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Reflection

Amanda Liggieri

WGST 1001

Professor A

20 December, 2021

 

Reflection

I do not really remember what my expectations were for this class before the semester started but whatever they were, we exceeded it. Being a woman myself I thought what can I possibly learn from a class about Women Gender Studies… This class has actually introduced so many new points of views to me. This class was well put together from syllabus, to professor, to even the readings.  In many of my other classes you could hear a pin drop when a professor asked a question or put us in small groups. That is the complete opposite experience I got from WGST 1001. There was never a moment of silence in this class! Many times we would plan to leave class a little early but never actually did it because we could not cut the discussion short! That is something many professors aim to have in their classes but sometimes are not as fortunate to get. 

With class being almost 3 hours long you may ask, well what did we talk about for all that time? The class readings were not only informational but very relatable. We would discuss the readings and then be able to relate it to our actual lives and then speaking on that would open a window for another classmate to talk about their experience and so on. This class seemed to be a safe place for not only me but my classmates as well. Most classes you take in college you will never apply to life outside the classroom but with so many people that were able to relate to the readings in this class, you know that this class is important to take. One course topic that stuck with me is Marsha P. Johnson. I had never heard of Marsha P. Johnson prior to this class but once I started watching the STAR interview and was so invested. I was rooting for her so much that 5 minutes into the video I googled her to see where she was at in life and broke my own heart to see she had passed. To say the least, I watched the rest of the video holding back tears. Trans rights was something we spoke frequently about in class. Many other topics we touched on I thought I was an expect on but the readings we did allowed me to dig deeper for example “Gender and Genitals: Constructs of Sex and Gender” by Hubbard. This reading was more towards the beginning of the semester and talked a lot about sex vs gender and how gender was a social construct. This topic definitely tied into my research project of Gender Stereotypes 2. Hubbard is a great author along with Angela Davis! Judith Butler was a challenge and hard to follow but the video we watched helped a lot to understand her view point.  

As mentioned before my topic for the group research project was Gender Stereotypes 2. From my experience the group project was actually a roller coaster. My group and I all agreed on the basics of what we wanted to present but when it came down to the actual presentation there was a lack of communication and it was frustrating. I overall was not pleased with the presentation being honest. Some of my group members were not the fastest repliers and did not do their slides with the format and font we used already. I felt like some of the slides were almost in essay form and not in presentation form and every time I brought up a suggestion no one would really answer. I often found myself going on to the slides and fixing other people’s work to correct the format, font, and spelling/grammar. I even had to fix the work cited multiple times and remind my group to actually cite and not post links. This made me feel like I put in more effort than others. My part of the presentation was Marriage and Family. I introduced the stereotypes on a graph and then further explained on the following slides. I presented my stereotypes with statistics, pictures, and videos. I really wish the video I had uploaded would have been able to load because I felt it would have brought some humor to our presentation. Finding out the statistics for the stereotypes we already knew was actually pretty interesting. Although I was not overall very pleased with the presentation it did come out better than I was expecting. One thing I learned from this project was patience and how being a team player sometimes means helping your team out besides your part. On the other hand I would love to compliment everyone else’s presentation because I felt every single one was informational and interesting. Sometimes with an online class it is easy to lose focus but I was so attentive while everyone was presenting. I loved seeing the other Gender Stereotypes group presentation, I was worried our projects would have repeating information but it was fun to see how we presented on opposite spectrums under the same umbrella.

My public writing in the blog post was titled Misogynistic Music Industry. My thought process behind this topic was I wanted to do something different. I saw many posts on gender roles for women and felt like everyone was repeating the same things and the same quotes from Angela Davis’s book.  I would have loved to see some more original ideas throughout the blog posts but I do realize how Gender roles in a house or marriage setting was the easiest to quote from the readings we have done. I do like the idea of the blog post because I like reading everyone elses work and seeing their thought process. I liked getting comments on what I should improve. I feel like constructed criticism is needed to advance in anything. I even enjoyed helping others improve their work. I focused on the music industry because gender plays a big role on how artists present their music.

