I think that all of what I’ve learned over the past few weeks are issues that need to be addressed by more members of society. I think something that I can realistically do is talk to those around me, friends/family/co-workers etc., and open their eyes to the importance of the –ism’s that I’ve learned. I agree with what Johnson states in the book “A key to the continued existence of every system of privilege is unawareness, because privilege contradicts so many basic human values that it invariably arouses opposition when people know about it.” If everyone can spread that there are many issues of oppression, privilege and misogyny still today and try to push change then I think that’d be a solid start for something to do. I think to affect the people in my sphere of influence I need to show my passion for what I’m talking about and provide solid examples that still exist today. I think if people in our culture can stand up for what is right and speak up when they see a form oppression then that would also help with the effort to end a lot of negativity out there in the world today.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Quick Blog Post #6 Age Segregation
In my social life I encounter people of all different ages but the age group that I see and talk to the least is the elderly. I still talk to younger kids and try giving them advice and what not but the elderly I definitely don’t see as much now that I’m at school. I do wish I had more interactions with elderly people, my moms parents have both passed away so I only have my dad’s parents as my elderly family. I don’t see them all that much just holidays really because they live kind of far away which is unfortunate. I agree that society is segregated based on age and a lot of adults would rather speak with another adult than someone younger. Adults don’t really trust kids all that much and I think have better conversations with each other due to interests etc. so that’s why they typically tend to talk to people in the same age group. Young adults and middle-age adults are advantaged/privileged due to their age because they are viewed as in their “prime period” of life. They are supposed to be at their smartest, and strongest stage of life and its kind of viewed as the desired age range. I think that when people my age work at nursing homes, do big brother/big sister programs, that kind of stuff helps integrate people of all ages. I think that people in our society are realizing that everyone deserves respect regardless of the persons age, and personally I think that our elders deserve the most respect because they are the wisest and have dealt with the most over their life period.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Question N: Activism
I think in order to be a good activist you need to be extremely passionate for whatever it is you are fighting for and believe every word your saying so that people can see how much truth there is to what you are saying. To be a good activist you need to persevere and not back out if the fight gets to hard, stand strong. I think two strong qualities that I can identify with good activism are commitment and persistence. You need to commit to what you are battling and constantly be trying to reach that goal, not saying no for an answer and never say never. Activists fight because they want change in whatever they are fighting for. I think that my favorite activist would have to be Martin Luther King Jr. He is someone that died fighting for what he believed in, he saw the need for change in the world and wanted equality. I think he’s the most famous civil-rights activist and deservedly so. You could just hear it in his voice during his speeches how much he wanted change and showed that he wouldn’t give up no matter what. That is a true great activist.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Question M: Ageism
Robert Butler defines ageism as “A process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old…” I never really had heard to this term before but I definitely see this in our society everyday. People in our culture think that elders are weak, frail, forgetful etc. and these characteristics definitely aren’t the case with all elders. Some older people can do things on their own and some older people need assistance but why do we view them as a burden on us? Everyone gets old so why would we discriminate someone just because of his or her age. It doesn’t make much sense to me. These are our societies oldest people that have lived through the many major events and have seen so many different things so why not take their wisdom rather then view them as a burden. I think ageism has developed more and more over the years because our youth today don’t spend much time with elderly people. I know in past centuries people would always see and talk with elders because communication used to be a key aspect in society but now with cars, phones, tv’s etc. people don’t need to be out socializing to stay entertained. The wisdom from our elders is basically being lost because there’s no one there to even listen. We not only owe these elders but we also owe ourselves to listen and dissect their knowledge because I can almost guarantee you will feel enlightened. I don’t consider myself an ageist because I’d like to think I respect older people and take time to listen to them and the stories they have from all that they’ve experienced during their lifetime. No use discriminating against these fascinating people that have lived through so much history, show them the respect they deserve.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Quick Blog Post #5 Pornography
I read the article “Stop Porn Culture!” and I agree with some of the stuff in the article but I also disagree with some stuff too. In the beginning it says “Do you ever feel overwhelmed by pornography?” No, I definitely don’t, I know if I wanted to find porn I could definitely go online or walk into a store and grab a Playboy or something but its never jumping out at me in my daily life. I agree that there’s an issue with the hardcore material that is both “move overtly cruel toward women and more widely accepted than ever.” The fact that the porn industry is turning into something that degrades women more then before is kind of scary because it already portrays women as sexual objects and with a “hardcore” style that doesn’t make it sound any better. I think that porn culture is bad for young boys especially because it gives them a preconceived notion that porn may not only be ok but that the way women are treated in the videos is ok and something needs to be changed in that facet. I agree with the feminist critique of pornography because a lot of women singing up to be in the porn culture agree to being degraded and stuff and I’m not really sure if they would honestly continue with that career choice if they sat back and thought what image it was putting out there for women.
