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Sexism and objectification of women in music
Sexism and objectification of women in music
Sexism and objectification of women in music
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The song "Partition" by Beyonce is a sexist song that portrays women in a negative way. Women are generally portrayed as sex objects that are dependent on men and compete with each other for a man that only views them as "easy property." "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. "Men think that feminists hate sex, but it's a very stimulating and natural activity that women love."
Trina’s intent was to create a song that liberated women from the double standards and stereotypical views placed upon them. Her song however can cause harm to young women that listen to take this song to heart. Instead of liberation, we are moved further down into the hole of degrading and devaluing women. Trina should’ve sent the message that these things were wrong. Instead she endorsed and encouraged them.
Additionally, many sociologists view gender as being continuously created; Risman (1988:10) notes “the pervasive differences between male[s] and female[s].are continuously created by the gendered structures in which we all live.” Sociologists, who would instead view these perceived differences as a product of our society, would heavily dispute the gender essentialist perspective taken in “If I Were A Boy”. Though some academics may not agree with gender essentialism, essentialist beliefs are frequently perpetuated throughout popular culture. Gender essentialism’s four main points were displayed in Beyonce’s hit song “If I Were A Boy,” reinforcing the idea that men and women are nothing alike due to biology and nature (Risman 1988:2).
Social inequality has been a major issue for millions of years. There are various forms of social inequality such as racism, sexism, and classism. Social experiences serve as inspiration for most authors. Social inequality is an issue that everyone has experienced. It is a theme of literary works because many authors have experienced it first hand: Harper Lee experienced racism, Malala Yousafzai experienced sexism, and S.E. Hinton experienced classism.
Today many of the songs by male hip-hop artists use derogatory terms to objectify women by placing themselves in a hierarchal and controlling positions. In the song “Broccoli”, D.R.A.M. labels women as “lil mama”, “bitch”, and “baby mama”. “Lil mama” is mostly used by young men who are trying to get a young woman’s attention. On the other hand, the negative connotation that has been placed on the label, “baby mama”, is used to categorize women who happen to be the mother of a man’s child and nothing more.The label, “Baby mama”, is used in several modern R&B/Hip-Hop songs to refer to women who happen to be the mother of a man’s child and nothing more. A woman is then stripped away from potentially being seen as anything more than a mother. After having the child, a woman‘s individuality, character custom values is soon neglected by society. As a result, she is only commonly seen as the “baby mama” of a man, which further reinforces the stereotype of a woman’s societal role. ”, is used to categorize women who happen to be the mother of a man’s child and nothing more. “Bitch” is one of the many over-used derogatory terms that have been defined by Adam and Fuller (2006) as “a woman who thinks of no one but herself and is willing to do anything to obtain material
Sexism is the ideology that maintains that one sex is inherently inferior to the other. Sexism or discrimination based on gender has been a social issue for many years; it is the ideology that one sex is superior or inferior to the other. Sexism does not only affect females, but also males. Men are very often victimized by social stereotypes and norms based on gender expectations. Sexism has appears in almost all social institutions including family, the media, religion, sports, the military, politics, and the government. However, although both genders are affected, men have benefited from sexism the most (Thompson 300-301.)
Sexism is still a prevailing problem in the world today. Unfortunately, this contributes to other forms of discrimination. In the article, Black Girls Matter, the author, Kimberlé Crenshaw, brings this to light. Young girls of color are often ignored by national initiatives in regards to both racism and sexism combined. The author supports her criticism with the use of personal stories of young girls of color, namely, Salecia, Pleajhai, Mikia, and Tanisha along with numerical data as examples.
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
On the night of December 13, 2013 Beyoncé, released her fifth self-titled album on ITunes. The album caught many people by surprise because Beyoncé did not set a date for the album, nor did she use any promotion; she did release a video on her Instagram asking her followers if they “were ready”. The buzz spread through social media like a wild fire. With no promotion or no warning, Beyoncé album took the world by storm and made it for her audience and critics to take in the album and it contents. Many people loved the album for not only its catchy songs, but also the growth and “looser” conservative Beyoncé. On the other hand many people did not feel that her album was growth, but a way to catch up to the overly sexual generation. Beyoncé has always been aware of her sexual side, pop side, and feminist side; this has been documented through her four previous albums. Yet, a lot of people have questioned if Beyoncé a feminist because of the content of her newest album. In order to answer that a person must ask him or her self; what is a feminist, why some people believe she is feminist, why others do not believe she feminist, and whether or not Beyoncé think she is a feminist.
