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The evolution of gender roles in society
The evolution of gender roles in society
The evolution of gender roles in society
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Starting from the 1920’s with women receiving the right to vote women's suffrage has come a long way. Women are more independent now in 2014 than ever before and it's becoming more and more common to see women succeed as doctors, lawyers and CEOs.In fact as of 2011 about 40% of women were the main providers for their family ( reference) Not only that but the gap between pay differences with genders is decreasing in comparison to what previous generations of women have experinced. With that being said, can we say that sexism is a thing of the past?
One of the main causes of perpetuating these sexist ideals in the 21st century is media. Women have moved from being the stay at home housewife that obeys everything her husband says to complete dehumanized sex objects. While we have gone a long way in terms of womens rights, media is doing the most damage to women. More specifically within media one of the main perpetrators of this is music. Not only do music videos show women most of the time scantily clad and being treated as sexual objects but the lyrics themselves are degrading to women. Not only are these artist treating women as sexual objects but also have underlying messages of violence towards them. This is extremely dangerous as is has the potential to send boys the underlying message that it is ok to treat women this way and that girls should expect this behavior from men and that it is normal.
The first example if this is the extremely popular hit of the summer for 2013, Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. Starting first with the title of the song we can already see where the problem begins. Blurred lines is a direct relationship to the line between what is consensual and what is not. One line in the song states “ I really ...
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...ons by using these comparisons. He uses the words soft and sweet to define what is feminine and strong and steady to define what is masculine. The following line does the same with the analogy between the alcohol. Wine is usually considered sweet and fruity, while whiskey is a stronger harder liquor. By making these definitions the message that is coming across is that these are the only ways that a woman or man could or should be. If a woman were strong would she no longer be considered a woman or is she now a man. Or in reverse if a man enjoys drinking wine does that mean that he is a woman or like a woman.
So even though we have come a long way since the 1920’s with womens rights the music and media industry is still holding women back. All of these songs used as examples have been produced within the last ten years. Blurred lines was from last year alone.
As a female, I have certainly been adversely affected by sexism. I trust that females are adversely affected by sexism ordinary because of what we see, particularly in the media. Consistently, we are overwhelmed with messages in regards to weight, good looks and being the "perfect, impeccable, women." Although messages that are pitched at us are not sensibly genuine and some of the time about difficult to achieve, despite everything they impact us. Looking at TV, most of the advertisements that play are either about losing weight, foods low in fat, or attractive, petite models strutting their stuff around the TV screen. This relates a great deal to what Abra Fortune Chernik says in her piece called "The Body Politic." Chernik (2010) which quotes
In " Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell it talks about how a men humiliates a women.This song talks a about sexiest men and how he caresless about womens rigths or feelings, this song made alot of people angry becaause of how it talks about women.This song actually compares womens rigths and feelings to animals
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.)
There are many instances of degrading and misogynistic lyrics in country music, both historically and contemporarily. There are differences in the lyrics of this genre based on the gender of the artist: gender roles, hypersexuality, and in the resistance or conformity to rigid gender-based stereotypes. The main points of my argument will include how country music lyrics have historically and contemporarily conformed to and defied gender roles and misogynistic stereotypes. This paper will then examine how men are portrayed as sexual oppressors and exploiters to women. As well, I will discuss the lyrical differences between men and women in this genre, including the limiting role of women as objects as opposed to subjects. Next, this essay will address in my paper the unhealthy environment country music lyrics creates for women. Country music lyrics currently and historically portray stereotypical gender roles, and women have limited roles within country music songs as subjects and objects.
In society today, media such as movies and music share huge roles in the dynamics of culture especially concerning communication. In Dream Worlds 3: Desire, Sex, and Power in Music Video we see how famous singers and producers in the making of their music videos have the power of illustrating our language and beliefs. From the music we listen to and things we watch, we are constantly gaining new knowledge by the message that is being presented to us. The main focus of this specific documentary was how women in the music or media industry all together are treated. From this documentary and lectures in class we see that media objectifies, stereotypes, and degrades women and their bodies as advertisements and money makers. Themes in the film discussed
Women still get paid 77 cents to every dollar that a man makes. This not only perpetuates sexism in an extremely obvious way, it is also one of the most harmful. While being catcalled, or subtly put down can be a detriment to women’s psyche, the wage gap is harmful to a women’s physical and emotional well being. Most people say that in order to make a big career change, the person changing jobs should have enough money saved to live on for a full year. This is a pretty logical idea, however, this is something that is much easier for men to accomplish, given that they are paid a higher wage. They have the ability to put money away, whereas it is more likely that a women is going to have to spend all her wages just on living. She won’t be able to leave a job, even if she hates it, simply because she can not afford to. A man with her same qualifications may not have to worry about this due to the fact that he has on average 23 more cents per every dollar, than she does. This to me seems like the root of sexism, and one of the first things we as a society needs to fix in order to help woman feel more equal in the world.
