Music Videos Imagery and Lyrics

Girl In A Country Song - Maddie & Tae

Girls/Girls/Boys - Panic! At The Disco

The music video of "Girl in a Country Song" by Maddie and Tae uses numerous lyrical methods of transforming gender ideologies.  Maddie and Tae are explaining to the audience how girls are not getting "treated like ladies" and are being disrespected by the male population.  The artists start the song off by singing, "I hate the way this bikini top chafes, Do I really have to wear it all day?"  The stereotypical gender role of a woman in a country song is to wear skimpy clothing, act in a promiscuous way, and be the man's sexual desire.  However, in this song, Maddie and Tae want to wear comfortable, "real" clothes, and not the typical tight bikini top.  Moreover, the women are explaining to the audience that they have a name and a purpose within their lyrics.  The lyrics state, "'Cause I got a name and to you it ain't 'pretty little thing', 'hottie', or 'baby'" which challenges the gender role of the men always initiating a flirtatious comment to women.  In addition, the lyrics describe how the girls are only good for looking good for the boys and their friends on the weekend and how respect has diminished since the past.  Maddie and Tae are challenging the gender ideology of women simply just looking good for men; they want to be equals with men, wear what they want, and not be treated like a subordinate.  

            The visuals in the video challenge gender ideologies as well. Throughout the video, a girl is shown hoeing a garden like a farmer would do.  This goes against the stereotypical gender role for a woman because women are not usually seen as farmers but rather doing chores within the household.  The video zooms on a sign that says, “Role Reversal,” and then captures three boys dressed in crop tops, one of them being pink, jean short shorts, and tall leather cowboy boots.  The boys are walking in a way that would be considered a “girl walk” by walking with their hand on their hip.  Maddie and Tae are trying to challenge gender ideologies by putting the boys in the video in a girl’s perspective.  After the boys arrive to the scene, Maddie slaps one of the boys’ butts. A boy usually does the slapping of a girl’s butt because the gender role of a boy is to initiate sexual desires. Other scenes throughout the video show gender reversal, such as a boy eating a strawberry in a sexy way, three boys washing a car and rubbing bubbles on their legs to act like a woman, and a boy posing on a swing with his butt poked out to the side.  All of these visuals are reversing the gender role of women and men, because women are typically the ones to show sexuality.

            The second music video is “Girls/Girls/Boys” by Panic! At The Disco.  This music video shows gender role reversal within its lyrics and visuals as well.  The entire video captures the frontman Brendon Urie completely naked, but the camera does not go past his genitals.  Brendon Urie has a very frail, slender body, which goes against a male’s stereotypical gender role of being tough and muscular.  Urie also rubs his hands through his hair multiple times throughout the video.  Some might suggest that the hand through the hair is not portraying the gender role of a man and more towards a woman’s.  Urie sings, “Girls love girls and boys, and love is not a choice.”  This statement goes against the gender ideology of women having intimate relationships with only men.  The video suggests that Urie is open to homosexuality and bisexuality. 

Feminist and Critical Race Theories of Popular Culture Summary

            This article was very interesting to read as it sheds light on the different viewpoints of popular culture when it is linked to gender and race. It was very eye opening to see how differently people can view something as simple as a television show on TV solely due to their gender, and even what class they occupy in society. Depending on the type of television show being aired, working class women could relate more readily to some TV shows compared to the middle class, and vise versa. This was a valid point that was made in the article because depending on each individual woman’s lifestyle, they can only relate to such things that they have or have the opportunity to personally experience. This reflects on what each class has access to due to the income of their employment. As said in the article, working class women have trouble relating to soap operas because they have not experienced nor have the access to experience many scenarios that take part in such a show. They are very dramatic and usually play out the most theatrical scenarios possible, which is the main reason working class women cannot relate.

