Analyzing the Music Industry through Feminist Theorists

In “Gender of a Nation” by Mrinalini Sinha, her main argument is about how nationalism has played a huge role in the ideals of the gender roles in different regards. Some of the evidence that she uses is feminist scholarship which helps readers understand the role that many cultures expect women to play. “Because women are often constructed s the symbolic “bodyguards” of a culture, those who carry the group’s “honor” and are responsible for the intergenerational reproduction of its culture”(Sinha, 256) I thought this was a great representation of how women are looked at as these protectors when it is beneficial to society or to men, but when it’s time to praise women for performing these roles men fall very short in every culture. In “The Day the Mountains Move” by Yosani Akiko, she is using mountains as a reference to women. She says that the mountains have been asleep for a while now, but they aren’t sleeping anymore (Akiko, 32). Her main point in this is to make it clear that women are no longer just sitting back watching things happen, they are no longer standing by and letting men treat them any way they want to; now they are standing up and speaking out. This poem was a call for women to be liberated in the now, not later. I believe both of these arguments were very valid arguments in every regard. I think that from the beginning of time women were given all these responsibilities and put into this confined box.

In the music industry we see society put women in these boxes all the time. Women are constantly being judged for what they are doing or what they aren’t doing. For example, if a female rapper isn’t rapping about something derogatory it is very hard for them to make it far in the industry. Simply because sex sells. But, once she gets out in main stream there are so many different opinions, which is a given in that industry. The problem here is that there are too many opinions on what women are talking about and not nearly as many when it comes to all of the derogatory things men are saying in their songs. A lot of women are steered away from this industry because of this, but many women are embracing it. We see so many women living through their truth with no regards to what society has to say about them, they are truly liberated and “awake”. Cardi B, Trina, Lil Kim, Mulatto, and the list goes on and on; these women have stayed grounded in their sexuality and have shared that with the world despite everything that is said about them. This theory has helped me understand the social constructions more, especially when talking about the “masculinity” and “femininity” roles that have been placed in society. In the music industry looks are a big thing and if the woman is not feminine enough for what the stereotypical woman looks like then they start making things up about them. We saw this with the singer Ciara years ago and we still see it today with the rapper Meg the Stallion, where people were saying that they were born as men because they didn’t fit their criteria. Gender is something will continue to be a topic, because people are not able to open their eyes to the fact that gender was created by society.

Bibliography

Feminist Theory Reader : Local and Global Perspectives, edited by Carole R. McCann, and Seung-Kyung Kim, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/gsu/detail.action?docID=4586266.