The Sociologist Series: Feminism and Women in Music

For a long time now more and more women have been making their way onto the charts and have been winning big time at award shows for music. Despite this growing representation of women in this section of the media, is there an institutionalised sexism in the music industry?

The first thing I should mention is that I am not in any way musically inclined, I only listen to what's on the radio and I am a massive mainstream pop fan because I love singing and dancing and that genre is easy to listen to, sing to and dance to, but I feel like for this topic it is the only section of music that is a necessity for me to look at as this is the music that every generation will hear when they are driving in their cars, shopping, or just watching tv.

The first female artist I want to look at is Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj is, perhaps, the most successful female rapper in history, for this reason she gets a lot of negative comments. Your basic "She can't sing" "So much autotune" "She's not as good as [insert male rappers name here]", but she also gets called a "bitch" for demanding respect from those around her and she is called a "slut" because apparently she is fucking every other male artist out there. This is the kind of abuse that someone like Drake or Lil' Wayne or Eminem would never suffer from. (Literally the only male artists I can name off the top of my head) They don't suffer this kind of abuse because if they slept with multiple women or had them gyrating against them in music videos (which they do) they are players, they are male role models. If one of them demands respect they are given the respect they crave. Nicki isn't. And Nicki knows that. In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzGZamtlRP0) she talks about the sexism against her in the industry she has chosen to go into. (I will not be mentioning the recent spat with Taylor when talking about Minaj's career and experiences as a woman because Minaj's problem was not about gender, it was about body image and race)

However, speaking about Taylor Swift we can mention this spat. In case you haven't heard Minaj
tweeted about the unjust nominations for the VMA's Music Video of the Year. Minaj's Anaconda was snubbed for the award despite it breaking multiple records and influencing our culture. After she tweeted Taylor Swift took it personally and basically called it "girl on girl hate" which was, frankly absurd. For a long time now Taylor Swift has done well in promoting feminism and she has been making massive strides for female success, but she jumped the gun a bit calling Nicki out on something that was never directed towards her in the first place. Minaj is not one to shy away from conflict and if she wanted to call Swift out, she would have just done it. This is an excellent example of White Feminism forgetting that some matters are just specific to black women or minority women and that's not something that should be a problem for white feminists. If anything support black feminist and minority group feminists in their bid to end racism and sexism.

That being said, Taylor did realise her mistake, Taylor apologised publicly and privately and she and Nicki are friends again and I for one would love to see a collaboration between the two.

The last thing I want to address is the way women are treated in music videos. The most obvious example of absolutely disgusting and vile treatment of women in a music video is Blurred Lines. Not only is the song about rape and ignoring the word "no" or absence of the word "yes", the women are also naked in the explicit version of the music video and are treated like props. It's not just pop music that treats women like this either. Hip Hop and Rap has not always been a place where women are used as props, but recently Black women in particular seem to be treated as sexual objects for men to grope or oggle at. This is just not right, but more props have to be given to the women who are slaying the music industry like Minaj, Swift, Beyonce, Fifth Harmony etc. they all manage in one way or another to ignore or even speak up against all the body shaming and sexualising of themselves and they are all winning so many awards and showing the world that women can do it too.

There is so much more I could address, but I think that's enough for today.

As always feel free to comment your own opinion below,

Until next time,

Stephanie

UK Election Results 2k15

WARNING: This post contains A LOT of brackets and I mean A LOT!

Right, so I know I have a few readers who are not from the UK so this might not be as easy to understand for you so just this once you get the excuse to not read this... BUT if you do want to know about the problems facing Britain right now then stay tuned because it is about to get ugly up in here.

In the UK we have two major parties: Conservatives and Labour. In their most basic forms Conservatives (The Tories) are a party for the wealthy and Labour are a party "for the people". During the 2015 elections David Cameron was the leader for the Conservatives (And he still is) and Ed Miliband was the leader for Labour (Miliband has since stepped down). Other parties involved were the SNP (Scottish National Party: Leader Nicola Sturgeon) who can't actually be in charge of UK politics because of their "national" status. UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party aka one policy party to be strict on immigration aka "the Racists") The Greens (Probably the one I identify the most with they are the most liberal, but again on the surface appear to be one policy in that they are very much pro-environment) Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) Let's be honest they weren't as important this year. And then some other Independent ones and some Welsh and some Irish ones... ceebs go into it.