Question L: Gimp
This video on the Gimp Project was outstanding, I had never previously heard about this and I’m really glad I got to watch it.(www.thegimpproject.com) I never really thought about how someone disabled could dance or if they even did and the gimp project allows everyone to be able to dance. One of the more fascinating scenes in the short movie clip was when the woman missing her legs was dancing with a man and it was them basically like dancing/climbing cloth coming from the ceiling. I thought this was a really beautiful style of dance and it was amazing that someone with a disability such as missing her legs could still do this and make it look basically effortless. This scene shows me that people still shouldn’t be judged and restricted based on their appearance. Give someone an opportunity and see what they can do before you try restricting them, I have to sit back and ask myself, what would I do if someone tried telling me I couldn’t do something solely based on my disability? I know I’d try show people up and show that I could still do anything regardless of the disability.
I think this piece addresses the issues of ableism because it shows that regardless of disabilities, people can still do things if they try to do it. There is no need to discriminate for any reason but especially based on disabilities. The performances in this video such as the dancing shows that there should be no such thing as ableism because everyone is capable of doing something just in their own way, I think that’s an extremely progressive way of thinking and I wish everyone saw all the –ism’s in this sort of light.
In Willie V. Bryan’s article “Struggle for Freedom” there’s a section on lack of concern and I think it’s crazy how Congress doesn’t do anything to really help people with disabilities. People should be given an opportunity to work a job and not be judged because of a disability and I agree with Willie Bryan when he says that Congress needs to help more with that.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Question K: "Trans Woman Manifesto"
I'm someone that never really knew all that much about trans gender women before reading the article "Trans Woman Manifesto" and watching the movie "Beautiful Daughters". They both really opened my eyes to what trans gender women have to go through on a daily basis. In the article, it states what the term transphobia means and I had never heard of this term before, the definition is:"An irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against people whose gendered identities, appearances, or behaviors deviate from societal norms." I think many people in our society today struggle with transphobia and it isn't right at all. People, the media especially, ridicule and despise trans gender women because they aren't viewed as "natural". I think this is crazy and its another topic that i'd never really thought about before, why are they any differen't? why can't they be treated the same? This just shows how people in the world still constantly judge someone based on image and that's something that I hope gets fixed somehow, someday. I think that everyone needs to join together as allies to help fight all of this disrespect that gets thrown at trans genders. Why allow people to look at trans genders as "reasearch subjects"? That's not right and everyone should stand up for that I think.
Process Piece
I did my project on the -ism, sexism. When I looked at the details for the assignment and saw that we had to chose an -ism, I knew that sexism would be perfect. Before taking this class i thought sexism was an issue but not that big of a deal anymore to be honest, but after reading articles, watching videos, and reading the course books, I now realize that sexism still greatly exists within our society today. I wanted to make a video slideshow with pictures about sexism with a rap/song in the background. I think that my video came out pretty good and I'm happy with the song that I came up with. I think I addressed many issues in the song and hopefully it's a good awareness video for men who don't really think about sexism.
