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Protest music and its impact on racial issues
The role of women in the civil rights movement
Protest music and its impact on racial issues
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Recommended: Protest music and its impact on racial issues
“THE PUSSY GRABS BACK,” written in large, bold letters is held up in the air during the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. The poster was in response to a surfaced video of Donald Trump's remarks on women from the set of Days of Our Lives. In an outrage, millions of protesters across the nation marched in support of women’s equality. People are extremely angered about the inequalities and stereotypes present for women at this time, rightly so, but there seems to be some inconsistencies even within this fight. When this video from the past surfaced with Donald Trump saying these vulgar things about women, people were quickly and openly outraged. But can the same be said for now? Talk Dirty To Me or Blurred Lines, songs with a male lead also …show more content…
Music, specifically, can represent an entire movement described in one melody or chanted phrase. We saw a great influx of this during the Civil Rights Movement. And more modern case, the Black Lives Matter movement used the phrase “We gon’ be alright” from Kendrick Lamar’s song “We Gon’ Be Alright” to convey their solidarity through the battle against racism. Music served as a way to advocate and spread the points of reform, but what about the fight for gender equality now? Although we do see artists such as Beyoncé and Alicia Keys presenting feminist attitudes, there is no abundance or flood of songs pushing for equality like the musical campaigns during the Civil Right …show more content…
This has been written about several times before, yet nothing seems to have changed. Bringing up hypocrisy again, have we not learned anything? By listening to these songs, viewers increase their popularity and demand thus reinforcing gender stereotypes and supporting the exploitation of women. In Jason Derullo’s “Swalla,” just a few lines go as follows, “I'm in that cherry red foreign with the brown guts/ My shit slappin' like dude did LeBron's nuts/ All you girls in here, if you're feeling thirsty/ Come on take a sip 'cause you know what I'm servin'.” Released just last month, it already has nearly 112,000,000 streams on Spotify alone. I do not think much needs to be explained on the crudeness and negative effects this song provides for the view of women, but where is the outrage, advocates? Artist should use their position for the better. We have seen it in political campaigns, why not for gender equality? But this call to action needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Megan Trainers’ “All About That Bass,” grouped into Buzzfeed’s “The 17 Most Feminist Songs of 2014,” still sexualizes women’s bodies. Although it presents self-love for women, it still addresses “how boys they like a little more booty to hold at night.” By attempting to advocate for the image of thicker women, Trainer foolishly refers to thinner women as “skinny bitches.” This has no feminist agenda,
In his most recent album, Kanye West raps, “Now if I fuck this model/ And she just bleached her asshole/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I 'mma feel like an asshole.” He suggests that it is the girl’s fault for getting bleach on his tee shirt, which she only did to make herself more sexually appealing. This misogyny in hip-hop culture is recognized to bring about problems. For instance, the women around these rappers believe they can only do well in life if they submit themselves to the men and allow themselves to be cared for in exchange for physical pleasure. In her essay, “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hoes”, Joan Morgan argues that the same rap music that dehumanizes women can be a powerful platform for gender equality if implemented correctly.
Throughout his preface of the book titled Why We Can’t Wait, which entails the unfair social conditions of faultless African Americans, Martin Luther King employs a sympathetic allegory, knowledge of the kids, and a change in tone to prevail the imposed injustice that is deeply rooted in the society—one founded on an “all men are created equal” basis—and to evoke America to take action.
Throughout our society, gender essentialism has manifested itself in many ways, one of which is through music. Risman (1988:2) writes, “Essentialism is the assumption that basic differences in orientation and personality between men and women are rooted in biology and nature.” Gender essentialism has four key parts: 1) sex differences are based in biology and nature, 2) sex differences are fixed/innate, 3) men have deep unseen properties in common because they look alike, and vice versa with women, and 4) categorization is exclusive (Taylor 2017: Week 1 Day 2). Beyonce’s
The video promotes a realistic portrayal of women while undermining negative societal expectations put to those women. Furthermore, the message behind it, one calling people to accept themselves and to not feel the need to strive towards unreachable goals set by the media, can be applied to the lives of not only women but men as well. While the song was obviously meant for women, it is still holds the important message for people of any gender, age, or race to understand that being true to and learning to accept one’s self can only lead to positive
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.
