How Lyrics Perpetuates Male Dominance Against Female

The dynamic between male and female is extremely complex. Over the course of human history, men have primarily dominated over women in nearly every aspect of human interaction and daily life. Despite the large progress that has been made in recent decades, women are still heavily subordinated by the male gender both in the workforce and in the private sphere. Examples of this domination of men can be seen in many aspects of everyday life including: interpersonal and social interaction, family, among peers, in education, and in the media.

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

In this generation, many popular musicians express the hardships brought forth by unrequited love in their songs. It is probably one of the most commonly conveyed subjects. Music artists such as Bruno Mars and his songs like “Grenade” is no exception to this popular trend. In the song “Grenade,” he reveals his persistent devotion for a girl. Lamentably, as a victim of unilateral love, he is inferior in the relationship. In the song, the girl seizes the dominant ability to manipulate Bruno Mars’ physical well-being and emotional negatively by being uninterested towards his love, and positively refusing to return his affection. From such a position of inferiority, Mars uses numerous rhetorical strategies such as literary devices, logical

Classical China and India both had established and organized patriarchal society in which different gender roles had stemmed. For instance, in China the head male figure, such as a Father, was always in charge. This probably evolved from constantly respecting their elders and the role that women obtained in classical agricultural societies. India likewise, they had a strong tendency to put males in charge—in the Indian caste system, women were always at a lower rank than men. Even though they were important and respected among society, women were still encouraged to worship their husbands like gods. All of these structures that Classical India and China had standardized contributed to them being an organized patriarchal society.

The song “Where’s the Love?” by Black Eyed Peas displays many sociological concept in the context of its lyrics. In this song the band is expressing their concerns with the world’s views and actions of the present day. They question the mentality and reflect upon the realism of the world. The main idea surrounding this song is concentrated around the social construction of reality and how the world is changing. The song expresses the way people are not living up to society’s norms and values. It suggests that various agents of socialization are at fault and that they contribute to the development of self.

It is suggested that one of the reasons why artists use misogynistic lyrics in their music is that they have internalized the negative stereotypes about women that are prevalent in American society. African women were historically portrayed as animalistic sexual beasts and African males in a submissive role, giving in to wild instinct or bodily impulses. The internalization of such stereotypes may be a possible explanation of the hyper sexuality within certain hip hop music. Various authors have argued that misogyny is merely an outgrowth of the cultural acceptance of misogyny at large.

Male dominance a subject that is a huge topic of debate. Societies have accepted male dominance because it has been tradition for culture. For my Hispanic culture it has been seen as a trait of my culture that a wife would be beaten by their husband. Women throughout history is have not been treated equal to men. Male dominance is a topic of huge debate. Societies have seen the unjust of male dominance and hear the stories of female abuse by males. Women were suppressed by males in many ways. Women were seen as just a symbol of a caretaker and a mother. Recently women are being more independent and gaining high position jobs but in male dominated jobs. A recent issue of debate is the wage gap of females and males. Also another topic of dominance

When I go to India, I see my aunts and uncles fitting almost perfectly into these gender roles of men and women. The men have some sort of job, while the women are always full time housewives. Their mothers were housewives, and their mother’s mothers were housewives as well. What is different about them? Because they are bombarded with the roles they should fulfil, they feel obligated to fill them. This reinforces the concept that individuals develop based off of what they are told and the environment that they were brought up in. It is not only the women that are being held to specific roles, it is also the men! In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Tea Cake says “Ah need no assistance to help me feed mah woman” when Janie offered some of her money to help (Hurston 128). Because Tea Cake felt obligated as a man to support himself and his family, he would not take any of the money that was sitting idly in Janie’s bank account. This shows that men, just like women, developed based off of the environment that they were brought up in. These masculine values were instilled in Tea Cake, most likely as a young child. If he did not keep this role as breadwinner, he would be shamed and looked down upon.

Male and female roles have been changing as time goes on over the years. Women have fought to have the same rights as men do. Men have always been dominant over women, for instance women have fought for rights such as voting and being able to work in the same workforce as men do. Men used to believe women should stay at home and not go to work, but instead they should do household chores such as cleaning, cooking, and tending to the children. Male and female roles have changed dramatically over time.

These views cause women to feel the need to fit into the description laid out for them by society. No one cares about the message being portrayed through all of this though. In fact, these songs are considered so normal in today’s society that women will sing and dance to them without a problem. Yocum concludes that when songs portray women like this it influences the light the world sees them

Being a woman is no easy task. We cannot scan the radio without finding a plethora of songs that objectify us, victimize us, and tell us of our necessity for a man. All of these components contributing to the presence of violence against women are represented in songs of a vast variety. “Violets in May” by Hillbilly Casino demonstrates a prime example of violence against women. In the song, a possessive relationship is born in a blissful haste and finished in a murder inspired by spontaneity.

The 1980’s consisted of several historical events and societal changes that have been relived though the lyrics of many young hip-hop artists. Of the numerous genres of songs, hip-hop has been labeled as of the most relatable genres. During this 1980’s, many of the songs that were written by male hip-hop artist tend to focus on the relationship aspect of male and female interactions. This finding is similar to what was stated in Frith’s article (1986) that most successful pop songs were about being “happy in love” and “frustrated in love” as well as having a sex interest (p. 78). Instead of using derogatory terms to describe women, men felt the need to use more delicate and gentle terms. Through their music, artists portrayed women as individuals who provide love, support, happiness and fulfillment to a man’s life. Furthermore, male artists portrayed themselves as men who weren’t afraid to express their emotions, admit their dependency on women, and their willingness to do what it takes to keep a woman. There were no signs of hypermasculinity or dominance in the first few songs

When it comes to gender, there’s no wrong or right. Many our favorite entertainers have done wonderful jobs on gender bending. Now macho men get on TV with makeups and wearing heels in the music video, and women dances in bare feet with mouths singing “run the world”. In the modern pop culture, gender does not define us, but only we produce gender. In this paper, we are going to discuss how doing gender appears in Madonna’s music and how she influences the industry and the society.

In language and literature, verbal mediums such as music and song provide a holistic reflection of the culture of a given community. Songs are products and practices that are able to shed light on the philosophical, political, socio-cultural norms, and perspectives of a particular society.1 Thus, these products shape the worldview of a cultural group. Within patriarchal subcultures, such as fraternities, song lyrics reflect socially constructed dominant masculinities that members are encouraged to adopt and engage in. From Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill, a drinking song made prominent by U.Va’s Glee Club in the late 1940’s, captures the socially constructed masculinities portrayed in leisure alcohol use and the cultural masculine preferences of the members. Music and song are often used as an instrument to influence and amplify the hidden cultural values at the associated audience. Hence, preferred elements of masculinity such as heavy drinking, comradery and non-relational sexual encounters with women in the fraternal society are reinforced.2 From Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill emphasizes how the expectations of hyper-masculinity are facilitated in the fraternity culture and how gender violence in particular, sexual assault, is promoted and perpetuated in association with alcohol while affirming a masculine mentality of power and privilege within the group dynamic.

Before examining particular societies, the general notions of patriarchy must be established. Generally, women were considered inferior to men, but each facet of society provides a distinctive insight into gender roles. A fundamental difference between the two genders was that the responsibility of a man was to be a member of the public, whereas the responsibility of a woman was to be in the home. Social norms defined men as “rulers, warriors, scholars, and heads of households” (Ways of the World 59). Even if a man had little