Women's Roles As Objects In Music

Women's Roles as Objects in Music

This past week's readings were very interesting to me, largely because I pride myself on being somewhat of a popular culture aficionado, and the role of women in music is an intriguing idea to think about and reflect upon. The article "Greatest Hits: Domestic Violence in Country Music" was an interesting reflection upon women's transition in American country music. When I read it though, it struck me how the reading perceived as though domestic violence is not an extremely important issue still in the United States. The statistics do not lie when we analyze the problem of domestic violence in American society. "Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year." (Domestic Violence) Women's transition from victim to assailant in country music is an interesting reflection of the prevalent attitude through this country against abuse, yet the statistics still show that women are attacked at a far too frequent rate. This past weekend the Dixie Chicks dominated the Grammy's and reinforced the fact that you can succeed as females while still speaking your mind and producing controversial music.

With this success we must consider how much women's rights and opportunities have changed throughout the greater part of this past century. "In 1970 there were no shelters to house battered women throughout the entirety of the United States."(Simon) 37 years later the laws have changed to prevent women from being abused and given them shelter when victimized. Throughout high school I did community service at a battered women and children's shelter in Waltham, Massachusetts. The two years that I spent working at the shelter gave me an interesting perspective on how the women who are victims of abuse cope in their every day lives. While dispensing food to the families I caught snippets of conversation often about how bad the abuse had gotten before these women had come to Sandra's Lodge. We must not fool ourselves into thinking that with restraining orders and mace women are not vulnerable to abuse, and when romantic feelings become involved it changes everything. These women had been abused physically, yet still the attachment to their spouse or boyfriend was somewhat there. Ultimately the article said to me that women's rights are somehow close to equal to that of men's in modern society. Even in this country, which is considered as equalitarian when it comes to women's rights as any throughout the world, women are victimized every day. So when we consider the progress that has been made lyrically in country music, and the gained rights that women have enjoyed in concerns to domestic violence over the past 30 years, we must see the other side of the coin. "Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime." (Domestic Violence) To consider equality, that statistic must change drastically; such is the reality of domestic violence in America.

The transition from women's right towards domestic violence to women's strong messages in music is a relatively easy one to make. While some forms of music such as country have not shifted dramatically in the female and male sex roles, other forms of music, the prime example being hip-hop have had feminist female voices for the better part now of fifty years. The origins of female rappers in hip-hop music certainly come from the female vocalists in blues music that was popular in the 1920's and 1930's. Artists such as Mamie Smith, Ida Cox, Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivy, Lucille Bogan, Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter and later Billie Holiday became some of the brightest blues stars, with artists such as Mamie having some of the first commercial success in blues music. Their music lyrically was free spirited and independent, with talk of love, lust, heartache, and self-confidence. These foundations were paved later for hip-hop to emerge prominently on the national scene, and for female artists to take their own niche within the genre. In the article