Music & Gender
Within the popular music of my time, men are normally the ones to sing or rap about more controversial "sexual" topics. They will often time sexualize and "slut" shame women within these songs, whether it be specific partners or just in general. I have noticed that it is socially excepted and when these songs are dropped, there is no controversy around them. This is because it is normalized. It isn't just within my time that men have been creating sexualized music, I know this because my parents listen to quite a lot of older music and it is very involved in the same if not similar topics. It is much deeper than music though, but I am specifically focusing this blog on the music industry. Recently, women have begun to take part in this sector of the music industry. They have begun to sing more sexual music and their past partners. The difference is, WOMEN ARE SHAMED for the music that they have begun to release. For example, artists such as Cardi B, Lizzo, and Megan Thee Stallion have been criticized for rapping and singing on the topics that they have begun to, just as the men have for years. I personally think that if it is socially acceptable for a man to sing and rap and create music upon these topics, then it is no different than women creating her music in the same situation.
A clear clean-cut example of this is the super bowl performances. Adam Levene performed in the half time show in Super Bowl LIII. His show was very sexualized, he even proceeded to begin to take clothes off while dancing. This was not spoken about as controversial or a problem, everyone really enjoyed the show. A few years following, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, put on a very similar sexualized performance and people went crazy over it. Many people posted on social media about how horrible and revealing and sexual her performance was, but just a few years earlier Adam's was deemed appropriate and "family-friendly".
I simply hope that in the future, as my kids are brought into the world, the playing ground can be leveled and women and men can be on the same playing ground in the music industry.
First of this post *claps hands* was so good Cameron and was such an easy read. And I absolutely agree that women are shamed a lot more than men when making "sexual" songs. I feel like it's due to the stereotype that women are suppose to be this polite, proper, objects that aren't allowed to get "freaky" with their art form. It sucks and I hate it, its 2020 get it together or turn the radio off. Anywayyyy, I really enjoyed your post and venting back to you lol. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHello I really enjoyed your blog! I as well did not know what to write about. I liked how you mention events that are more recent like how men are not criticized for releasing certain types of music and women are uniformly are criticized. And I totally agree with how society expects women to coverup and be restful.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job with your comparisons. I remember the super bowl performances and I felt inspired by two Latina women performing for the super bowl. I thought they killed their performance and put more into it than Adam Levine did. They're all talented people but, singing and performing a dance routine is more impressive than a man singing and taking his clothes off. Now I'm wondering the ratio of men who do dance routines for the super bowl in comparison to the women who perform dance routines for the super bowl.
ReplyDeleteThis post is so good. There is a double standard in music especially in performances. When you mentioned the Super Bowl performances, my mind immediately went to the 2004 Half Time show with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. Justin Timberlake was the one who exposed her to the world, but Janet was the one who had to apologize. I also think that it is so unfair when guys judge female artists who are promoting being a player but applaud male artists who are doing the same thing.
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