Music & Gender

It's no secret that there is a certain expectation for the kind of music a woman makes, and the kind of music a man makes. This expectation plays into misogyny, gender roles, sexism, and much more problematic matters. But why is that? A lot of the time when a woman releases music that empowers themselves and other women, it is bashed and deemed inappropriate or "unladylike". Because of social norms and issues I mentioned earlier such as sexism and misogyny, women are not as encouraged in comparison to men to express themselves freely. Men are encouraged and even praised for their music that may include vulgar language and objectification of women. Growing up, I wasn't familiar with the differences in expectations from men and women specifically in music. A song was a song and the fact that it was either from a man or a woman wasn't of importance. As I got older, I noticed that a lot of people ridiculed and bashed music from women that was even slightly off from what was expected. Music that is soft and cheery, is what is expected from women. Women tend to be bashed for expressing their individuality, emotions, making rock music, making rap music, being confident, and much more. 

"Confident" by Demi Lovato is a key example of a song that illustrates women's empowerment. There are multiple lyrics throughout the song that are a direct jab at the stigma of what women "should be" or in this case, what women's music should contain. A few lyrics from the song that highlight this are, "I used to hold my freak back, now I'm letting go", "So you say that I'm complicated, that I must be out of my mind, but you have me underrated", "what's wrong with being confident?". These lyrics all correlate with the points I have previously made about the expectation of the kind of music women should make, women putting emotion in their music, and women being confident and expressing their individuality.

It makes me happy that in this day and age we can have conversations about the obvious difference in what is accepted from female artists and what is accepted from male artists and point out what's wrong with it. Of course, some things are just never going to be accepted by certain people but we have come a long way in comparison with past decades. Music like, "Confident" by Demi Lovato is really important especially in young women's lives so they can see that being themself and confident about it is okay no matter what society is going to tell them. 

It makes me happy that in this day and age we can have conversations about the obvious difference in what is accepted from female artists and what is accepted from male artists and point out what's wrong with it. Of course, some things are just never going to be accepted by certain people but we have come a long way in comparison with past decades.