How Lyrics Perpetuates Male Dominance Against Female
Qinami Koshimizu
SO11(C)
Assignment #3
11/12/2012
How Lyrics Perpetuates Male Dominance Against Female
Many of us have heard the famous single “Love The Way You Lie” which aroused a lot of controversy when it was released two years ago. Performed by famous American rapper Eminem and singer Rihanna. The song attempts to portray domestic violence and abusive relationship. The position of male and female in a relationship and their social interaction are always the hot topic of contemporary music. In this paper I would like to discuss how this song perpetuates male dominance against female through four aspects in gender-role socialization, including emotion, action, sex and social interaction. Also I would argue about the cause and elements that form the male dominance. In traditional views of gender-role socialization, males are expected to be unemotional. In the song, Eminem’s rap begins with “I can’t tell you what it really is”, which shows that males are not willing to express their feelings. Boys are educated about that being emotional is sissy and feminine. As they grown up, they indeed become forceful and tough but are also closed and isolated. Hiding feelings inside sometimes is disadvantages to males. They tend to endure what they experience. Such behavior could be found in another line of Eminem’s rap “And right now it’s still night in my wind pipe, I can’t breath but I still fight while I can fight”. In Eminem’s narrative, the guy was hurt, both physical and emotional, but still had to force himself to do things. Society expects males to be unemotional thus they could be strong and reliable. But whom are they being rely for? The answer is females and families. Dominance and subordinate are dependent on each other. Females tend to relay on males thus give males no choice but to be the controller in all kinds of situations. Males’ dominance against females is not a one-sided thing. There are a lot of videos portraying male
SO11(C)
Assignment #3
11/12/2012
How Lyrics Perpetuates Male Dominance Against Female
Many of us have heard the famous single “Love The Way You Lie” which aroused a lot of controversy when it was released two years ago. Performed by famous American rapper Eminem and singer Rihanna. The song attempts to portray domestic violence and abusive relationship. The position of male and female in a relationship and their social interaction are always the hot topic of contemporary music. In this paper I would like to discuss how this song perpetuates male dominance against female through four aspects in gender-role socialization, including emotion, action, sex and social interaction. Also I would argue about the cause and elements that form the male dominance. In traditional views of gender-role socialization, males are expected to be unemotional. In the song, Eminem’s rap begins with “I can’t tell you what it really is”, which shows that males are not willing to express their feelings. Boys are educated about that being emotional is sissy and feminine. As they grown up, they indeed become forceful and tough but are also closed and isolated. Hiding feelings inside sometimes is disadvantages to males. They tend to endure what they experience. Such behavior could be found in another line of Eminem’s rap “And right now it’s still night in my wind pipe, I can’t breath but I still fight while I can fight”. In Eminem’s narrative, the guy was hurt, both physical and emotional, but still had to force himself to do things. Society expects males to be unemotional thus they could be strong and reliable. But whom are they being rely for? The answer is females and families. Dominance and subordinate are dependent on each other. Females tend to relay on males thus give males no choice but to be the controller in all kinds of situations. Males’ dominance against females is not a one-sided thing. There are a lot of videos portraying male