Now you know the basics I will launch into my many rants which I will title so you don't have to read the ones you aren't interested in.

VOTING SYSTEM

In the UK we have a system called "First Past the Post". Under this system we vote for who we want to represent our area (constituency) and whoever gets that majority becomes a seat for their party in the House of Commons. E.g. in my constituency (Eastbourne) we have had Stephen Lloyd as our MP (Member of Parliament) for the past five years, this year Conservatives won by just over 700 and so Caroline Ansell is now our MP. Her MP-hood becomes 1 seat for the Conservative Party. The party with the majority of seats (326 as there are 650 constituencies in the UK) wins the election. SIMPLE! But, alas, this is an unfair way of going about it.

Below is a chart showing you how many people voted for which parties in the UK:

This is how many seats these parties won... SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!

This is how many seats would be given under PR (Proportional Representation) this seems a bit more fair... no?:

I personally don't think PR works all that well. It is more difficult to get a majority vote especially when it comes to making decisions after a "winner" is declared (In this case it would still be Conservatives, but I'll save that rant for later) HOWEVER, I still think it is closer to the sort of politics I want to see than that of FPTP as it gives a chance to parties like the Greens to have their say in what happens to our country. They get the chance to make a difference!

And I'll just sit here and imagine your "But what if UKIP" arguments. Yes, FPTP mostly kept UKIP out of Parliament this year, but THIS ISN'T DEMOCRACY!!! UKIP are awful, I disagree with everything they stand for, but they got the votes and their voters deserve the right to have their voices heard! It's simple democracy. (Plus they might be able to finally see how bad the party actually is)

I hope this helps you to see how flawed our current system is.

CONSERVATIVES vs LABOUR 

A hashtag that has been trending, and I have shared and partaken in this hashtag, is the #ToriesOutNow tag. This is trending in light of demonstrations and petitions against another 5 years of the buttcrack of parliament that is the Conservative Party. And I know I've been discreet, but yes, I do not like the Tories. I feel their policies are very much in favour of the 1% and the fact they want to privatise and sell our NHS is not good (I happen to like the NHS despite it's problems.) But... If I was to try and be as unbiased as possible I would have to disagree with the hashtag. Whilst I do not like the Tories, either way you look at it they got the majority vote. Even through the more favourable PR.
In this section I want to discuss how they won over that majority.

Playground Politics.

They basically made a mockery out of Ed Miliband by posting front page news with full page blown up pictures of him eating a sandwich in an, admittedly, poor way. They slated every move he made! As well as this they used the SNP and possible maybe coalition with Labour as a fear tactic and, because the Tories own about 70% of UK newspapers, it worked. They successfully bullied the people of Britain into voting for them.

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE

The most important thing we can do over the next few weeks is keep talking about it! Keep protesting this system that allows room for oppression and bullying and immature politics. In the long term, if this doesn't work out, the best idea I can fathom for those who aren't planning on leaving the UK and starting an underground DJ group in Berlin (Like me and my friends Shannon, Rachael and Eric are planning on doing... We'll be called Holy Trinity feat. Steph incase you were wondering) the best idea I can think of, when all hope is lost and protesting is no longer happening, is to just sit tight, hope we as a country can get through this and, once it is over, in 5 years time, we can regroup and try to start something new.


I hope.


As always, comment below and let me know what you think and ask me any questions, stay open minded.

Steph

Long Time Coming: Institutionalised Racism

This blog post, which I present to you today has been a long time coming, and I hope you can leave feeling more educated on a matter that is, quite frankly, disgraceful.

I am, of course, talking about the Ferguson case where a white cop has shoot down a black teenager and has managed to get away with it scot free and the Eric Garner case where, once again, a black teenager has been killed by a brutal attack at the hands of a man who is supposedly in charge of the safety of American civilians and has suffered no consequence.

