The Importance Of Music On Gender

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Gender is a social construct that humans use as a method of distinction between the two biological sexes. The separation of the two sexes into separate distinct genders creates expectations for how each gender should look, behave, and preform their assigned gender. Our understanding of gender and gender binaries influences our understanding of music, how it’s preformed, and who is preforming it. This essay will examine three songs: “Be Your Bro” by Those Darlins, “Lola” by the Kinks, and “Boys Wanna Be Her” by Peaches. Frist I will analyze the lyrics and their connection to the theme of breaking or adhering to gender binaries. Next I will analyze the performance and sound of the music and discuss its contribution to how gender is represented and preformed. …show more content…

The singer talks about a man who wants to be involved with her romantically. However, she is only interested in friendship and wants to do more conventionally masculine activities with the man who is romantically pursuing her. She talks about wanting to play in the dirt, getting into fights, and drinking till the early morning which actions that are typically associated with men. The lyrics of this song layout strict gender binaries as to what “bros” do. The key part of the song that addresses the contradiction of biological determinism and preforming gender arrives when the lead singer states, “I may have girly parts, but I have a boys heart”. The singer is addressing the fact that other she was born female her actions and behaviors are not determined by the gender she was assigned to because of her biological sex. This theme corresponds to the music video by which the female artists have visibly apparent underarm hair, displaying their defiance to what is expected of females by not preforming their gender and engaging in altering their secondary sex characteristics through hair

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