 

Misogynistic Music Industry

Throughout history, women have struggled across different aspects of life to establish equality or become the dominant figure. In the United States today, life experiences from women are not held to the same standard as men. Examples of this can be demonstrated through sports, art, politics, and especially music. According to the article, Life and Hip-Hop: How women’s role in the industry allows for empowerment, breaking norms, it states “success was more challenging to achieve for women compared to their male counterparts. Los Angeles Southwest College sociology professor Kristine Wright said the genre of hip-hop’s treatment of women draws parallels to the world of sports – specifically basketball. Much like the WNBA, she said women in hip-hop have traditionally been paid less and receive less attention than their male peers, like those in the NBA. With female artists historically receiving less attention, Wright said there is a conception among industry executives and popular artists that promoting female sexuality can result in greater industry success. Some female rappers like Nicki Minaj have been pressured by these ideals to change their looks as a result, Wright said.” (Wright, 2021). This quote is important because it describes how women were able to rise to success and overcome misogynistic hardships in the music industry. Unfortunately, since hip-hop can be seen as a reflection of how our society is today, this patriarchy-based world we live in applies to the industry and its promotion tactics. If the industry believes sales will increase if the artist is provocatively dressed, then that is what they will try to promote. In my opinion, this is disgusting. I have never heard multiple accounts of men being coerced into nudity exposure just to become successful. Although it can be seen as empowering to take control of your own body, it should not feel like the path to success requires you to expose your own body. This relates to our class as we dig deeper into learning about how women and men are treated differently and where this stemmed from. According to Women Race & Class by Angela Davis, it states “ Men and women were created equal: they are both moral and accountable human beings” (Davis, 42). I like this quote a lot because I feel like it relates to the music industry in an interesting way. If we were created equal with morals and a sense of accountability, how is it that we live in a society that justifies immoral actions to succeed when committed by a woman? Is nudity for money not immoral? The bigger picture of this all can be seen when men rise to success in the hip-hop industry pretty much by making songs with explicit lyrics related to female encounters meanwhile females have to actually do these explicit things. Until recently, you’ve probably never heard of women making an attempt to sexualize men the way they do. Again, it can be seen as empowering because it shows how women can play the same game men play, and sometimes do it even better. It also shows dominance because if they know they have something the industry wants, it gives them leverage and an understanding of how to use it to their advantage. I’m sure the society we live in today is familiar with the term “Pussy Power”.

 

Citations

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Vintage Books, 1983.

Brown, Natalie. “Life and Hip-Hop: How Women’s Role in the Industry Allows for Empowerment, Breaking Norms.” Daily Bruin, 12 Nov. 2020, https://dailybruin.com/2020/11/12/life-and-hip-hop-how-womens-role-in-the-industry-allows-for-empowerment-breaking-norms.

Misogynistic Music Industry

Throughout history, women have struggled across different aspects of life to establish equality or become the dominant figure. In the United States today, life experiences from women are not held to the same standard as men. Examples of this can be demonstrated through sports, art, politics, and especially music. According to the article, Life and Hip-Hop: How women’s role in the industry allows for empowerment, breaking norms, it states “success was more challenging to achieve for women compared to their male counterparts. Los Angeles Southwest College sociology professor Kristine Wright said the genre of hip-hop’s treatment of women draws parallels to the world of sports – specifically basketball. Much like the WNBA, she said women in hip-hop have traditionally been paid less and receive less attention than their male peers, like those in the NBA. With female artists historically receiving less attention, Wright said there is a conception among industry executives and popular artists that promoting female sexuality can result in greater industry success. Some female rappers like Nicki Minaj have been pressured by these ideals to change their looks as a result, Wright said.” (Wright, 2021). This quote is important because it describes how women were able to rise to success and overcome misogynistic hardships in the music industry. Unfortunately, since hip-hop can be seen as a reflection of how our society is today, this patriarchy-based world we live in applies to the industry and its promotion tactics. If the industry believes sales will increase if the artist is provocatively dressed, then that is what they will try to promote. In my opinion, this is disgusting. I have never heard multiple accounts of men being coerced into nudity exposure just to become successful. Although it can be seen as empowering to take control of your own body, it should not feel like the path to success requires you to expose your own body. According to Women Race & Class by Angela Davis, it states “ Men and women were created equal: they are both moral and accountable human beings” (Davis, 42). I like this quote a lot because I feel like it relates to the music industry in an interesting way. If we were created equal with morals and a sense of accountability, how is it that we live in a society that justifies immoral actions to succeed when committed by a woman? Is nudity for money not immoral? The bigger picture of this all can be seen when men rise to success in the hip-hop industry pretty much by making songs with explicit lyrics related to female encounters meanwhile females have to actually do these explicit things. Until recently, you’ve probably never heard of women making an attempt to sexualize men the way they do. Again, it can be seen as empowering because it shows how women can play the same game men play, and sometimes do it even better. It also shows dominance because if they know they have something the industry wants, it gives them leverage and an understanding of how to use it to their advantage. I’m sure the society we live in today is familiar with the term “Pussy Power”.