Music and Gender

Music and Gender

        Music is the world’s largest form of entertainment. Every year, new artists are signed into the music business. They begin their new lives by performing “new” and “original” music. With every lyric comes a hidden message behind it. Throughout the years, music has promoted negative ideas about gender. Artists such as Plies, Lil Wayne, and Jay-Z have used gender as a way to promote their music. They use derogatory terms such as “bitch”, “hoe”, and “slut” to portray women. These “artists” use women to promote their music to the public. Terms such as “pimp” and “thug” are used to portray the male gender. Needless to say, society absorbs this type of music like a wet sponge. These artists are often looked at as role models; people look up at them as icons and saviors of the new world. The music that is publicized has transformed women into sex objects and media slaves and men into sex prodigies.  

        In the song “Becky”, by Plies, women are shown as sex objects that have to give oral sex to a man if she wants to be intimate. In the song, Plies raps “Suck no dick? Can’t get in my bed. Heard me right, that’s what I said.” Plies uses the name Becky, to symbolize the oral sex that is being forced onto women. He degrades women and portrays them as weak and useless sex objects. His demand for oral sex is so colossal that men begin to believe that oral sex is a necessity before intimacy. In the song Plies also says, “… I don’t get Becky I can’t sleep I need Becky fo’ I beat. Becky, Becky, marry me.” Plies has made oral sex more than pleasure, he has made it a necessity to receive “Becky.” His infatuation with women giving oral sex brings the derogatory term “slut” into play. This allows men to believe that oral sex is a necessary fragment to a sexual relationship and it is okay to pressure a female into it. The fact that Plies uses the name “Becky” to symbolize oral sex really shows how he characterizes women. To him women are nothing but sex objects, which has a negative impact on the way gender is viewed in society. Not only is he degrading women, but Plies also makes a statement for men. In the song Plies puts men in a position where they are selfish, degrading pigs. It’s all about them, and Becky, there is no other interest in what the female wants. In society men put themselves in positions where they feel the need to put women at the bottom of the pyramid. They give them the position of being weak and vulnerable.

        Plies is only one of many artists that portray gender in a negative way. In the song “I’m Single”, by Lil Wayne, men are portrayed as disrespectful, selfish, ignorant people while women are weak, emotional, and crazy. In the song Lil Wayne says, “Yeah now she hear I’m with them other bitches. Yeah, I told her mind her fucking business, Shit she prolly out chea’ fucking niggas, I’m fucking her friends now her friends aint even fucking with her.” The way men are portrayed in this particular song goes to show the type of modeling that is being done in society today. Basically, it’s okay for a woman to be called a “bitch”, and it’s okay for a man to curse at his girlfriend. Lil Wayne states that his girlfriend is out having sex with other men making her the one doing wrong, but it’s okay for him to have sex with her friends. What this says about men is that they can be deceiving, untrustworthy, lying people. When millions of people listen to this song everyday it is bound to have an impact on their lives. Thousands of men don’t see their girlfriends as women; they see them as “bitches”, “broads”, and “hoes.” Not only are men being portrayed as sleazy, self-absorbed humans, women are also characterized as annoying, overly sensitive, untrusting human beings. “And when I get home she go through my shit, she call numbers back to see who that is…”, says Lil Wayne. In this very verse Wayne is trying to show that women cannot trust men and find the need to go through their phone. To Lil Wayne women are annoying and unworthy of respect. If they “fuck niggas” they’re hoes, but if he “fucks bitches” he’s being the boss. Lil Wayne’s “I’m Single” has a negative effect on the way gender is viewed because of its heavily detailed misbehavior towards men and women.