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Rap culture influence on teens
Rap culture influence on teens
The effects of rap music on society
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he “manbox.” There is a great connection between social media and the construction of masculinity in young boys. As mentioned earlier, our parents play the greatest role in raising us to act and dress according to our gender. However, once the child begins to attend school and become more exposed to the world in other ways (extra-curricular activities, sports) they become more aware of the pre-established norms of both genders. Media has a big influence on the construction of a male’s masculinity. Through celebrities, movies, songs, young boys begin to look upto this source of influence as it’s what is accepted by the world and not just your home. Rap music has gained popularity in teens with artists such as Eminem, Tupac who reinforce themes
of songs which revolve around: sex, drugs and money. As seen in the film “The Mask You Live In,” we witness a teenage boy who lives in the United States with his mother whose father left him at a young age and lives in Mexico. He grew up to not having a fatherly figure, a man he could look upto and from the story he told, his father lives in Mexico and is part of a drug cartel. Despite his mother being very supportive for her son, he never felt connected with her as he was a teenage boy trying to find himself. He began hanging out with other boys who didn’t prioritize their education and instead opted to living a lifestyle in which they partied and smoked weed. He eventually got caught with the possession of the drugs and was sentenced to a year in jail which completely shattered his mother. During the interview he expressed regret for his actions however he realized this “man box” wasn’t worth it and has since then improved his lifestyle choices. It is estimated that the average boy begins using drugs at the age of 13. Furthermore, media hypersexualizes women and objectifies them which is connected with the “man box” as it is more masculine if a man is able to be a “sugar daddy” and have had relationships with many women and have access to many women for the sake of sex only.
In today’s American society there seems to be an ever-growing pressure for young males to adopt the “tough guy” persona. The want to adopt such an identity can be rooted to the way media portrays male masculinity to young boys and pre-adolescent males. With an ever-increasing message of violence, hegemonic masculinity, and inferential sexism, being rooted in Television and films it seems young males are being wired to be view these characteristics as normal because of the cultivation theory. As Jackson Katz from “Tough Guise 2” argues, our epidemic of male violence is rooted in our inability as a society to break from an outmoded ideology of manhood.
Over time, the United States has experienced dramatic social and cultural changes. As the culture of the United States has transformed, so have the members of the American society. Film, as with all other forms of cultural expression, oftentimes reflects and provides commentary on the society in which it is produced. David Fincher’s 1999 film Fight Club examines the effects of postmodernity on masculinity. To examine and explicate these effects, the film presents an unnamed narrator, an everyman, whose alter-ego—in the dissociative sense—is Tyler Durden. Durden represents the narrators—thus every man’s—deep-seated desire to break free from the mind-numbing, emasculating world that is postmodern, post-industrial America.
The movie, Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity produced by Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp, deconstructs the concepts that create the social constructs of masculinity. Masculinity, a set of behaviors, roles, and attributes correlating to men, is earned, not given (Conley 190). Starting from television shows to children’s toys, the idea of masculinity has infiltrated their minds starting at a young age. Moreover, the concept of masculinity has physical attributes, such as muscles, a deep voice, and be able to protect themselves. Masculinity, for boys of any races, socioeconomic classes, or ethnicity, has grown up with the same stereotypical image of what a man should entail. Since many media outlets show that a form of masculinity
In the predominantly patriarchal history of the world masculinity and what it means to be a man have differed from culture to culture. When it comes to African American culture, particularly what it has meant to be a man has no clear set of universal rules or guidelines. There are a few different sources such as hip hop and television many young black men across America draw their sense of masculinity from. While hip hop music in particular has had and continues to have a very strong influence on both masculinity and femininity of the youth, young black youth in particular has been affected the most .
I think every man between 20 and 40 needs to read Elizabeth Gilbert's "The Last American Man". Without going into details (like I said, you should read the book), this is a biography/profile of Eustace Conway - a man who is, among other things, capable of and prefers to (or would prefer to) live the kind of frontier lifestyle we have read about: hunting and gathering his food, living in a house he built using his own hands, making his own clothes from the skins of animals he captured, etc. I suspect that for many people the story, at least initially, will arouse the sort of Romantic feelings that tend to come with fantasies of a "simple life" of rugged self-sufficiency. However, even for those who are quite certain that they prefer their modern urban lifestyle (air conditioning, direct deposit, grocery stores, ebay, cable TV, &c.), I think this book raises fundamental questions about what it means to be a man at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Masculinity is described as possession of attributes considered typical of a man. Hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculine character with cultural idealism and emphasis that connects masculinity to competitiveness, toughness, and women subordination. Masculinity hegemonic is the enforcement of male dominion over a society. Masculine ideology dates back to the time of agrarian and the industrial revolution in Europe when survival compelled men to leave their homesteads to work in industries to earn a living for their families while women remained at home to take care of family affairs (Good and Sherrod 210). Women did not work in industries then because industrial labor was considered too physical beyond their capacity. This led to definition of roles which placated the position of men in a society while condemning women as mere subordinates who cannot do without men. The critics of gender stereotypes in America describe the following five hegemonic features of masculinity: frontiersman ship, heterosexuality, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, and physical force and control (Trujillo 4). The advent of the 20th century led to sweeping changes in American masculinity.
