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Stereotypically, and in contrast to the opposite sex, women are regarded as passive, emotional, warm, submissive and cooperative.
New York University Press; Thus, this paper aims to link issues of gender, music and globalisation. Salim, a well-respected butcher in Bwaise, saw men and women as complementing each other: Okufumbirwa would only be used to describe a man being married to a woman in a disparaging way Murphy Therefore, music has the potential to act as a medium through which gender relations are negotiated and re articulated.
Another version of femininity present in the music industry is the case of female artists such as Madonna or Britney Spears, portrayed as independent, sexualised, bold, and ambitious women. Yet, both versions of femininity are often not mimicked by their respective audiences. It is important then to distinguish the two main modes of production of globalisation as described by Santos: Martin Stokes concluded that the globalisation of music has maintained hegemonic racial and gendered hierarchies.
There are several reasons for this.
To begin with, the forces of the market are unbalanced. That is, Western music is able to infiltrate and dominate in the developing world while the opposite is less likely to happen. Secondly, the vast majority of musicians performing today are men. Thirdly, musical cultures are compared to one another and ranked according to their origin. Thus, Western music is considered of more importance to multinational music companies and to audiences than, for instance, World Music.
Finally, the globalisation of music by Latin female artists, especially in its visual form, has only exacerbated the sexualisation of Latin women. As a consequence the Latin female in the diaspora became immediately stereotyped as hot and exotic. Although they were Danish citizens they were primarily regarded as Latin women instead of Danish subjects.
Hip-hop began as a pacifist artistic and musical movement against racism in the United States. With time, it has suffered the influence of the markets to become a distinct form of expression. Now, it is often associated with misogynistic and violent values that are massively consumed by global audiences Loots, ; Giovanetti, ; Schneider, ; Shonekan, Evidently, gender struggles in the North differ greatly from gender struggles in the South. In South Africa, for instance, the dominance of American hip-hop in the market has devaluated its native forms and diluted its local messages of struggle.
Thus, the consumption of foreign sexist and capitalist musical forms may prevent native musical forms from flourishing and renders it difficult for local artists to address real societal problems, in particular the ones related to gender. The impact that music has on gender relations on a specific location, and how the latter adapts to it, is then a globalised localism. This impact may take different forms. Ellen Koskoff's study helps to explain how music can influence gender relations in four different ways: These four forms of localised globalism will now be explored and illustrated with the aid of case studies.
Hence, music can reinforce and perpetuate the traditional gender hierarchy.
The 12 Girls Band , from China, is an example of this. Critics of the band claim that the marketing strategy is not based on their musical proficiency but around the sexualisation of their body. This name is strongly related with geishas that, during the Tang Dinasty, served as entertainers to men. Therefore, critics have pointed out that, similarly to the geishas, the 12 Girls Band rely on their visual attractiveness to reap monetary benefits.
The globalisation of music markets has feminised sexual performance to the point that aesthetics become more important than music. As Yang and Saffle concluded, "[w]hen a subservient culture wants to export its artistic products to a dominant culture, it has to adjust its product to meet dominant value systems and aesthetic preferences" ibidem , Therefore, Japanese young women not only idolise cute but also want to become cute.
As a result, instead of investing in their intellectual capabilities, girls and young women build their strength in being weak and relying on their looks. These case studies have shown that the localised globalism have assimilated and adapted to the globalised localism. In other words, outside influences such as Western music, videos have been not only accepted but also reproduced.
However, there are also cases where there has been resistance to globalised localisms.
Because music is inherently linked to culture, then, by maintaining the gender roles and consequently the social order, cultural values and national ideals are perpetuated. It is possible to see North American hip-hop, Taiwanese rap or even Irish alternative music in succession. The conflation of different messages on music videos on TV has brought the Chinese identity into question.
Therefore, the hyper-sexualised subjectivity present in videos from Western cultures has not only been seen as threat to traditional cultural practices but also as a threat to national identity. In order to reaffirm national identity, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television limited the broadcast of Western music videos.
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Thus, she suggests that the feminine is often a barometer from which it is possible to deduce how far a culture has been influenced by Western paradigms. In this way artists resort to music which convey hidden messages that are not directly understood by the hegemonic force. However, as the messages are hidden, they are unable to make a relevant impact and therefore are unable to change the foundations of the gender division.
According to Heather Maxwell , her songs are about common challenges that youth and women face in contemporary urban life; in finding a balance between wanting and demanding individual freedom of choice. However, she is only understood that way by her international audiences. To the Malian patriarchal hegemony she seems to be singing traditional wedding songs, when in fact she is addressing messages of contestation of gender roles to girls and young women.
That is, while in Mali, she is acknowledged as popular wedding singer, in West Africa she symbolises an independent and free woman, and in the United States she is known as a feminist champion. As Maxwell concluded, it is not so much about changing the social order. In addition, it is through music that they are also able to establish themselves as economically and socially independent women. All in all, it was Western audiences i.
She took advantage of this connotation to advance her social and economic status. In this category music contains open messages of criticism and directly attacks gender assumptions in society. The colonial city of Leopoldville, in Congo, is an example of how music was a platform to tackle gender inequalities.
In , women were not allowed in the urbanised cities. They were confined to rural activities by both the colonisers and their male counterparts. In addition, the colonisers viewed Congolese men as having the potential to become civilised while women were constantly ostracised. Women were also denied social and economic opportunities such as employment and education in the city.
At that time, prostitution was the only way for women to enter and remain in the city. However, due to developments in Congolese popular music, women found a way to balance the inequality in gender relations. This concession made possible for women to embrace music as a form of protest against their oppressors. Their music mobilised more women to engage with their struggle without the risk of punishment as native forms of music were not under colonial control; Congolese women would sing in Lingala rather than French.
Gradually, women became owners of small and illegal social clubs to where men would go in adulation to their performances and their bodies. Their musical performances changed the gender balance in three ways. First, music was no longer exclusively performed by Congolese and European men. Second, Congolese women were able to have multiple partners; a practice that was illegal to them at the time. They took this as an opportunity to create competition between possible suitors and therefore advance their social and economic status. Cite this Email this Add to favourites Print this page.
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