Adams, Maurianne. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Hooks, Bell. "YouTube - Bell Hooks Pt 8 Cultural Criticism (rap Music)." Bell Hooks Pt. 8 Cultural Criticism. 10 Dec. 2006. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtoanes_L_g>.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Quick Blog Post #4 Whip My Hair
I think that this song by Willow Smith is pretty cool, never heard of it or seen the music video before this. I had to watch it/ look at the lyrics a few times before I could understand it really but I think it provides a good image for girls. In the song she says to “brush the haters off” and “don’t listen to them haters cuz I whip em off”, “Keep my head up and I’ll be fine”. These are all portions of the song that will provide people with hope especially kids that are being put down in school etc. because it kind of shows kids that they can be their own person and not have to worry what people think. I also think that what Willow is dressed like/her hair style is different then the “norm” which also shows kids that you can do your own things and shouldn’t be judged based on appearance. I don’t think the video is fine really because its not someone like Brittney Spears back in the day just trying to sell sex I don’t think. Willow seems to just be trying to send a message to kids about not giving up if your put down and everything will be fine if you look up and I think that’s great, this seems like it is a new type of hip-hop for kids that provides a positive message that may actually help them out.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Question J: Heterosexism
I chose to read the article “Biphobia” by Marcia Deihl and Robyn Ochs. This article really opened my eyes to the issue of Bisexualism and how these individuals are treated within society. I never realized that some gay and lesbian people don’t accept bisexuals and view sexuality as either heterosexual or homosexual. The example where the author went to a feminist bookstore and the cashier asked if there needed to be a “lesbian discount” and the author responded with “Well, I’m bisexual, so how about half?” The cashier didn’t smile or anything and didn’t give any sort of discount. I found it crazy that there was even a discount solely based on what your sexual orientation but also the fact that the author was half joking and the cashier woman basically didn’t even react to the comment is sad. I would think that the lesbian/gay community would be more accepting to bisexuals then the heterosexual community but in some cases that isn’t necessarily true at all. Also when the author’s friend was active in her lesbian community and fell in love with a man, her lesbian friends didn’t accept her, they rather held a “funeral” for her. How can you consider yourself someone’s friend if you don’t accept them for who they are. I know that no matter who my friends fall in love with, my main concern will always be, will this person make my friend happy? And if the answer to that question is yes then I’m not really sure how you cant accept your friend for who they are.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Question I: Killing Us Softly 3
The video “Killing Us Softly 3” with Jean Kilbourne was a really interesting video and opened my eyes to some differences in gender in the media. I like when she showed the example of women’s breast size for a hair product where the company pointed out all these things that could be wrong with a woman’s breasts and how the hair product will fix this. It’s crazy how marketing people can put women down with all these discrepancies that involve breasts. She showed the Calvin Klein ad with a man basically naked just covering his groin region with a cloth. She said that a lot of people said that marketing people were finally making it equal with bringing men down etc. but she pointed out that it wouldn’t be equal unless it pointed out “your penis may be too small, too narrow, too pale, too pointy or just two inches..but at least you can have a good pair of jeans.” I thought that was a good representation of how men aren’t nearly as scrutinized about their body as women are. Jean also said how she doesn’t want marketing to put men down like that, she just wants it to stop for women.
I also liked when she pointed out the ad with the girl and it saying the more you subtract, the more you add. Its crazy that’s what we teach young girls in this country because its only creating more eating disorders for the young girls in our society. I’ve said this many times before, people need to be judged for who they are and our media is only putting women down and silencing them.
Another ad that Jean showed that involved race was when there was a young black male looking up at a white girl at the beach. She is viewed as bigger solely because of race, when both the boy and girl are white the male is bigger looking down on the girl and is viewed as powerful. Race in marketing shows that race is still an issue and needs to be addressed.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Quick Blog Post #3 Class
1. 1. The fact that I went to a private Catholic High School, St. John’s Prep, definitely is my best example as to why I am/was privileged due to my socio-economic status. It cost money to go to St. John’s and the fact that my parents could afford it shows why I was at more of an advantage then someone from a lower class family trying to go to St. John’s.
2. 2. My parents got divorced later on in my High School years so from that we didn’t have as much money. When I was applying to schools I was restricted to only applying to local state universities in New England. I initially wanted to go to U. Florida but due to our family cutting back I wasn’t able to make that happen.
3. 3. There were a lot of people at my High School from the Upper Upper Class, parents money wasn’t remotely an issue, who drove brand new luxury cars and had their own “rich click” and basically looked down on everyone else just based on class status. It was easy to see how they viewed themselves as superior to everyone else just based on their parents money.
