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Gender roles and its effect on society
The effect of gender roles on society
Gender roles and its effect on society
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Sociological Scavenger Hunt: Item 5 Objectification of women and misogyny is a common trend in song lyrics, but it is often socially accepted and further perpetuated. Finding a song in which the roles are reversed and a woman depicts a man as a sex object is incredibly difficult because when women try to break norms in the music industry, they are often criticized. In “Blah Blah Blah” by Kesha, she reverses the typical gender roles in song lyrics by objectifying men. Kesha has her own struggles within the male-dominated music industry because her producer sexually abused her and trapped her into a record deal. However, Kesha lost her court case, which illuminates gender issues within the music industry and the larger society. In 2010 when Kesha’s songs were popular, people weren’t aware of her battle with her producer. Instead, her lyrics classified her as more of a party figure and people even saw her as “trashy.” This song …show more content…
It continues to exist because social production passes these associations with gender through generations. In addition, the division of labor in our society associates genders with different jobs. Through the social construction of gender, we learn how to present ourselves as a “male” or “female” through “our choice of behaviors, clothing, hairstyle, stance, body language, and even tone of voice” (Giddens 262). Men are expected to comply with “hegemonic masculinity” in which they are “strong, self-reliant, and unemotional” (Gideens 261). On the other hand, women are expected to be more emotional and open with their peers. These deodorants portray how even with heath items, there is a way in which we must present ourselves to be associated with a certain
Rapper Trina’s March 2000 single “Da baddest b*tch”, proclaimed her as the Queen of Hip hop. “Da baddest b*tch” was a controversial song that made way for many criticisms. The rapper’s song endorsed the idea of women referring to themselves as “bad b*tches”, promoted promiscuous behavior and encouraged females both young and old to use men for money.
As part of the instructions for this assignment, I went to the local Walmart to conduct my scavenger hunt. As others in this course found, a greater amount of white Barbie’s than black Barbie’s, cards most easiest and more plentiful were Christian in nature, picture frames were predominately of Caucasians, Dresses size 8 were easier to find than size 20, and men’s pants 32 inch by 32 inch. I had little trouble finding the smaller sizes in pants and dresses since as the text states on page 468, “prejudice comes in many varieties. Most arise from external characteristics that are readily visible, such as race, gender, weight or clothing”. The text also states, “although a person’s sexual orientation is not as readily visible as his or her race,
In the article “ From Fly to Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan, she often speaks about the positive and negative ideas associated with hip-hop music. Black men display their manhood with full on violence, crime, hidden guilt, and secret escapes through drugs and alcohol. Joan Morgan’s article views the root causes of the advantage of misogyny in rap music lyrics. In the beginning of the incitement her desires shift to focus on from rap culture condemnation to a deeper analysis of the root causes. She shows the hidden causes of unpleasant sexism in rap music and argues that we need to look deeper into understanding misogyny. I agree with Joan Morgan with the stance that black men show their emotions in a different way that is seen a different perspective.
Karin Martin (1998) discusses how our bodies are gendered at young ages in her exploration of how bodily differences are constructed in preschool. Martin’s research (1998) shows the differences between the two genders that we make, even at such young ages. Our bodies are gendered in social institutions and these differences create a context for social relations in which differences confirm inequalities of power (Martin, 1998). As we get older our bodies continue to be gendered, with reference to body hair; women are taught to remove their body hair to be feminine. Christina Hope (1982) argues that this misogynistic idea, comes from the societies ideals about the different sexes. She says that American society depicts men and women as polar opposites, and therefore women removing their body hair keeps them feminine as it is a masculine trait to have body hair (Hope, 1982). Hope (1982) also explains that American cultural has the tendency to group women with non-adults, and men with adults. She argues that a woman naturally grows body hair during or after puberty, and the removal of it may be “feminine” but it is also “childlike” (Hope 1982). Women’s hair removal products are often advertised with terms like “baby soft”, reinforcing this idea that a feminine woman is much like a child. These idea’s are all a part of the western world’s culture,
Since the explosion of music videos in 1981, a large portion of their popularity has been due to the objectification of women and their sexuality. “Early content analyses showed that anywhere from 40% to 75% of music videos contained sexual imagery”(Arnett, 2002). Hip-hop music videos especially have a reputation of degrading women. In these videos “women are often depicted in positions of submission to men” (Sommers-Flanagan, 1993).On the flip-side Country music videos are “known for [their] socially conservative themes”(Frisby & Aubrey, 2012).
