Gender Stereotypes In Pop Culture

Throughout time, Americans have suffered from gender stereotypes imposed upon them by popular culture. Famous figures including the dainty sex-icon Marilyn Monroe or the imposing paragon of masculinity, Arnold Schwarzenegger have long been the epitomes of the ideal woman or man. In the age of Spotify and Youtube where popular music is widely accessible, music icons such as pop queen Beyonce and “rap god” Eminem have a large influence on American culture. American music culture negatively affects adolescents by perpetuating gender stereotypes through the objectification of women and the toxic promotion of domestic violence, drugs, and alcohol. The music industry’s negative influence on the perception of women has drastically increased since the creation of the music video. The majority of music videos include women “solely for male pleasure and to be controlled in line with men’s desires.”(Dreamworlds 3: Desire,
Women are seen as either deserving of punishment or shown to enjoy being physically or sexually abused. Various artists sing or rap about women that are “conniving, scheming, sexual objects deserving of violent retribution for simply being females.” (Cobb et al. 4) For instance, in Eminem’s song “Kill You,” he raps, “Slut, you think I won't choke no whore til the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more?!” In addition, a study which explored the effect of heavy metal music with sexually violent or nonviolent lyrics on males’ perceptions of women revealed that “those exposed to heavy metal music, with either sexually violent or nonviolent lyrics, showed significantly more negative stereotyped attitudes toward women than those in a group instead exposed to classical music.”(Gonza´ lez de Rivas 1490) Men are portrayed as dominant in relationships through violence which causes males to believe that they can and should gain control of their partner through