Question H: Religious Oppression
My family and I are all of the Christian faith, I went to a Catholic high school and I grew up going to church basically every Sunday with my brother, mom and dad. Over the years we’ve started going less and less because I’m at college and what not but my brother and mom still attend frequently. I don’t think I necessarily encounter any oppression due to my religion, rather I think that I experience more privilege. Being part of the Christian faith, I get my holidays (Easter, Christmas, etc.) off from school and work. Rarely would I have to work on Sundays and I think that’s one privilege that’s kind of been dissolving over past years in this country. One privilege from Schlosser’s list that I’ve never really thought that much into before was #13 “ I can buy foods (e.g.., in grocery store, at restaurants) that fall within the scope of the rules of my religious group." I’ve never had that problem with food but I know that certain religions such as the Jewish and Muslim faiths follow certain rules when it comes to food. I really feel bad that grocery stores and restaurants don’t offer certain menu’s or sections in the store to cater to these faiths, hopefully in the future people can realize how this oppresses these religions and can fix it soon.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Video Treatment
The –ism that I’ve chosen to base my Digital Video Project on is Sexism. I chose this topic because I think that a lot of men don’t think sexism is an issue any more and I want to show that it’s still relevant in today’s society. I’m going to be writing a short rap song on the issues involving sexism today. I’m not sure exactly what movie maker program I’m going to be using yet but I have iMovie on my computer so I will most likely be using that. For the research aspect of the assignment I plan on using the two course books, the videos we’ve seen and also examples of sexism that we see in the media today (magazines, movies, music). For the timeline, I will be looking up and also observing examples of sexism in everyday life. Along with this I will be looking into magazines, movies, and music. My goal is to show that sexism is something that people deal with everyday and is still quite prevalent in our culture.
Question G: Class
I grew up in a family where I never really have had to worry about how things will be paid for, I have loving parents that tell me that I need to focus on my education and they will figure out the rest. I went to a private catholic high school, St. John’s Prep, and I think that is where I first really realized differences in class. At my high school there was about 80% of students from middle-upper class families living in surrounding suburban areas. The other 20% of students was comprised of kids from lower class families from surrounding cities such as Lowell, Lawrence, Lynn etc.
Our school didn’t have a bus system because it was a commuter school and some students had to drive 30+ minutes to school everyday, but when my school wanted to bring in different classes of students not just middle-upper class students, they started a bus system out of the major city “feeders” to the school. It was kind of sad seeing high school students driving from nearby towns in BMW’s/Mercedes etc. and then seeing these other students come in on a bus. It was basically a divide in the school and if you were on the bus it was just known that you were one of the poorer students at St. John’s. I think that there should have been a carpool system or something like that with students with cars driving students who don’t have them. I just didn’t like how it was set up and yes it gave lower-class students an opportunity to be at a private school but it also made that divide of class and I don’t think that’s right.
I think that this high school experience has opened my eyes to class and also going to school with people from different classes then myself has showed me that you need to base a person on who they are and not just stick within your class. Its really sad when people only hang out with people in the same class because they are clearly not reaching out and taking in people for who they are.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Question F: Jane Elliot's Experiment
The blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment that Jane Elliot conducted in 1968 is extremely controversial. I think that if you look at the ethics of this experiment, you have to realize that it isn’t right to make school children feel this way. These kids were intentionally treated differently to see what it was like to be a black kid in school. When it comes to schooling in this day and age, teachers are required to treat students equally which I completely agree with. It could definitely scar an elementary school kid if they are being treated differently by someone they trust, their teacher. I guess the purpose of the experiment makes sense and the kids learned a valuable lesson, to not treat people differently no matter the color but I think it could have been conducted with older participants and not young kids in their school.
I find this experiment very interesting and its crazy how Jane Elliot one day treated the blue-eyed students to everything they wanted and the brown-eyed the exact opposite and the next day had the students switch roles. I think that in this scenario the ends didn’t justify the means because the students were so young and it may have even affected them in a negative way by putting them through the experiment. It wasn’t necessarily a cruel experiment from what I’ve read because there wasn’t any physical abuse and the only mental abuse you can say that was present in the experiment came when Jane Elliot praised the students with the right eye color for the day.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Article on Racism
Racism in a Newspaper Article
The article I posted above is about a newspaper article from a small town in Minnesota, Lake Crystal, and an extremely controversial "joke" that was written within the article. I couldn't believe this when I read it and it disgusts me how people still think this kind of humor is funny. In no way shape or form is racism a joke and the fact that educated people in charge of publishing a newspaper allowed this to be printed is ridiculous. I think the writer of the article should be fired for this horrible joke. I find it really pathetic how someone comes up with something like this and expects to make money off of it.