To exemplify, “[s]even of… 19 female performed songs [from 1958-2005] were about lost love, two were about strong love” (Pruitt, p. 18). Lyrics are traditionally limited for women in country music within the scope of how they affect men. However, male-fronted songs, while predominantly about heterosexual love, have a variety of topics available, such as “‘country life,’ … ‘aging,’ ‘fame,’ ‘family,’, ‘homesickness,’ ‘infidelity,’ ‘liquor’” (Pruitt, p. 17). Themes outside of love are uncommon for female country singers on the charts, though women are underrepresented on country music charts. In fact, until 1968, women were absent from the top five country charts (Pruitt,). Even though women have always taken part in country music, their role is depended upon
... it brought in sultry rhythms and made some adults worried about over-sexualizing music. However, today it is very common to hear something sexual in a song or verse. In today’s music industry, many women are just as successful as the men.
Taylor Swift’s Shake it off video contains elements of cultural appropriation that exhibit stereotypical tropes which have been used to define African American women and, in particular, their sexuality for years. The video perpetuates the negative stereotypes that have placed Black women on the opposite side of respect for centuries. The video involves White women twerking in a way that conforms to the male gaze, for profitable success. Twerking involves thrusting hip movements, low squatting stance, and shaking of the derriere. White women are able to perform the twerk without being socialized as hyper-sexual, whereas Black women are. Hence, the different conceptions of White and Black womanhood. The inability for Black women to escape their skin color is the one of the many reasons they are ridiculed. Their skin color assigned them to the category that defines them as unholy, dirty, and promiscuous White women have the ability to hide behind their skin color, which classifies them as pure, and innocent in society eyes. The cultural appropriation of twerking is an exercise of White women’s privilege. Black women are judged harshly for
bell hooks shows us that black male sexism is real and it is in America’s music. She is correct, but it is not just against the white people of America. Snoop Dogg’s album is degrading toward the girl whose butt’s out of the doghouse, but it
Artist are not shy about their misogynistic lyrics, one example from Tupac, who some would classify as a legend, was very vulgar in his lyrics, for example in his song Wonder Why They Call You Bitch, he raps:
'Til the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more? Shut up slut, you're causin' too much chaos.” (Eminem, Kill You) However, these pejorative lyrics are not unique to male rappers. Nicki Minaj could be considered just as obscene, if not more, than any of the top male rappers.
The sexualization of women in the 21st century has led many to wonder whether or not the feminist movement actually resulted in more harm than good. Although the progress and reform that came out of the feminist movement is indisputable, things such as equal rights under the law, equal status and equal pay, the reality is that the subjugation of female roles in society still exist, and the most surprising part about this is that now women are just as much as at fault for this as men are. Ariel Levy defines female chauvinist pigs as “women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves” (Levy 11). This raunch culture is mistakenly assumed to be empowering and even liberating to women when it is in fact degrading and corrupting to the modern feminist movement and makes it more difficult for women to be taken seriously in society. The shift in the nature of the feminist movement is in Levy’s opinion attributed to by the massive industry now profiting off of the sexualization of women, the reverse mindset now adopted by post-feminists and women in power roles in our society, and ultimately the women who further their own objectification as sex objects and thus, so by association, deem themselves lesser than man.
"Take all of me. I just wanna be the girl you like. The kind of girl you like." These lyrics are sexist and perpetuate negative perpetuate negative perceptions of women. These lyrics would give off the "I'm the object, do anything you please with me" impression to a man and gives him the expected advantage to use women as sex toys. These lyrics also state that she'll herself just to please the man she's with.
But after 30 years, value changes and this song sounds like an insult towards women, and would not be accepted by the public.
The negative perception of women throughout popular culture in the form of music has greatly impacted the portrayal of women on today’s society. This study involves on examination of sexist ideologies in dancehall lyrics that portray women in stereotypical and negative manner. This particular king of music explored in the study is dancehall music, a popular genre in Jamaican culture today. The primarily focus is on the effect of popular songs have on women in society, as well as how song lyrics can cause objectification of women and how are the roles of men and women reflected.