Myers mentioned in his article that this generation of young discouraged, angry men feels abandoned with the today’s norms. Male movie stars and athletes have further influenced the masculine norms. In males perspective, liking a feminine color, doing feminine actions, listening to specified girl music is considered to be less manly. These have greatly affected the likes and dislikes of many men. The entertainment industry has created a big gap between what is masculine or feminine. This has caused a big separation and it's getting worse. Male are taught to be man of the house, strong, and powerful, but sometimes they’re belittled by society that they can’t do certain things and all the power is
The genre of analyzation in this paper is masculinity. More in depth, the societal perpetuation of the concept of masculinity and its effects on individuals. Masculinity is a concept defined as a category of attributes, social behaviors and roles generally associated only with individuals of the male sex. It is rarely associated with females unless they are butch lesbian, and even if they are not, society will portray them as so. The concept of masculinity is a social construct – most often seen in patriarchal cultures and societies and identified mainly with gender roles. Gender roles are the acceptable or appropriate societal norms dictating
Western society currently understands gender in a dualistic sense. Dualistic thinking is the process of viewing a complex issue, such as gender, in a set of two, such as men and women. Dualistic thinking applies to other areas of life as well but despite how prevalent dualistic thinking is it is not a beneficial way of thinking. The dichotomy of the genders is only possible because of gender roles and the extremes to which gender roles have formed. The intensity to which masculinity has become is what Kimmel discusses in "From Anxiety to Anger."
Their parents and caregivers continue to hold influence over this development, but noted differences are noted. Both children and adolescents are affected by technology advances and exposed to this on a daily basis. Media also shapes children and adolescents view their world. Media influences fashion defines beauty and encourage upholding the beliefs and values of the dominant culture. The noteworthy differences in modern youth culture are their need for immediate gratification, absence of long-term thinking about life and the world, expecting bail-outs with consequences and focusing on appearance rather than
Early feminist studies of gender often depicted the expression of masculinity as solely meant to subordinate women. Upon further research and understanding of gender and its role in society, gender theorists have realized that masculinity is not only a patriarchal regulation against women, but that it also has negative effects against men. Masculinity has different characteristics in different cultures, but masculinity in general presents a hierarchy of traits, with femininity as the lowest, least desirable trait. In American culture, masculinity is defined within multiple structures, such as race, class, and sexuality, where a man’s masculinity can be lessened by his traits as well as these identities. Often, normative expressions of masculinity
The media is a very influential aspect of our daily lives. The media is everywhere we look, everything we listen to, and everything we talk about, we cannot escape it. It only makes sense that the media would have an affect of the construction of how we view masculinity and femininity. The media has the ideals or standards of what it means to masculine or feminine which with our changing times do not represent a majority of people. These standards are set so high that no one can reach them, which makes people feel defeated since they do not meet these expectations. With many people not fitting into these generalized norms we set for a “man” or “woman” it is time we get rid of these norms, or at least update them to the times. People are changing
Although teenage girls can be impacted nagatively, it also makes them aware of the issues that face women in our world today and empowers them to make a change.
"Children are influenced by media–they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own" (APA, 2001, p.1224). Girl’s as young as 4-years sees Britney Spears music clip “Baby One More Time”, who at the time was a 17-year old girl/world pop icon at the time wearing a school uniform showing off her midriff, wearing a lot of makeup and a short skirt. Disney teen icons such as Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana taking personal photos of herself in “sexy” poses and sending it to her ‘older’ boyfriend and then having it all published all over the internet for the entire world to see. Boys also face sexualization too, as has been seen in Calvin Klein ads, where pubescent-looking boys pose provocatively with perfectly sculpted six-pack abs hawking teen fashion These pop culture celebrities both female and male are always in the media, for inappropriate actions and they’re meant to be role models for children. In fact most of these sexualized celebrities are still children themselves. The sad part is it’s not just sexualization being encouraged in the media other negative things such as violence, drug and alcohol use ...
Gender, sex, gender roles, masculine, and feminine; these are all things that can be shaped by society. Your gender roles can change, but not your sex; that is given at birth. If gender is shaped a certain way, then that changes us to fit those societal norms of gender roles, masculinity and femininity, patriarchy, and how to maintain this gender order.