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Role pop culture plays in gender
Madonna and feminism essay
Pop culture and gender
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Recommended: Role pop culture plays in gender
As discussed in class multiple times throughout the quarter the term diva, is socially constructed. Women throughout history have been labeled and criticized over their actions that people presumed went against the correct social norms. What is striking is that in today 's modern society the diva is often associated with women who are in glamorous positions such as in music and the “demands” made by them not for who they are in reality, regardless of the connotation, there has always been a fascination with the diva on stage, and there is much more to her then what the eye can see. Since the rise of female opera singers to present day pop culture women, the diva has always been feared, copied and worshiped. The publicized women in the reading …show more content…
The tone the author uses is both complementary in regards to Madonna wide fan base as well as critical in regards to men’s continuous tendency to tear down any female self-expression. Women have been shadows to their male counterparts for a long time and women have had enough, pop culture icons such as Madonna have taken on the role of spreading values and interests of women everywhere, “Earlier divas are represented, or represent themselves as giving voice to the anger and desire of silenced women”(209). Women have been silenced for centuries and these divas that express themselves on stage, take on the responsibility to not only speak on behalf of herself but on the behalf of every women out there. Women are so often afraid to have an opinion or a voice but when Madonna came into the picture women discovered a newfound confidence. Women wanted to be Madonna because they value her ability to go out and speak her mind and do what she pleases, “but to want to be Madonna it implies that Madonna motivates a desire in these women to be their own agents, to use their own bodies and voices”(209). This implies that women want to step past previous boundaries that were in their way. Women now want to have their voices to be heard and
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
It is hard to imagine drag not consisting of a type of stage activity and of being a part of a theatrical performance. Contreras also points in Ester Newton’s book, Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. In framing drag’s importance to queer theory, it is also important to consider drag practice also a particular expression of racial identify (Contreras, 2005). In this book, Contreras explains that drag´s relationship to sexual and racial identities are discussed in a context in which relatively is visible academic work about drag, such as Marjorie Garber’s books Vested Interest: Cross Dressing and Cultural Anxiety where she elides these
One of the central themes of theatrical form is identity and the catalyst by which identity is formed is the body. In using the body as the site of formation of individual identity, women are “uniquely identified with their anatomy” and specifically the parts of their anatomy that differ from that of men (Callaghan 30). Because women are thus defined by their relation ...
8. Tilton, K. N. J. ed. (1997) Contexts of Dialectic: Constructivism in the works of Madonna. University of Oregon Press
In an excerpt from Janell Hobson’s “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture” Hobson argues that the “image of black women’s bodies in culture are distorted in a way resembling the morphing of a person’s figure in a carnival mirror,” a term she coins as “un-mirroring.” She continues this metaphor by saying black women artists must “fight against this process by challenging dominant culture’s representation of black women’s bodies as being grotesque and changing the discourse to being one of beauty.” One may argue that black women are too diverse to be represented by one image, rather that they should fight to be regarded as individuals devoid of stereotypes and negative historical connotations. Stereotypes, which are too broad to be accurate, have negatively affected the image of the black female body in culture. To change the trajectory of this idea in the future, the discussion must be aimed towards persuading society that stereotypes are superficial judgments, and that black women should be regarded as a diverse group of individuals, not individual elements of a stereotype.
Women’s sphere was as the homemaker before revolutions sprang in the 1960s. While other sexual revolutions were going on, music strayed from the social norms of this women’s sphere as well. “Another fundamental role of music within the countercultural movement was to provide female artists with ability to forge their own distinctive place within the music business” (“Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Music in the Counterculture”). With this ideal of Rock music challenging group identity for women, female musical groups began to emerge. Martha and the Vandellas was one of many girls groups, which enjoyed the vogue style. Women were given a secure place in the music industry with the emergence of Rock. This new style broke through old “social norms” and styles, creating a new, refined value of
Fantham, Elaine, Helene Peet Foley , Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, and H. Alan Shapiro.Women in the Classical World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
I believe viewers are more likely to communicate upon the works of the Guerrilla Girls with one another in society when they take on a more comedic approach. This investigation has examined the Guerrilla Girls through direct connection to the inequalities of power over women in the art world. Several themes were highlighted within society that reinstated these cultural norms of gender and sex within the institutions of art. With a variety of forms used by the Guerrilla Girls to redefine women's identity in history, they were able to break down such barriers that stood in the way which denied the prosperity of female artists.