It has been played in many other countries and is listed in many major hit charts in those countries. It became one of her best-selling singles. Beyoncé has been singing about women’s independence since she was in the hit group “Destiny’s Child”. Many of her songs support women’s lifestyle and keep cheering up girls with her powerful and expressive vocals (Armstrong). In addition to her songs and lyrics, her beautiful appearance fascinates many female audiences and influences from teenagers to grown-ups as if she was a role model. A negative side of the video is that the video gives the impression that men are always to be blamed and women are always “victims” of the relationships, which is not
Misogyny and degradation of women is present in almost every genre of music, yet the one genre that completely revolves around demeaning women is rap. Over the years rap and rap music videos have continually become more sexual and degrading towards women. Rap has been criticized numerous times for this reason, and that is because rap is one of the most popular genres of music for the younger generations. It is more than a genre of music, it is a complete industry filled with clothing and other merchandise. The reason this constant demeaning of women exists is because rap as a genre that rewards the objectification of women. The excuses used to justify the misogyny in rap are incomplete and lack accurate support. The most effective way for this continuous cycle ends, is if the fight and protest comes from the women themselves. Men are the problem in the objectification of women but in order for it to stop, women need to step up and take control of the situation.
The lyrics of the song- Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves by Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin, talks about women being liberated and are no longer inferior. They said in their song that “Now there was a time when they used to say That behind every great man there had to be a great woman Now in these times of change, ...
This song represented the time in 1993 when women in the hip hop culture were not taken seriously as males, so Queen Latifah had to call the judgmental people out. U.N.I.T.Y has the significance impact of feminism, just like her first two albums as an artist. How every man, she states calls a women “ho” or “bitch” she defends by saying “Who you calling a bitch?”. Another song that has been recalled as an importance of women in hip hop is the song (9) “Give It To You” by Da Brat. “So let it go, Cause my shit is tight, Take it how I give it, And enjoy the night”, she is talking about the males, if they have something to say about the women in the rap industry they should let it go before things get out of hand. The importance of this song was that ladies in hip hop are able to fight back stronger. In the song (10) “Lost Ones” by Lauryn Hill is about her talking about a person she has a brutal honest message to. This song has an important impact on women who would want to be in the hip hop culture because it is the woman's choice to decide what she wants to do. In 1998, she releases this song to brings an influence to women, if feeling threatened by men, women should refuse to be treated in any type of way that is
How a person makes decisions can be based on multiple different things. A lot can be based on a person’s values and morals. These morals and values can be very different from person to person and culture to culture. Culture is the learned portion of human behavior, it is the basis many values and morals are built on. Just because a person has different ideas from you does not make them wrong. Ethical decisions must be made by looking at and accepting different viewpoints. The Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI) is a tool to help determine how one makes decisions. To begin to understand the ELI, one must understand the four core values of autonomy, sensibility, rationality, and equality. Autonomy is defined by dictionary.com as “the independence
The first girl mentioned is Lisa, she feels alone in the world, her mother is a drug addict and likes to bring many men home. The song talks about things in the beginning work out well, but later on in the night, the mom and the man end up fighting. The men beat Lisa and when Lisa tries to tell her mom, her mom does not believe her. Lisa’s story can specifically relate to marriage and family because she does grow up in a functional family. The mother is a drug addict and does not take care of her daughter, it is mentioned that there is no father because the mother brings home men every night. The fact that Lisa does not have a stable family and no one to look up to is affecting her life negatively. The men that her mother does bring home, abuse Lisa and mistreat her. Lisa is a nine year old girl, she is too young to be experiencing the things she does. There is probably no main income for her family either, and if her mom does get paid, she will probably use that money towards buying more drugs. This can relate to the poverty aspect because people who grow up in poverty cannot even afford to survive on minimum wage alone. Also the fact that Lisa’s mom is a single mother means that she is e...
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.