Gender roles essay PDF

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essay on stereotypical gender roles in music...

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Gender Roles

Gender roles are a vital controversial topic in the music industry. From some of the stereo types that lead people to believe women are to be acquired and owned, to some stereotypes that tell you, you cannot be successful as a woman without being sexualised or super attractive. However, the most important fact to be noted is how women are often stereotyped in music videos. Throughout the years, the visual representation in music videos has progressively gotten to be as significant as the music itself. Music videos have now become ways in which artists portray stereotypes and express themselves or their beliefs. In the 1950’s genres of music were for the most part dominated by males. In the 1960’s women were significantly more influential in the music world and started to be seen a lot more. In the 1970’s women in the music industry were often seen performing with men as backup singers or they were performing themselves, but were generally sexualised. This caused many effects of stereotypes to form, such as the promotion of discriminating towards a certain sex, or creating inaccurate beliefs towards sex. Unfortunately, this puts pressure on both genders to perform what society views as “normal”. Specifically, rap has often belittled women and showed that men are always superior. Women in most music videos where the lead singer is a male, are usually portrayed and seen out to be as objects rather than women. Surprisingly, even in the lyrics of the song, they often treat women as worthless and or useless, referring to them with derogatory terms. In many rap music videos, you often see a male rapper with not one girl, but a whole cluster of girls, and it gives the impression that if a man shows he is in love, then he is weak. It also portrays a stereo type that

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males are players and gives off the vibe that the more woman you are with, the cooler you are. A prime example of the payer mentality can be found in 50 Cent’s song “Candy Shop”. In the chorus of his song it says “I'll take you to the candy shop, I'll let you lick the lollipop Go 'head girl don't you stop Keep going 'til you hit the spot,”. The lyrics to this song displays that the only thing 50 Cent cares for is having sex with the women. The song does not actually say anything else about the women other than treating them as sexualised objects. Consequently, this enforces the stereotype of men just being players and girls only craving sex rather than anything else. Furthermore, another song that also refers to women as just sex objects and nothing more is “Wildflower” by Ghostface. For instance, the lyrics in the part of the song say “I gave you earth lessons, I came to you as a blessing’. You didn’t do the knowledge what the God was manifestin’. You sneaky f**k b**ch, your ways and actions told it all. I f***ed you while you was bleedin, held you down in malls. Sexually you worshipped my d**k like a cross”. In this example the rapper is now referring to the girl with derogatory terms and then speaks about how a girl worshipped his penis and that she was not good enough for his needs, demonstrating that the only thing a girl craves and or wants is sex. This stereotype goes on to validate that women are only needed to please a man. Women should care to a mans needs, because he is supporting himself alone and women cannot get to where he is. On the other hand, men in music videos are portrayed as superior, and this can be related to everyday scenarios which can make younger male viewers think that it is a representation of how life really is and that they should act accordingly. This is also a stereotype of how men are portrayed in music as a dominant figure whereas the females are usually shown in a lower standard. Furthermore, the way each gender dresses in music videos is also a huge factor. For example, in most music videos men are dressed in nice suits and or have tons of jewelry on and