While studying art history in Pre-Industrial Visual Cultures this semester, one theme has become painfully obvious. There are few if any women artists included in the study of art history. If you dig deep into the books you can find mention of many unknown, unrecognized and often times very talented women artists from the past. Women in history are simply not recognized, and this is due to a large extent to their exclusion from the art world. My paper chooses to focus on a few female artists of the sixties and seventies who sought to make up for past history and ensure women were known. These women invented their own language for art making, which included sexual imagery, and left no doubt of their gender. These women made art as women, instead of trying to make art like men and be accepted. My paper therefore focuses on these women, who although werenít involved directly in pre-industrial art history were very much affected by the exclusion of women from it.
“Like a Virgin” was full of innuendos and inter-textual meanings and the video further expands the controversy of the song. In Rikky Rooksby’s 2004 “The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna” the singer had commented in regard to the lyrics by saying that “she liked innuendo and irony” and the ways
The stage is dark. Thousands of screaming fans wait in agonizing anticipation. Smoke crawls out from the stage, and out struts a confident blonde woman. With the spotlight focused entirely on her, the crowd erupts into deafening applause as she begins her incomparable dance routines. She is an icon. She is Madonna. History has never seen a cultural figure with as much controversy or flair for the dramatic as Madonna, nor will history ever see such a figure. Madonna’s name is recognized by everyone, as is evidenced in a survey taken of fifty people of varying ages (shown below). These facts alone are enough to engrave her name in pop culture history, but the making of an icon does not stop there. Madonna is the quintessential example of an American icon because of her revolutionary changes to both the worlds of music and fashion; her entire life, from her early childhood to her 50th birthday and beyond, has challenged the conventions of society and changed the face of the music industry forever.
...f Bath, we see an individual who is willing to express that idea. Her courage to defy the traditional concepts as set by her peers does not intimidate her, and she boldly stands up for what she believes in, popular or not. Another strong feminist aspect to her is that she feels no need to be justified or have approval for her decisions and lifestyle. Just because she is a woman does not limit her choices in her life, and neither her gender nor her decisions make her inferior.
Despite that, Madonna and Callas’s public reputations are far apart.√ good Callas was considered a tragic woman during the height and end of her fame,; her image was of a fragile woman and she was seen as ‘mirroring in her life aspects’ (Phillip,, R,. 2008, p.175) when she performed on stage. Operatic roles within the twentieth century are mostly heart-breaking, where ‘almost all of the characters die, on stage or just off it, through suicide or murder’ (Phillip, R,. 2008, p. 175) and these characters were Callas’s speciality, giving her a feeble image. In contrast, Madonna is considered a ‘bankable image, carefully and continually constructed in an era of media globalisation’ (Nick Jones, 2008, p. 168), and greatly known as a ‘Pop Queen’ who relies on the public for her reputation by continually conforming to society styles to increase her performances, sales and reputation. √ good observation. Perhaps emphasise the fact that in comparison to Callas, Madonna can be seen as very much in control. She’s not a victim.
With the restoration of Charles II to the throne following the fall of the Commonwealth and Puritanism came a surge of sexual and artistic freedom in England. This new libertine ideology brought with it not only the reemergence of the theatre, but and a society that embraced freedom of sexuality and thought in a way that was unprecedented. It is this new libertine society that provided a context for the writings of Aphra Behn. While Behn observed men like rakish Charles II and the effeminate Earl of Rochester enjoying England’s newfound open mindedness, she was forced to navigate, or rather circumnavigate, the limitations that remained in place for women. In a time when actresses were first appearing on stage and Charles II’s mistresses were regarded practically as pop culture icons, women were finally breaking out of the private sphere and being thrust into the public eye.1 While women, and even their sexualities were at last being celebrated outside of the domestic sphere, it was far from on their own terms, and entirely relative to the roles they filled for men. While the society so often characterized by the court of Charles II was on the whole highly performative, women were expected to perform in a much more specific way than their male counterparts. On and off stage women were expected to conform to a limited selection of character types that started with wife and ended with whore, and the spectrum between was narrow if not nonexistent.