Since the explosion of music videos in 1981, a large portion of their popularity has been due to the objectification of women and their sexuality. “Early content analyses showed that anywhere from 40% to 75% of music videos contained sexual imagery”(Arnett, 2002). Hip-hop music videos especially have a reputation of degrading women. In these videos “women are often depicted in positions of submission to men” (Sommers-Flanagan, 1993).On the flip-side Country music videos are “known for [their] socially conservative themes”(Frisby & Aubrey, 2012).
The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
Author and feminist Alix Kates Shulman said once: “Sexism goes so deep that at first it’s hard to see, you think it’s just reality” (McEneany). That quote sums up perfectly the way our society runs. There is no class teaching children how to act according the their gender. Yet little boys and little girls learn at a very young age what is expected of them. They get ideas about their gender roles from their parents, their school teachers and subconsciously from the toys they play with and the television shows they watch.
Robin Thicke has a popular songs called Blurred Lines which was released in mid 2013. The song spread quickly and rose straight to the top of the charts. This is where the song remained for the next ten weeks; which was the first time any single lasted that long since 2005. A majority of people had at least heard the song, if they weren’t able to sing every word of it. Many people found the song to be undeniable catchy, but not many people looked at the subtext of the lyrics. As the song remained popular for a longer period of time, people became aware of what the song lyrics were actually saying. The literal lines of the song talks about meeting a girl and not knowing if there is blurred lines because she’s a good girl. Once the lyrics were analyzed deeper, many realized that the song was not as innocent as it seemed.
Have you ever felt discriminated against in the workplace? Usually, women are the most common people that are mistreated in the workplace. There are many reasons why women are discriminated against, but none of them are excuses for women for not being successful. Women face sexism by getting less pay than men, not getting promoted as equally as men, and facing other gender stereotypes, but sexism can be solved by women confronting their internal and external barriers and finding people that can help women.
Sexism is still commonly found all over the world. What was sexism like back in the
1. My result for hostile sexism was between zero and one, while my score for benevolent sexism was between one and two. My scores were closest to the average female and male in England and Australia for benevolent sexism. However, my hostile sexism was very low compared to all the countries that were listed. My scores surprised me, because I did not expect my benevolent sexism score to be closest to England or Australia. More simply, I did not expect other females and males to have similar scores, so the graphs were shocking. My results were furthest from Cuba, Nigeria, and Syria. My scores for hostile and benevolent sexism were very low compared to average women and men in Nigeria, Syria, and Cuba. I was not surprised by these results, because these countries are known to practice traditional gender roles. In other words, I was not surprised that
Many people associate sexist language with the music genre of rap and hip/hop, but the truth is that sexist language invades every style of music. While it is true that the lyrics to rap songs contain the most obvious derogatory terms towards women, research has found that popular pop music also includes language that can demoralize women or make women seem inferior to men. Women are often referred to as objects and even as possessions by artists, implying that even in this day and age females are still second-class compared to males. Some artists compare women to cars, others use their words to enforce their male dominance. Regardless of how popular an artist or song is promoting sexist lyrics shows that as a whole the public does not have a problem with demoralizing women. Numerous male musicians even use this sort of language as a marketing tactic, knowing that their lyrics will cause a controversy that could inevitably boost album sales.
In the music industry, women are almost unarguably objectified in any song or music video I’ve ever heard or seen. We call women, and less often but men as well, in the industry “sex symbols” and make them more object and display like than human like. Women such as Shania Twain, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls have all during their careers been referred to as sex symbols and the list well surpases those five. Women can be seen dancing or posing in sexual manners while wearing little to no clothing usually in pursuit of a man in most music videos found on the internet. A study was done in 2009 that discovered the percentage of Top Ten Billboard Songs about sex was up at 92%.