First we'll deal with the facts.

FERGUSON CASE

The only real statement received by the officer in question, Darren Wilson, obviously describes the situation as a direct threat to his own safety. He says that he was just trying to chase up a report he had received about a robbery. The report described two black teenagers wearing hoodies. Nothing else was said apparently, so this was all he had to go on.

Darren Wilson says he had requested of them both to stop on the sidewalk so he could question them, but the victim, Mike Brown got very angry with this and started hitting Wilson. Wilson describes him as looking like a "demon". Wilson, fearing for his life, took out the "Only weapon suitable" and fired shots. He states that there were some blanks fired first before a bullet was fired into Brown. All through this Brown was trying to take the gun from Wilson.

Once Brown had started running (after having been shot once in the chest) Wilson followed, deciding to keep an eye on him in case he was responsible for the robbing. When Brown entered an alley and turned around Wilson described Brown as looking very aggressive and he shot again and again until the fatal shot was fired into Brown's skull.

White Police Officer Darren Wilson characterized black teenager Michael Brown as a Demon. This is very significant. It reveals the unconscious racist mindset of the police officer. The devil is a demon; he is black. As such police officer Wilson feels justified in killing Michael Brown. The unconscious mind of Wilson reveals the intentions. The killing of Michael Brown was a racist act.

Tiffany Mitchell, who was picking up a colleague to go to work, said she saw some of the confrontation. Wilson and Brown were "tussling through the window." "It looked as if the kid was pulling away and the officer was pulling him in." "A shot was fired through the window."

 

Piaget Crenshaw, Mitchell's co-worker, said she saw what happened from her apartment while waiting for Mitchell: "The officer was just trying to pull him into the vehicle – that's just what it looked like."

"The cop gets out of his vehicle shooting," Mitchell said. "(Brown's) body jerked as if he was hit from behind, and he turned around, and he put his hands up. ... The cop continued to fire until he just dropped down to the ground, and his face just smacks the concrete."

 

Crenshaw: "He started chasing after the boy. I'm hearing shots fired ... one did graze him. ... At the end he just turned around ... and then was shot multiple times."

 

These accounts, along with those supplied by the other teenager present highlight the severity of this case and, if nothing else, the case should have been investigated further by the court, but it wasn't and the fact remains, the police officer Darren Wilson, was let off too easily with no repercussions whilst one family has to grieve the loss of a son with no comfort that justice has been served.

 

ERIC GARNER

 

Eric Garner was caught by the police attempting to break up a fight that occurred in New York. When the police confronted him he spoke back, tried to defend himself from their verbal attack against him, but Garner was not willing to let himself be pushed around when he knew he was in the right. The police, who are there to "protect and serve" were not happy with this and place Garner in a choke hold after slamming a knee into his neck and repeatedly bashing his head against the wall.

 

Garner, who was by no means a man in excellent shape, repeatedly told the officers, "I can't breathe!" but they didn't listen, they continued to hold him and choke him until Garner eventually died after a cardiac arrest. This unprovoked attack could have been avoided if the police hadn't been so offended that a black man, who was doing no wrong, decided to defend his rights.

 

Garner did not resist the choke hold at any point during the confrontation and all he could do whilst more than 5 officers pinned him down was beg for help... He did not receive this.

 

This case has less grey area than the Ferguson case. Eric Garner was wrongfully murdered by the police force in New York and as a man with 6 children and 2 grandchildren plus an entire nationality scared to go out on the streets, I have to ask myself, what has our world come to?

 

At the end of the day, there is no way for me to ever truly understand the level of oppression that black people are feeling as of now, but I can certainly say without a doubt that I m ashamed to say that my nationality is still not over this discrimination that has haunted our world for generations and I can only hope that by never forgetting what has happened and by standing up to racism seen in every day I can help the world we live in progress further. Because black lives do matter and everyone deserves the right to breathe.

 

If you have any questions or disagree with any of my points then please feel free to comment,

 

Until next time,

 

Stephanie