Music: a portrait of woman Item Type Thesis Authors Wellman, Amy R. Download date 26/09/2021 08:54:09 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8427 MUSIC: A PORTRAIT OF WOMAN By Amy R. Wellman RECOMMENDED: fa Dr. Peter DeCaro, Chair, Department of Communication APPROVED: Dr. Anita Hartmann, Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts A? Dr. Lawrence Duffy, Dean of the Graduate School 6 , ___________ Date MUSIC: A PORTRAIT OF WOMAN A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Amy R. Wellman, B.A. Fairbanks, Alaska August 2012 iii ABSTRACT Music in today’s society is ubiquitous. It is in the car, the cinema, on television, in the doctor’s office, in the home, on the other end of the phone; it really is everywhere. Music arguably is a large part of culture and as such, has the ability to construct social realities. In hopes to understand how media constructs the image of the female, a contextual analysis was performed on the lyrics of the top twenty-five country and pop songs according to Billboard.com. This was done using Grounded Theory through the employment of coding. Results showed that although country and pop music depict women in a slightly different manner, they both for the most part depict women in traditional gender roles. Furthermore, the propitiation and adherence to traditional gender roles sustain and conciliate patriarchy. Therefore the depictions of women in the music lyrics were then analyzed as processes of patriarchy. iv Table of Contents Page Signature Page ......................................................................................................................... i Title Page .................................................................................................................................. ii Abstract.................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents.....................................................................................................................iv List of Tables............................................................................................................................ x List of Appendices....................................................................................................................x Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................xi Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 Literature Review....................................................................................................4 1.1 Media: The Portrait of Woman..............................................................................4 1.1.1 Music......................................................................................................... 5 1.1.2 Television.................................................................................................. 7 1.1.3 Film ..........................................................................................................10 1.2 Intersectionality in the Representation of Women in the........................ Media 12 1.2.1 Black Women in the Media..................................................................12 1.2.1.1 General......................................................................................12 1.2.1.2 Music.........................................................................................13 v 1.2.1.3 Television..................................................................................16 1.2.1.4 Film............................................................................................17 1.2.2 Native American and Alaskan Native W omen.................................... 18 1.2.3 Latina Women.........................................................................................19 1.2.3.1 Music........................................................................................ 20 1.2.3.2 Film............................................................................................20 1.2.4 Asian Women........................................................................................ 21 1.2.4.1 Television................................................................................ 21 1.2.4.2 Film...........................................................................................22 1.3 Rationale of Study............................................................................................. 23 Chapter 2 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 25 2.1 Grounded Theory................................................................................................ 25 2.2 Method..................................................................................................................27 2.3 Data Collection....................................................................................................29 2.4 Data Analysis....................................................................................................... 30 vi Chapter 3 Results....................................................................................................................33 3.1 Country Music..................................................................................................... 33 3.1.1 Male’s Depiction.................................................................................. 33 3.1.1.1 Country Cutie........................................................................34 3.1.1.2 Family................................................................................... 35 3.1.1.3 The Prop ................................................................................ 35 3.1.1.4 Kryptonite.............................................................................36 3.1.1.5 Liminal Ladies......................................................................37 3.1.2 Females’ Depiction of Self................................................................. 37 3.1.2.1 Heartbroken...........................................................................38 3.1.3 Duets..................................................................................................... 39 3.1.3.1 Virgin.................................................................................... 39 3.2 Pop M usic............................................................................................................ 40 3.2.1 Male’s Depiction of Female.............................................................. 40 3.2.1.1 Gold Digger ..........................................................................40 vii 3.2.1.2 Sex Object.............................................................................41 3.2.1.3 Bad W oman..........................................................................41 3.2.2 Females’ Depiction of Self................................................................. 42 3.2.2.1 Bad Girl................................................................................. 42 3.2.2.2 Empowerment..................................................................... 44 3.2.2.3 Inspirational......................................................................... 45 3.2.2.4 Broken Hearted Bitch........................................................ 45 3.2.2.5 Dynamic Women................................................................. 46 3.2.3 Duets.....................................................................................................46 3.2.4 Emergent Themes................................................................................ 53 Chapter 4 Discussion..............................................................................................................54 4.1 Patriarchy..............................................................................................................54 4.2 Social Construction of Gender............................................................................57 4.3 Traditional Female Gender Roles.......................................................................59 4.4 Emergent Theme.................................................................................................. 60 viii 4.5 Country Music and Pop Music: A Patriarchal Process.....................................61 4.5.1 Processes of Patriarchy......................................................................62 4.5.2. Country Cutie and the Sex Object.....................................................62 4.5.2.1 Beauty Ideals.........................................................................62 4.5.2.2 Sexual Objectification..........................................................64 4.5.3 Family...................................................................................................65 4.5.4 The Prop ................................................................................................66 4.5.5 Kryptonite and the Bad W oman.........................................................67 4.5.6 Heartbroken and the Revengeful/Broken Hearted Bitch..................68 4.5.7 Virgin.................................................................................................... 69 4.5.8 Gold Digger ..........................................................................................70