Music

The music video I found that relates to gender and sexism is Rhianna and Eminems' "Love the Way you Lie." Essentially, this song is about a harmful relationship. The man is doing all these horrible things and the girl keeps coming back. It talks about abuse and violence and how the girl comes back for more. It's extra controversial because of Rhianna's public relationship with Chris Brown and the allegations that he abused her.

This is only one example of many contemporary songs that either portray women in a bad light or exucse innapropriate behavior for men. This video is significant to the conversation because of its portrayl of women. It seems to show that its okay for a man to treat you badly, and as long as you love each other you should stay with each other. Not to mention the music video is quite graphic. It thouroughly explains the song through the story it portrays.

I also find it interesting that the majority of songs that deal with disrespect to women tend to be rap or hip/hop related. It is rare to find an "indie" song or other type of genre that deals with the same issues.  Country music also sometimes brings abuse and violence to life. Carrie Underwood's song "Before he cheats" makes it seem like it's okay to be violent if someone has wronged you. The Dixie Chicks also have a song about a girl killing her husband with poison because he was abusing her. Although this song has a comedic undertone, I think it can be placed in the same category as the rap songs that degrade women.

Why do muscians take these topics so lightly? What is it that inspires them to sing these songs and perform these stories to the public?

Here is the music video I found:

TV

Most people seem to watch TV to escape from reality. It's a time to relax and not worry about anything. It doesn't seem like many people analyze racism, sexism etc. in TV. Recently, there have been posts on Facebook highlighting animated children's shows from the early 1990's. These pictures show the characters in the shows and each show has at least one asain, one black, one girl and a red head. It's funny how none of us realized those differences till now.

Now days, TV digs deeper into issues pertaining to today. Mostly things like gay rights, relationships etc. The show Glee highlights many of the issues faced by teens today. It makes me wonder if these shows are having any affect on the individulas that watch it or if they don't realize the bigger issues. It is amazing to see how TV has morphed and to see what is acceptable and not acceptable on primetime. Are people really analyzing the characters, the actions etc, or are they just watching to escape their own world and taking time out to relax?