The article I posted above is about a newspaper article from a small town in Minnesota, Lake Crystal, and an extremely controversial "joke" that was written within the article. I couldn't believe this when I read it and it disgusts me how people still think this kind of humor is funny. In no way shape or form is racism a joke and the fact that educated people in charge of publishing a newspaper allowed this to be printed is ridiculous. I think the writer of the article should be fired for this horrible joke. I find it really pathetic how someone comes up with something like this and expects to make money off of it.
Question E: Chapter 8 Denial
In Chapter 8 of Johnson’s book, he discusses the fact that denial is a major problem and that denying oppression is essentially denying your privilege. If this happens then it’s getting the privileged groups off the hook because the privileged won’t have to deal with any other issues if they deny oppression. In order for oppression to be solved people need to realize first that there is a problem and when someone is denying that there’s a problem then it makes it really hard to solve something.
I like when Johnson used this example “Racism and sexism used to be problems, but they aren’t anymore.”(p.108), as denial because he couldn’t be more true. I see this basically everyday with privileged people in dominant groups, mostly white middle-upper class, for the most part they don’t view these two -ism’s as issues anymore and think that we as a society have already tackled the problems. People can’t be so blind and it’s ridiculous how people can live in such denial, clearly we as a society have made significant steps in both of these issues but there is obviously still work to be done. In order for any issue to disappear, all members of a society need to be on board and everyone need to work for that end goal where everyone is viewed as an equal.
Something else that I found very interesting in this chapter is when Johnson talked about a woman he once knew who “often remarked with a sense of envy on the qualities black people have had to develop to survive in the face of centuries of racism. She sees in them a strength and depth of soul and feeling that she’d like to have herself.” (p.109) I don’t really understand what this woman’s views are even about, how can you wish to put yourself through what black people in past centuries had to go through. Everything that they went through was horrible and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, and the fact that when the topic of racism came about she’d immediately turn to a list of “black advantages” is mind boggling to me. I don’t see any advantages that can really come through all of the oppression that black people had been put through.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Question D: Stanford Prison Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted to see how good/normal people react and respond when they are placed in an evil/bad situation, in this case a prison. The experiment wasn’t only testing how the prisoners reacted; it also tested the guards that were placed in the prison as well.
I think that the Stanford Prison Experiment is an excellent example of racial difference, racial privilege and racial oppression. It also shows that evil situations can get the best of good people. The guards in this experiment represented power, privilege and were the oppressors, they also can be viewed as the dominant race taking control of all minority races and showing its dominance to those minorities. The prisoners obviously represented the minority races, having no power, no privilege and being the oppressed.
Something else I found interesting was the fact that the prisoners didn’t have names, they were only referred to as a number and the guards still had their names in place. To me this could be representing that white supremacists in the power role have their names in place but when they look down at the minority groups they oppress them and only view them as a number.
When it came to testing good people in an evil situation, I wouldn’t expect the guards that didn’t like what was going on to just not say anything. When the guard John Wayne started to do things to the prisoners that he really didn’t have the power to do such as taking the vote of whether the prisoners would give their mattresses up to get a prisoner out of “the hole” or leave that prisoner in “the hole” for another day and they would keep their mattresses, I couldn’t believe no one stepped in and stopped that. The prisoner didn’t do anything to be put in the hole an extra day but John Wayne felt the need to punish him further and none of the other guards said anything to stop him. I think that people need to stand up for what they believe in and in this case the guards should have stopped John Wayne from what he was doing because they themselves viewed it as immoral.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Lady Gaga, Ke$ha Article
I’ve never really been a big fan of either of these two artists so before reading this article on Lady Gaga and Ke$ha, I never realized that their lyrics had so many hidden messages. I think its kind of cool how these two women are changing the hip-hop/pop industry in a positive way for females. The majority of the time, as the author of this article states, women are depicted only as sex objects for males but because of what Gaga and Ke$ha are doing, women can now give men a taste of their own medicine I suppose. I think it’s bringing an interesting twist to the whole industry and I never really realized that before. I also never realized that these two women meant to seem so provocative as they are for the better of females. I don’t know if this is necessarily a good thing but I guess they are trying to be “modern feminists”. Hopefully at the end of the day they still think men and women deserve to be treated as equals.
