...Gender roles are a set of norms dictated by society that describe behaviors that are generally considered acceptable for a person based on their sex. These roles are acknowledged through both verbal and nonverbal messages from society. Babies in the hospital are wrapped in either a pink or blue blanket to show their gender, this is an unspoken gender message. When a boy on the playground decides to play with a doll that is lying around, other children might try and stop him, or even taunt him saying that dolls are for girls. This spoken message is one that is taught to children at a young age, not necessarily by their parents but by the culture surrounding them. Cultural messages are dictated by society to help shape perceptions of self and others. Cultural messages help to perpetuate gender roles in a variety of mediums, from television, to books, even the music people listen to. Music videos are a great way to view a culture’s message about gender. In all genres of music, men and women represent specific roles. Rap/Hip-hop, Rock, and Country music are all prime examples. Traditional male gender roles include things like always being in control, being tough, working hard, and being the primary caregivers for their families. Young boys are subjected to these behaviors from the very start. They hear it from their fathers, their peers, and others they look up to. Musicians use self-presentation to strategically act out a self in response to the expectations of their...
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...GENNDER REPRESENTATION Gender simply means the hierarchical relationship between male and female. Due to the state of being different in sex, the people are assigned roles and viewed at each other differently. This difference starts to exist immediately the child is born, let say through clothes, names, sex and body differences, just to mention few. As the children grows as their gender relations becomes more determined accordingly to their sexes. Gender representation is the way the gender relations are portrayed in different fields to reveal the real gendered life situation in the society, be it in politics, media, education, economic and other fields in the particular society. Music, movies, television radio and magazines as parts of media, gender has been represented through music in this text as follows; This text concerns the representation of gender, or the discourse of gender. If you watch television, walk on the street, wait for the bus or do other things, you are always confronted by images of men and women. In movies, television series and advertisements you see these images and they may influence you consciously or subconsciously. Since media is such a big part of people‘s everyday lives, and is some ways may influence how people perceive themselves and the world, it is interesting to see how representations in movies portray gender. These images, whether it is known or not, may have an important impact upon people‘s lives and how people create their identities. It...
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...As Benshoff and Griffin put it, “men in Western culture are taught that it is their birthright to do while women remain relatively immobile in order to be the object of the male gaze.” This ideology is commonly seen in most media texts where males are typically seen in lead roles where they are depicted as functional compared to females who are represented as distracted and dependent on men. Whilst this argument is widely seen throughout studies about gender roles in media, it functions as the center of my argument about the depiction of women in the music videos of “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams and “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. Both videos revolve around the acquisition of female attention, which supports...
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...Drew Daniels SOC 3381 25 October 2015 Class and Gender in Music and Film On the outside, America appears to be the land of opportunity, the land of freedom, and the land of equality. On the inside, this is anything but the truth. There are age-old systems of oppression built to keep long outdated beliefs in place today, and for many groups of people, it is inescapable. These systems cause social harm to lower class communities, to women, to non-binary peoples, and the most to individuals who fall into more than one of those classifications. Many writers and artists have sought to bring these issues of inequality into the public eye, having the most success telling their stories or the stories of others through music and film. Class oppression is very tricky subject to bring to light and analyze. While the American economic system is built in a way that allows everyone equal opportunities, there are limits that make it sometimes near impossible for lower and working class individuals to build better lives for themselves, limits that are not obvious to someone living outside of the poverty line. Jason DeParle writes about Kathryn Edin, a social worker who studies mothers in poverty and the struggles they go through providing for their children on but a monthly welfare check. While these mothers have the opportunity to get a job to support their families, they are often better off receiving government benefits; they can stay home and care for the children and take advantage...
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...To what extent has popular music culture challenged dominant gender norms? Critically analyse with reference to relevant literature and examples Traditional dominant gender norms state that women are feminine in appearance, including everything from their hair down to their shoes and of course their demeanour, voice and behaviour. The traditional man would be that who is strong and rugged with a deep voice and who is overtly masculine without a hint of make up or traditionally feminine clothing. It has been decades since these norms have begun to alter and be challenged as both sexes began experimenting with gender and identity through the medium of music. By looking at different music genres throughout the ages I will attempt to show how popular music has broken down social barriers and in my opinion has succeeded in challenging gender norms to a point where the perceptions of what is socially acceptable have been altered. Before delving into the world of rock and roll it is noteworthy that the music industry was like any other business, a typically male environment in which women were not expected to survive. The music industry and specifically the Rock genre were sexually focused from the very early stages, as far back as the 40’s and 50’s. Rock music posed a question of morality and was perceived as shocking and dangerous because of its explicit sexual overtones. An example of these first steps in the scene would be Elvis whose gold, tight outfits and pelvic thrusts...