Anything romantic or dealing with romance that is exposed to the media, the women are portrayed negatively in these relationships. All over the media, women are sexualized, objectified and are called names based on their partner and appearance. An example that women are portrayed negatively is in music. In the song “Hotline Bling” by Drake, there are lyrics like “Got a reputation for yourself now”, “Started wearing less going out more”, and “Used to always stay at home, be a good girl”, this song implies that his ex starts going out more and choses to wear clothes that she likes and are revealing but is “wrong” to wear publically. The actions of this woman are deemed wrong by drake because in his eyes women have to have certain
Hip-hop and rap music are commonly criticized for its anti-feminist lyrics and degrading exploitation of women in music and music videos. (Sharpley-Whiting ) Many feminists have taken action against the music industry, which produces these messages in the music they release. However, in the hip-hop genre there are plenty of successful female rappers promoting feminist views, artist such as Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige have made the choice to condemn the derogatory culture towards women. (Oliver, 382–384)
Domestic violence, the connotation of the two words immediately invokes images in everyone's mind. Two songs will be discussed in this paper, these songs relate directly to the issue. The first song is “A Child Called ‘it’” by Buckcherry, released in 2008 on the Black Butterfly album. The second song is “Im ok” by Christina Aguilera, released in 2002 on the Stripped album. Buckcherry’s song, is based on a true story of a child that was abused by his mother. Similarly, Christina Aguilera’s song talks about her women who is being abused, you can tell this from the beginning of the song when she sings, “my father's fist would put her in her place.” Both of these songs directly talk about domestic violence and
37% of country music and 41% of Pop music involve violence against women and date rape. These statistics don’t surprise me at all and honestly why should I expect anything different. I go throughout my day hearing mixed information from pop music saying that I should succumb to a males need, and then at the same time I am told that rape is illegal and affects my college campus. Existing in a society where violence against women is glorified in popular music, is terrifying (Katie J). Knowing that I sing along to songs that are about rape and objectification of women is disgusting, but I bet I do it every day and don’t think twice about it. The objectification of women is so common, we see it everywhere. In movies, magazines, TV show, billboard ads, and literally everywhere we go. We are constantly told that sex is good, promoted and should be at the discretion of the man. One song can’t change this, and stopping all pop music won 't change this. This is a societal shift to normalize rape and reinforce dominant/submissive stereotypes that is derived in the music industry and it needs to be shifted
In Beyoncé’s sixth solo album and her second visual album Lemonade, the context of the songs can be summarized as an epiphany within herself to publicize an emotional truth of her eight-year marriage with rapper and producer Jay Z. Beyoncé is a public icon of powerful music and a self-confident attitude that people around the world look up to. The album plays out similar to the years of the marriage. The first half of the album shows Beyoncé’s signature feminist strong-independent lyric soul jams directed at an unfaithful partner. The second half of the album has a twist because the listener thinks the album is going to lead to a divorce from what seems to be a cheating Jay Z, but she ends it with “Don’t Hurt Yourself” and “Sorry” giving a
In society today, it is prominent that there are distinct lines drawn when it comes to gender and sex, and the role they play in the media. There are many stereotypes that women and men feel they have to live up to simply because of the way the media portrays them. The media has a tremendous impact on the way people see themselves and how they view society. It represents society and displays our morals and values for everyone to see and follow. For this paper, the media source I decided to write about is music. Music is a huge part of the world and impacts the lives of many. People listen to music to help understand themselves and situations better. The lyrics in songs can influence people negatively and positively. Music helps guide people
The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
For hundreds of years, music has been used to communicate the way words fully cannot. Behind the music released to the public is the music industry. Analyzing the music industry from the macro sociological perspective of Conflict Theory reveals inequalities along race and gender lines. Music videos often reinforces inequalities by portraying women and men in gender stereotypical ways. Gender is “the behaviors and attitudes that a society considers proper for its males and females; masculinity or femininity” (Henslin 77). In the music video “Mrs. Potato Head” by Melanie Martinez, the woman receives plastic surgery to please the man she is with; in the video, gender stereotypes are reinforced by degrading and objectifying the women in order to
As one moves past the initial onslaught of rhythmic beats that calypso has to offer, it is difficult to miss the way in which it reverberates with negative and demoralizing images of women to their male counterparts. Whether it is within the lyrics of Sparrow’s “Drunk and Disorderly” or Square One’s “My Ding-a Ling”, an ample number of verses are often dedicated to making lewd comments about the female body and the suggestive body language described through thinly veiled rhymes and puns, can be offensive depending on the listener. The half naked models being displayed on the various album covers of calypso, soca and rap mix tapes further reinforces these negative connotations. This bandwagon has been jumped upon by many, including the rap genre in the last two decades, wanting to capitalize on a marketing strategy that generally purports to flag consumer attention, playing on their sense of eroticism. The sections titled “Music, Sex, Sexism” and “Woman Rising” within Peter Manuel’s text: Caribbean Currents, dive into the many issues surrounding gender within music as well as female portrayal specifically in calypso. Observations can be made simply by reading through the textual comparisons. Many aspects of this subject area allude to the fact that the issue of gender portrayal in music can be construed differently depending on who the critical listener happens to be. With the increased awareness and heightened sensitivity to the way in which females are portrayed in popular media, it is important to reflect on the impact these lyrics have on male-female relationships within the communities who most often enjoy this music genre.
Aaron H. Devor talks about how society places the idea of masculinity and femininity in the minds of men and women, making them everything but genetically tailored. Moreover, Devor states that no man or woman is born to fulfill a certain role, but cultural influences lead to such actions. He believes that society presents gender as “binary or permanent”, meaning that there is no room to identify with anything outside of one’s gender group. Just like race, things are taken from external attributes, as young children we assume that based on outer appearance a male would look one way and a female another way. Women who cut their hair short were considered manly and unwilling to follow ‘normal’ behavior; men who wore their hair long were considered sissies and too feminine to call themselves men. These interactions and opinions are formed from a very young age; according to Devor children acquire gender roles and begin making statements that show a separation between a boy and a girl by the wee age of 5. Gender roles are widely applied all over the world; many people are unable to grow out of old ways due to what they were taught, and then they continue to teach to their kids those same things. Some families are very unaware when they say something like, “you can be whatever you want, but you just can’t…” It happens and it is becoming an ironic phenomenon as time goes