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Gender and Language Bias in Music

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Grace Hudditon
Gender and Language Bias in Music

The media is the most powerful medium of public communication shaping individual views, opinions, notions, decisions and also creating stereotypes. It contributes a lot to gender discrimination mainly through music videos and television programs. Gender bias and sexist language are visible in media while being utilized as a technique of audience attraction.

The music video under analyses is New Flame by American artists Chris Brown, Usher and Rick Ross. Its title is an example of indirect sexist language targeting women. The term contains a hidden meaning showcasing females as interchangeable accessories used for personal fun. Language is a strong form of sexism mainly affecting women in every aspect of life. “Overt sexism” refers to a sexist language which is clear and unambiguously and distinctively targets women. According to Mills sexist and gender discriminative language is not simple to identify and is, in most cases, hidden. For example, part of the video lyrics is “Girl, I just wanna be the one to do you right, right.” The sentence does not directly indicate a sexist message. However, English language is changing and the use of indirect sexist terms is increasing.

The second issue in the video is the graphical representation of women and men. The females are half naked through the video wearing just bikini suit and exposing half of their chests. Several half naked women also surround each of the three main casts in the presentation. Men are fully dressed fully in a decent manner compared to the females. Graphical representation of women as sexual instruments is a form of overt or direct sexism.

In conclusion, the media uses sexism in language and graphical presentations as a tool to attract public attention. Direct or indirect gender and language discrimination methods in visual and language sexism are utilized with this aim. Stopping media sexism is impossible as it is an accepted part of the society and entertainment industry. However, reforms are possible in the use of sexist language to treat women more decently.

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Grace Hudditon
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