Question C: Kimmel Video (Gender Differences)
Growing up as a kid I definitely viewed myself as different from girls and may have even thought of the notion that they are from Venus but as I’ve grown older I’ve realized that men and women aren’t that different from each other. I agree with Kimmel when he says that men and women are in fact much more similar when it comes to traits, and attitudes then they are different. Also the part where he mentioned that men and women should be allies in phases of life is particularly interesting because if men and women keep progressing and realizing they are in fact similar, then it would help with so many issues that are out there today. I feel like once people, men and women, realize they have similar views then gender equality will be achieved because if we all think the same and are entitled to our own opinions then why does there have to be gender differences?
When Kimmel was throwing out the statistic “All a man is really interested in is his career, not his family”, I couldn’t really believe those numbers. Women agreed with that statement 39% in 1970, and 56% in 2005, this seems to be going in the wrong direction to me and when I have a family in the future I know I’m going to set them as my main priority in life. I think that the majority of males now a day feel this way and if anything back 35years ago it was the other way around. Kimmel said that this statistic may be skewed in this direction because women now know their gender and have made their gender visible. I liked his point where he talked about the balance between a woman’s career and the household and said that it’s basically not possible without a husband that balances his career and household as well. I couldn’t agree with this fact any more then I do and I hope that is what my future will be, I aspire to be a quality loving husband/father figure who also has a career where I can support my family and I know my wife will have the opportunity to have her own career along with balancing the household due to what I think is gender equality in this day and age.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Question B: Feminisim
To me, feminism is the movement throughout society to create full equality between all men and women throughout all races, it allows everyone to be on an equal playing field and it eliminates sexism all together. I’d consider myself a feminist because I believe that women deserve the right to be viewed as equal in all facets of life whether it be political, economic, sports etc.
Still today, some men are so ignorant that they think that women should be at their home caring for the children while the men work to provide for their family. I can’t agree with this in the slightest degree because if a woman wants to work, who is to say she can’t? She has that equal right to make her own decisions and go out and work if she wants to. I think our country is definitely taking steps in the right direction when it comes to feminism but there is still work to be done. Having both a presidential and vice presidential candidate in this past election that were female’s just shows that there is advancement in this countries views of equality. There are definitely a lot of issues that are still out there today with certain social views that associate feminists with just being a lesbian movement, or the notion that feminists are women who want to control the world and take all the power from men, “man haters”. These two ideas are crazy to me and I still can’t fully understand how people can truly believe this nonsense.
I think a good example of women still not getting the credit they deserved is in the case of the UConn women’s basketball team. A UCLA Bruins Men’s Basketball program won 88 consecutive games from 1971-1974 and this year the UConn Women’s basketball program beat that Division 1 basketball record and got to 90 consecutive wins. Not many people in the country seemed to give these women the credit that they deserved and constantly put down their record saying that the competition isn’t the same as men and its easier to win 90 games in a row in a women’s sport. This drives me nuts because these women worked so hard to break this record and no one has ever done it before so how can people judge them and say their record isn’t that great. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment and it really bugs me they didn’t get all the credit that should have come their way. Even though a lot of people didn’t give them credit I will say that President Obama personally called the coach of the team to congratulate them which I think was a class act and definitely a step in the right direction.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Question A: Bell Hooks Video
Personally, I’m a 20 year old white male from a suburban area and I definitely enjoy listening to rap/hip-hop music. In my mind there are a few different types of hip-hop music with the mainstream “style” being more about getting money, fighting, drugs and women. The “style” I tend to listen to the most is often a more intellectual type where the artist raps/talks about life and real situations and more often than not, perseverance. Just as Bell Hooks said in the video, the media nowadays attempts to “suck” younger white males into the rap industry because quite frankly, they are typically the people that are paying for these CD’s and the ones watching the music videos.
The issue with the majority of the mainstream music is that it is preaching about all the wrong things and portraying not only women in a negative light but also the black race in general. I don’t necessarily blame these mainstream artists for their music because after all they are trying to make money and this is what the current demand is for. This style could be demanded for because the typical white male may view these artists as outlaws and what not because of what they are saying in their music and in most cases, this is a different lifestyle then the average young white male from a suburban area.
In most cases the people that actually listen to this “mainstream style” that I have mentioned and believe it to be to true are the people that the media and artists are catering to in order to make money. As long as this style is viewed as popular and is selling then the media will continue to push it hard on these youthful males because after all it is a business and morals are for the most part disregarded in order to get that money at the end of the day.
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