            Another interesting fact that arose was when the article mentioned the TV show, The Cosby Show which touched on the role of race when linking perspectives of popular culture. Although this show reached out more to the black society, it was popular amongst both racial groups as a middle class, black family working towards the American Dream, which can be inspirational and lure in many types of audiences. However, the article states, “In Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream, Halley and Lewis (1992:50) report that white viewers saw a black family, whereas black viewers saw a black family” (Kim 16). This was particularly noteworthy because this suggests that white people live in a world where skin color does not exactly jump out at them, compared to other races such as the black community. As the article goes on to explain, the white community does not see racism as a social issue any longer and are more likely to be what some may call, “color-blind.’ The black community on the other hand, enjoyed this show because it emphasized the black family. The focus was more on the race rather than the purpose of the show. This portrays self-blame when it comes to some race issues in society. A large reason why some of these issues still seem to exist can be linked to the fact that the black community sometimes looks for this racial stimulation, even if race wasn’t supposed to be emphasized. This article opened my mind to varying perspectives on popular culture according to race, gender, and the class in which the individual occupies.

YouTube, I Tube, We All Tube

Keith Whitley & Earl Thomas Conley - Brotherly Love

Brotherly Love by Gigi Gorgeous

Both of the YouTube links above are representations of the notion, "brotherly love." The first link is the stereotypical brotherly love video, while the second link defies the gender role of a brother.  In the first video, the two brothers are participating in activities such as bike riding and playing baseball, which are activities usually associated with the role of a young boy.  On the other hand, in the second video, the two brothers, Cory and Gigi, do not participate in the same activities.  This is because Gigi is a biological male but plays the gender role of a female.  While Cory enjoys watching television shows such as Man vs. Food and the San Diego Chargers games, Gigi enjoys watching the show America's Next Top Model.  Moreover, Gigi is dressed in the way a woman would dress.  He is wearing a black blouse with bracelets on his wrist, while Cory is wearing a plaid button down shirt with no jewelry. Gigi also wears makeup and paints his nails.  In the first video, both brothers are dressed in the same way; they are wearing baseball caps, jeans, plaid sweaters, and suits with bowties.  In the second video, the gender role of a female is represented through a biological male. Although the first video has two males that identify as males and the second video has two males that identify differently, both videos show the love that they have for each other.

The target audience for the second video is for teenagers and young adults who identify differently than stereotypical societal genders, such as the LGBTQIA community. People who are feeling vulnerable about their identities and looking for acceptance, especially in the family dynamic, would be responsive to this video. Straight males may possibly not find this video entertaining and may even feel uncomfortable.  I believe this media channel is effective in reaching that audience because YouTube is very popular among the young adult population. The target audience for the first video is for middle-aged country music fans. Middle-aged individuals may not be as active on YouTube as younger generations.

In Elena Bertozzi’s “You Play Like a Girl!” Cross- Gender Competition and the Uneven Playing Field, she addresses how there is a lack of female engagement in digital gaming and how gender stereotypes affect how males and females play the games.  The gender differences in digital play are a consequence of the genders inability to cross traditional, culturally gendered routines.  Most digital games have aggressive and heroic looking male avatars while the female avatars are not as common in the games with slender, blond, and beautiful characteristics.  Women tend to stay away from the playing field with men because of the men’s aggressive and violent behaviors.  Bertozzi suggests that the difficulties within the playing fields can be overcome if the concept of play eliminates any discrimination, bias, or advantage outside of the playing field.  She also suggests that the digital game designers should increase the number of female players and female avatars, reinforce the idea that strong, competitive, aggressive females can be sexually desirable, and normalize cross-gender play by making it common and fun. 

            Bertozzi also addresses how males and females interact toward each other during sporting activities.   The women during the games are not only concerned with how well they are playing the game but also how attractive they look while playing.  Men are more overtly competitive and their competitiveness is rewarded by status.  Women tend to show their aggression by verbal harassments and social shunning.  Women achieve status by beauty and attractiveness to males while men achieve status by their strength and physical abilities.

            In conclusion, our society today should focus more on what is in the inside of a person and not his or her physical appearances.  Women deserve to be treated equally and should not have to fear when coming in contact with a male during a competitive event.  I agree with the author that more female avatars should be placed in the digital gaming world and that the female characters should not have the stereotypical attributes of a “female.”  Moreover, females should be able to equally compete with all males whether it is a contact sport or a board game.