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...unapologetically way. I myself have not really questioned my gender but I know many people who are close to me have, and many choose to not identify at all. But I think the overall central argument Borenstein is attempting to address is that transformation of a person is constant. There is no phase and there is not guideline to the correct way we choose to identify ourselves. But as a society, we need to not question that either. The way she supports this and very eloquently, is through the comparison of the transformation of the butterfly through their cocoon. She presents us with a scenario where we deem ourselves the “Humanitarian that [we] are,” we gently open the cocoon to free a struggling butterfly, but because the...
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...Different Genders with Different Roles: Representation of a Rae Sremmurd Music Video Have you ever seen a hip hop music video? If you have, you have probably seen people waving around money, women shaking their ass, or lyrics that degrade women. According to Judith Lorber, gender is a social construction: “it is a role created by society, and it is a role that is not necessarily biological”. Usually in a music video different genders play different roles. Men are shown holding money, because it is a sign of having power, while women are objectified by being portrayed half naked. The American hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd showcases these roles in their music video “Shake It Fast” featuring Juicy J. Just like hip hop artists in the past Rae Sremmurd is trying to show their hypermasculinity because it has always been a part of hip hop, and sex sells in hip hop. Hip hop artists have always been excessively conceited, or self-centered, which is why they always feel the need to surround themselves with money, and half naked...
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...Although nowadays there are many feminists against gender stereotypes, gender stereotypes still exist everywhere. It is hard for people to eliminate gender stereotypes overnight. Most people know that stereotypes are not true, but many still assume of roles based on gender. We may all be guilty of many gender stereotypes, such as assuming that men have to make money for supporting family, and women are supposed to be housewifes. In “ How Toys teach children stereotypical gender roles”, Denise Starr summarized traditional gender rules, which was “ Boys are doctors; Girls are nurses. Boys are football players; girls are cheerleaders. Boys invent thing; Girls use the things boys invent, Boys fix things; Girls need things fixed. Boys are presidents;...
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...Research Report Part 1: Formulating the Research Problem The Research Problem Phoenix Recording is a record label for various genres of music. The country music genre is fairly small and represents both male and female country artists. The Vice President noticed that the overall profits for the country artists are extremely low. He has decided to cut the production of music budget for one of the artist. The Vice President has hired an exterior team to provide viable information that would determine the reason for reducing any particular artist’s production budget. Part of the exterior team’s research will involve analyzing YouTube’s view rates for each artist’s hit song for the current year. The independent variable in the research is the gender of the artist and the dependent variable is the number of YouTube views. The team will take a random sample of male and female artists. The team realizes that the variables of male versus female country artists may give the record label an overall view for that genre of music videos being viewed. Research Question Is the difference in the number of YouTube views (DV) based on the gender of the artists (IV)? Hypotheses H0: The difference in YouTube views (DV) is not based on the gender of the artist (IV). H1: The difference in YouTube views (DV) is based on the gender of the artist (IV). Part 2: Literature Review Literature Review This article formulates the understanding that when comparing...
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...Essay Question 2 Gender has shaped Hip-hop since the very beginning by influencing Hip-hop narratives and redefining gender roles; it comes to no surprise that gender has also influenced MCs and their work. In fact gender identifications have been so impactful they help determine an artist’s success in the music industry. MCing is known to be a male dominated art form and it is very difficult for females to become successful without having to conform to the preconceived notions about women in the music industry. In the Hip-hop world many male artists have created stereotypes for both men and women and their place in the Hip-hop music (NHP 06-11-2012). For some male artists these stereotypes have made success more achievable while, on the other hand, these stereotypes have made it harder for female MCs to rise to success. There’s no denying that Hip-hop stereotypes are an important component of Hip-hop performance (NHP 06-13-2012) in fact many artists today feel the need to utilize these stereotypes in order to get ahead in the game. For example, Big Sean is one talented MC in mainstream Hip-hop that doesn’t refrain from having half naked women dancing around in his music videos. His videos emphasize the most popular stereotypes which refer to women as “hoes”, “bitches” and “gold-diggers” (NHP 06-13-2012). Although these names are degrading and disrespectful to women, it is quite unfortunate that they have become acceptable in the music industry. It is also unfortunate that...
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...Gender Differences are socially determined. A child can be born female and male but they have to grow and develop their gender. There are quite a few factors that play a part in determining what roles an individual plays in gender. The factors that are the most influential are family, culture, friends, and music. The family is the first influence that shapes and molds the gender of each child. Even from the beginning the mother talks to the child within the womb. She may tell the child (if it is a girl) that you will be pretty, smart, caring, important, and etc. There are times the child takes on the behavior that the mother exhibited during pregnancy. I observed a situation of a close relative, where her husband continued to leave the relationship and comeback and leave again. It was understood after speaking with the mom that she left her relationship with his dad a lot during the pregnancy. During the growing up process the child observes the roles of the mother and the roles of the father. In the cases where the mother is the more dominant or the father is less dominant, there is a possibility that the daughter may grow up and be a dominant individual. Girls mock the behavior of their mothers. She may see her mom being feminine; mother may wear make-up, dresses, heals, and exhibit the characteristics of what some may consider being a lady. In an ideal world a father or male influence would show boys how to fix cars, build things, do yard work, be a provider, and a protector...
