Summary
Summary Papers lecture 11
- Course
- Institution
Answers to all the questions that can be asked on the exam based on the lectures and literature
[Show more]
Seller
Followmariëlledevaal
Reviews received
Content preview
LECTURE 11The readings suggest gender/race/age as commodity (in a form of
music). Give one concrete example to illustrate this point.
Pop music has always created and portrayed gender roles. Men are presented as
hyper-masculine; performing songs that make the girls in the audience scream,
while holding their guitars at pelvic height as ode to masculinity. Female
musicians are expected to be attractive. Female fans of music are usually
portrayed as the teeny bop crowd: girls who are infatuated with male performers.
Male musicians perform masculinity, while female fans are consumers of that
performance. The male musicians are typically portrayed as aggressive,
dominating, boastful and constantly seeking to remind the audience of their
powers and control.
Performers displaying their gender have roots in doing gender: Gender is
something not just taught, it is something that people perform in their everyday
lives. Gender is an identity, created by culturally acceptable acts such as dress,
physical appearance, etc. Thus looking at gender through the lens of music
serves to illustrate the society’s expectations of people based on gender, or to
illustrate what culture’s expectations are for each gender.
The music industry is still constructed by men who dominate the position of
music executive, music journalist, fan, academic and listener. There is still a
binary notion of gender in the music industy: non-gender specific nouns are
preceded by a gender, for example the girl rocker or the chick singer, instead of
the male rocker, who are just a rocker.
What do we miss if we look at one of gender/race/age and not others?
Why is it important to examine intersectionality?
Make connections to the concept "eating the Other." Can you define this
concept by drawing on an example from the reading?
One of the signature icons driving commercial hiphop is the pimp, he has
become popularized and mainstreamed. The pimp is exploitative to women:
street pimps use violence both in physical, but as well in emotional and
psychological ways in order to control their prostitutes. This encourages young
women fans to emulate the behaviours of bitches and hoes to get attention, to
be desired and to be considered sexy. Bitches and hoes get all the attention in
hip hop. Sexualized women in the street economy is open to them. Pointing to
women’s participation in a system that exploits them to prove it isn’t sexist,
falsely assumes that sexism is sexism, only when all women label it so. It also
denies the power of socialization in creating our collusion with social
relationships that hurt us. Since sexism socializes all men and women, we have
1
LECTURE 11
, to work against it; being anti-sexist doesn’t come naturally in a system that
rewards us for participating.
Many young black women parrot the sexist ideas that are so widely circulated in
hiphop: it’s a key to belonging. For many black women, the language of
commercial hip hop about sexuality has influenced their understanding of black
women, not just reflected it. Sexism works best when women are isolated from
and pitted against one another. Isolation and conflict ensure that they will sustain
and internalize the terms of insult and control used to keep things as they are.
Women are rewarded by men for participating in this system.
Women who are angered by this hyper-sexism speak out, but many do not. To be
publicly and strongly against sexism in the music industry is to guarantee one’s
marginality. And to challenge sexism in the black community is to discourage
public support, in fact, doing so is often perceived as an anti-black community
action and can make one a target. For black women who are already marginal in
larger society, taking a stand in a way that might alienate them from their local
community is painful and difficult and often not worth it. Black women thus try to
find a way to manage what is a hurtful, insulting, and discriminatory language of
belonging.
The constant labelling of black women in hip hop as bitches and hoes has forced
young women to embrace bitch as a term of empowerment and also try to
reverse the sexual-power exchange, calling men hoes. Many women also say
that they are not bitches and hoes, so the rappers aren’t referring to them.
Since they do not consider themselves to behave that way, they think it does not
impact them.
Also another term, introduced in the 1980’s was the welfare queen: the poor
black women on welfare as sexually irresponsible, money-hungry and lazy. This
sediments the idea that black women are sexually deviant and untrustworthy.
The process of locating, labelling, partying with and then discarding black women
is part of the performance that enhances gangsta-and pimpstyle rapper’s status
and thus their income.
The culture of women’s sexual behaviour promoted by hiphop videos shapes the
action of young black women in ways that will bring them attention and status.
One should know the distinction between sexual explicitness and sexual
exploitation. Women are always casted as someone getting played by the music
industry, thus always losing. This blending of sexual explicitness and exploitation
is hurtful and destructive for black women and for black male/female
relationships and the black community generally.
What are effects of gender/race/age as commodity (in a form of music)
on the consumers and their social relationships with others (friends,
families, community members)? List up the contradictory effects
discussed by Tracy, Rose, and Trier-Bieniek and Pullum.
2
LECTURE 11
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller mariëlledevaal. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $3.25. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
67232 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now