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just show off their wealth to give the illusion of their status in life and can give off the effect that they have authority. Consequently, women are usually showed wearing minimal clothing and or no clothing at all sometimes which displays that the male has more power, which yet again reveals that women are sexualised objects in music videos and nothing (Collins, 2011, p. 1). However, one may reason that if a child sees many females dressing like this in their music videos, such as thongs and or bikini’s, that will become a part of their brain and they will deliberate that they must be like that as well. A very good example can be shown with the music video “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke. The men in this video are all dressed professionally and appear to be in power and have authority, while the women in the video are dressed in little to no clothes and are being used. One scene in the music video that seems to stand out and cause a lot of attention is a clip that shows Robin Thicke pulling a girl’s hair aggressively and sings “I know you want it”. This video is another example that reveals men are usually perceived as dominant, powerful, and can easily obtain sex because that is the only thing women desire ("Women and Gender in music" 2012.). The problem with this is that it allows men to think that they can rule women because they see their idols do it. All the work women put into their equality rights just gets tossed away because even the people in the limelight do not respect them. Furthermore, Collins (2011), stated women are often sexualised in the media. However, Glantz (2013) suggests that they are hyper-sexualised in music videos (p. 11). Women are always seen dancing provocatively, touching themselves, men, or other women. This is damaging to their persona and if males were to do this it would seem tremendously offensive. Fortunately, some female artists challenge stereotypes and are rarely ever seen sexualised, some examples are Adele, Meghan Trainor, and Camila Cabello. These musicians are usually singing about empowering topics and are still very respectable singers. The problem is that most musicians are

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very talented and they should not have to be sexualised to be successful, but society has painted a “norm” and if a female artist is not sexualised she might not be as successful or get enough attention to prosper in the music industry. Although, a lot of this has to do with music genres as well. Genres such as rap and pop often follow the idea of sexualising females in music videos while other genres of music such as R&B or rock, with the artists being female, are usually empowering and independent with less focus about their beauty in order to show more power. Women will often represent themselves in music video as sexualised objects. The focus on women in those videos are typically just the way that they look and how men think they should be treated or viewed (Moisala & Diamond, 2000., p. 203). This demonstrates that women are to be seen as objects by both rappers and viewers and that girls are materialistic creatures only able to provide sexual favors. Fortunately, the other types of genres mentioned are usually trying to challenge the representation of being sexualised objects. There usually is not a lot of focus on the female artists themselves in these types of videos compared to how much spotlight they get in comparison to a rap video. Another interesting example of gender roles could be in Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”. Men in this video are surprisingly the opposite of the normal stereotype. In this video the man is a powerless character, which ultimately switches the gender roles. Although, the male in this video is still seen to have status through his wealth and physical attributes, he is also being shown weaker then the female character as he is being manipulated and taken advantage of which results in him being a victim. More importantly, when female artists in hip-hop videos or rap videos are trying to be dominant or empowering they usually are still being extremely provocative. For example, in Beyoncé’s hit song “Rule the World”. She is speaking about how girls are empowered yet in almost every scene of the music video they are dressed provocatively and are still being

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sexualised. Which unfortunately, just adds to the stereotype of them being sexualised objects and disregards the fact about them being empowered. Another stereotype that is quite common in music videos is women being the ones to do everything in relationships, and that they are always helpless, weak, or defenceless. On the other hand, men are usually seen as authority figures or violent and abusive. One good music video demonstrating this is “I’m a slave for you” by Britney Spears. This music shows Brittney as a sexualised object who is a slave for a man and is willing to do anything for him. Another example is Miley Cyrus’s “Adore you” Which is very similar and shows Miley Cyrus on a bed practically naked talking about how she loves her man more than he loves her and that she is willing to do anything at all for him. To conclude, music videos generally are a standard of women just being shown as sexualised beings and men being portrayed as masculine with infinite power. The most prominent reason for this is that it is a very good advertising strategy that works with the target demographic. This is because society has painted a picture in everyone’s brains that this is how “REAL” life is when it is not. These false narratives encourage our views of masculinity and femininity and just strengthen the thought that makes people think this is “REAL” when they watch these music videos and is very damaging to our society. Unfortunately, women are rarely portrayed as smart intelligent beings with self-respect for their bodies in music videos and instead women being portrayed as sexualised objects has become the norm.

References,

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Collins, R. L. (2011). Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go? Sex Roles,64(3-4), 290-298. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9929Moisala, P., & Diamond, B. (2000). Music and gender. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Glantz, J. (2013, April). Women in Popular Music Media: Empowered or Exploited? Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1018&context=spectrum Women and Gender in Music. (2012, November 25). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/adolescent-issues/women-gender-music/...