dress sexy have no agency at all?

its not about Mariah being allowed to do as she pleases and to express her sexuality, its about the deterioration of everything BUT representation of sexuality, there is NO other subject but SEX (and consumerism) even when the song isnt about sex! THATS THE POINT. Its pornified because its focus is Mariah being sexy, her body being on display and commodified (bc the music video is made to sell) rather than the song or its lyrics....this is a pattern that is troublesome because every time a woman is seen on tv she is being pornified, her appearance seems to be solely about pleasing a male viewer, entertainment has taken a strong sexual turn and is less representative of whole human beings and more representative of strictly sexual and capitalistic idealism

The video is so awful it is hard to believe they aren't making fun of the whole experience. Just how many morally devoid aspects can be in one video before it becomes camp?

For the fun of it, let's try reverse engineering the 2011 version of the video....

We'll replace Mariah Carey with Michael Bolton.  Have him shirtless with a pair of tight leather pants.  Throughout the video he will thrust his crotch and look suggestively into the camera.

Instead of Justin Beiber we'll have Taylor Swift, dressed modestly in jeans and a ski jacket.  She'll spend most of the video looking longingly at either a Nintendo product or Michael Bolton.

If this re-imagining of the video seems completely ludicrous it's because the original is completely sexist. 

The second video is also empty of any relevance to the song. Sure, the first veriosn is a bit voyeuristic, but it's shot like a home videy, and Carey looks like an idealised version of a woman that you could fall in love with, not a model posing at a mall. In fact there doesn't seem to be half as much human interaction in the second vid, and Carey is alone in the first one!

I'm embarrassed for Mariah because it looks like she got that sexy santa outfit off discountstripper.com

You're a diva, girl! If you're going to be objectified in a music video, get some couture going on.

i wouldn't doubt that some of this difference in sexiness has to do with mariah carey being 17 years older now.  it's more important that she be "still" sexy now then it was for her to be sexy then.

it was only the late 90's when outfits like in the 2011 video became pop music necessities.  madonna hypersexualize way back in 91.  i do understand the 'pornification' issues of today, but it's a 15 year old trend now.  the early 90's was really only a reprieve from the sexualized ladies in music videos trope, with rock bands of the 80's pretty much always employing them. 

I think you could analyze it further. In both music videos, the singer is being presented as a sort of idealized woman. In the first video, she is active, sporty, adores animals, fun, etc.- in essence, her personality is being depicted. In the second video, she is beautiful and sexy and moves erotically. The viewer (or indeed, the intended receiver of the message, Beiber) knows nothing about her personality or who she is. Her sexuality (or indeed just her sexual receptivity is emphasized).  Additionally, the message of the song changes: the first song suggests that the want of the song is a desire to have a romantic relationship or possibly to be with one's significant other while the second version suggests that want means nothing more than sexual desire.

Also disturbing for me about the the second video was the merchandising of the woman (teenage guys are in a mall shopping for Christmas, and a boy sees a girl on display...) and the sexualization of a young teenager (he may be seventeen, but he tends to read as much younger).

While the comparison between the videos is interesting, I don't think it's accurate to portray it as a contrast between the norms of today and 20 years ago. 

If you were a kid watching TV in the early 1990s, you constantly saw racy, sexually-charged videos from the likes of TLC, Janet Jackson, and Madonna (who, unlike Mariah Carey, posed for a book of actual porn in 1992). The bog-standard mainstream rap and R&B video featured rows of scantily clad women gyrating in badly choreographed sexual pantomime. And as for rock, could anyone leave the house in 1994 without hearing Nine Inch Nails' "Closer"? Just try to get that chorus unstuck from your head now.

 1994 was not an innocent time in which the average pop diva was modestly giggling in snowsuits and thermals. Really, it didn't look much different from today, except the music was arguably better. And for that matter, in terms of sales, 2011's closest equivalent to Mariah in '94 may well have been Adele, who does not appear to be fornicating with the camera at all.

So sorry, I am most definitely not sold on this analysis. We could look at it as an example of how one particular celebrity sexed up her public persona for whatever reasons - be they commercial or personal. Or we could consider it the difference between two different companies' marketing strategies for different products (Christmas albums tend to sell with more sentimentality than gaming systems). But as a sign of how the "culture" has changed over two decades? FAIL.

I wonder how much Nintendo paid to be featured so prominently in the video...

The part that I thought was the most bizarre about the second video is that the entire music video effectively serves as a Macy's advert. If you look closely at the little cards that the holly jolly santa is handing out to people on the street, they're all invitations to a Macy's event.

All I want for Christmas is money and sex, apparently.

It really gets me in the beginning-how the woman is so sexualized and the man isn't at all. How Mariah stands against that wall while Beiber and his friends look at her like some object for their consumption. gross.

yes.  But still, teens are having less and less sex, delaying sex, to the point where the majority are now virgins.

Notice how Bieber is "active" in the video, running around with his friends, shopping etc. where as Carey is "passive," standing in front of a fricking wall the entire time.

1st vid: id hit that
2nd vid: too old wouldnt bang

FIRE ANUS GUN INTO YOUR ASSHOLE

I got a bit sick in my mouth.

Also, does anyone find it creepy in the first scene when Justin is checking out Mariah, who is more than twice his age?

Great song, I usually listen to music every evening. The best songs are bought by me to make phone ringtones 효과음.

that's a good video, until now I still hear them playing this song Fnaf on the street every Christmas