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...GENDER AND LANGUAGE IGB 442 FINAL PROJECT GENDER BIAS IN SONG By ANIK DWI ULFIYAH NIM 110222415038 STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG FACULTY OF LETTERS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 2013 Gender Bias in Song Gender and Language refer to the relationship between language and our ideas about men and women. Gender itself is a different term from sex. Sex is a biological creature, while gender is ideas which are constructed by the society as the users of the language. Let us think about the different answers to these two questions which might help us clarify the distinction between sex and gender: What does it mean to be male? What does it mean to be a man? ‘To be male’, as an expression of biological sex, is to have a chromosomal make up of XY. “To be a man,” however, expresses the socially constructed aspects of masculinity. As we know, language is the most important means in communication. We also know that the goal of the communication is to convey the message. One of the language uses is in song. Song, however, is an implementation of language and it also delivers message. Thus, song is also another form of using the language. Since we know that language can be gendered bias, so does in song. The content of the song –or song lyric— may be gendered bias in some extent. Love, life, and music are unseparatable things. People who really love music will absolutely agree with this quote. Almost all people in the world like music, even just one certain song...
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...contain a powerful message of female empowerment. Songs like this challenge the traditional devaluation of women as incapable and weak. With the rise of feminism, many more female artists have started to include feminist ideas in their songs. Thus, the topic on how popular music has helped bring forth the idea of feminism is of great relevance to our world today. Literature Review The personal struggles and triumphs that female artists portray in their songs and lives, relates to and in turn empowers females in patriarchal societies. Nelson (1993, p. 77), a rap music journalist, commented that female rap artists in the 1980s had to fight harder than their male counterparts in the industry and yet never replicated the male artists’ success. (As cited in Keyes, 2000, p. 265) Similarly, Madonna worked hard to prove her worth as a female artist in the male dominated pop music industry. (Lugo-Lugo, 2001) The struggles of these two female artists in their respective male dominated trades are parallel to the struggles of females in patriarchal societies. These females desire gender equality and look to female artists and their songs as a source of hope. Female rap artists use rap as a medium to advocate gender equality and in turn created spaces for themselves and other ‘sistas’ as well. (Keyes, 2000, p. 274) In the song lyrics of "The Intelligent Black Women Coalition National Anthem" and "Sisterland" from Make Way for the Motherlode (1991), Yo-Yo speaks on female empowerment and...
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...Personal Reflection Essay Music and language are related in so many ways that it is necessary to categorize some of those relationships. The belief that music possesses, in some measure, characteristics of language leads people to attempt to apply linguistic theories to the understanding of music. Regardless of whether music actually is a language, our experience of music is evidently so subjective as to cause people not to be satisfied that their perception of it is shared by others. I think that music is the universal language of mankind is symbolic of the expansive quality of music, and at the same time is revealing of the mysterious and confusing nature of whatever it is that music communicates. Music expresses, at different moments, serenity or exuberance, regret or triumph, fury or delight. It expresses each of these moods, and many others, in a numberless variety of subtle shadings and differences. It may even express a state of meaning for which there exists no adequate word in any language. In that case, musicians often like to say that it has only a purely musical meaning. They sometimes go farther and say that all music has only a purely musical meaning. What they really mean is that no appropriate word can be found to express the music's meaning and that, even if it could, they do not feel the need of finding it. My own belief is that all music has an expressive power, some more and some less, but that all music has a certain meaning behind the notes and that that...
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...Freedia Scientifically, humans have been defined as having opposable thumbs, higher thinking, having dominion over earth, etc. But what defines one human before another? What makes one human more interesting and marketable compared to the next? A human being can be “intersectionally” classified by race and class just based off gender. Race and class are not only verifications justified on a driver’s license and country club application background checks, but actually form and shape gender roles even in today’s so called “equal rights” society. One of the most intriguing characters making headlines lately is a, by sex, a male and yet is referred to as a “her” (Jonathan). Big Freedia comes from the musically established city of New Orleans where new genres of music seem to get pumped out by the decade. Big Freedia has taken full advantage of her city and the new music. Her genre of music can be labeled under “Sissy Bounce” subgenre. This type of music is an energetic upbeat twist off from the standard hip-hop music. This genre known as bounce was not started by Big Freedia, and she admits it and says she is just the next artist hoping to put bounce music on the map. (Jonathan) Upfront, Big Freedia is a taller rather larger man, standing at six feet and two inches tall. She dresses very fashionably yet portrays a more masculine look compared to a feminine one. Her hair is almost as diverse as her personality being that it is a Mohawk that turns into an almost Justin Bieber-esque...
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