Kandamkulathy 1

Ajay Kandamkulathy

Ms. Gonzalez

ENC 1102

March 31, 2024

Literature Review

My research is about the misogyny that is presented in the controversies behind female

explicit music which include the double standards between explicit lyrics as well as how societal

expectations that are placed on women affect what is expected from female artists. All of my

sources (so far) are online journal articles and four of the five articles are from JSTOR, a digital

library, and one of the five articles was found on Google Scholar. I will be using these sources to

provide an explanation toward the double standard in the controversy found in the explicit music.

I will most likely include them by explaining the information found in certain articles and using

information included in the articles (for example: the theory of gender performativity) to explain

the thought process behind the individuals who contribute to the double standard, including the

fandoms and people behind the scenes of the music industry. Traditional gender roles influence

the controversy behind songs made by female artists due to the power imbalance that has been

created over the years from the male domination that has occurred in many music genres.

Despite the rising percentage of mainstream female artists, the power imbalances have caused

the expectations for women in music to be a lot more modest in comparison to men, creating a

double standard that creates irrational scrutiny for female artists who do not conform to the

standards set by men.

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The first source that I use is a journal article titled “Subversive Ludic Performance: An

Analysis of Gender and Sexuality Performance in Digital Games” by Kilian Biscop et al. This

article discusses the video game industry and the rise of performative diversity due to high

requests of more female representation in video games (Biscop 24-25). However, with the games

still ultimately being controlled (direction-wise) by men, there is a large amount of hyper-

sexualization in female characters (Biscop 25). This hyper-sexualization is also due to the large

male audience of these games and the creators need to cater to them as opposed to their minority

demographic (Biscop 25). The second source that I use in my paper is titled “I Sing of Misogyny

and Sexual Assault: Rape Culture in Contemporary American Pop Music”, where Chloe Cable

discusses the lack of sex education in our childhoods and how it contributes to the normalization

of male artists degrading women and talking about raping them (sleeping with them without

consent) (Cable). The third article I use in my paper is titled “Media/Visual Literacy Art

Education: Sexism in Hip-Hop Music Videos” by Sheng Kuan Chung. The main idea of this

source is his explanation of various elements of sexism that are included in hip-hop music

videos. He discusses the theory of gender performativity, introduced by Judith Butler, which is

the idea that the gender binary “reinforces the differences and inequality of the sexes in society”

(Chung 36). He also discusses feminist rap and how it challenges the misogynistic ideas

perpetrated in the male-dominated genre of hip-hop. The fourth source used in my research paper

is “Music and Misogyny: A Content Analysis of Misogynistic, Antifeminist Forums”, which is a

journal article by Sam de Boise which talks about the misogyny that takes place in multiple

genres of music which include rap, rock, and heavy metal. Boise uses research from different

time periods to include studies/examples to show selective outrage that men have over music

made by female artists through MAMs (misogynistic antifeminist movements) (de Boise). The
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fifth source that I use is the article “Journal of the American Musicological Society” by

Katharine Ellis. This article is about the rise of female pianists that takes place in the mid 19 th

century and how there were societal pressures to perform in styles similar to males, which

created either a lost in personal artistry for some artists or the other artists being ostracized

(Ellis). The final scholarly source that I use is “Epilogue: THE END OF ‘WOMAN’?” by Lillian

Faderman which uses various articles written about women to talk about the controversy in being

a woman who does something that is seen outside of the gender expectation, such as being a

politician (Nancy Pelosi) or singing explicit song lyrics (Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion)

(Faderman 415-416).

Each article talks about some form of misogyny/sexism in an industry that has a minority

demographic of women. They also talk about the men who contribute to this system, including

listeners and people behind the scenes. Both articles “Media/Visual Literacy Art Education:

Sexism in Hip-Hop Music Videos” and “Music and Misogyny: A Content Analysis of

Misogynistic, Antifeminist Forums” focus on the misogyny in the various music fandoms. They

also both focus on the modern misogyny presented in modern controversial songs. However,

while the former exclusively includes examples/talks about the genre of hip-hop, the latter article

discusses multiple different genres (however includes hip-hop). Another difference is that the

former also talks about music videos, and the various elements included in them (props, actions,

settings, etc) while the latter does not. Similarly, “Journal of the American Musicological

Society” also talks about misogyny in a music fandom (mid 19th century piano) as well as mainly

focuses on one genre, a quality shared with “Media/Visual Literacy Art Education: Sexism in

Hip-Hop Music Videos.” However, unlike the other two articles, “Journal of the American

Musicological Society” does not focus on modern music and neither does it focus on music with
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words in it therefore not analyzing song lyrics, which is a difference that this article has with “I

Sing of Misogyny and Sexual Assault: Rape Culture in Contemporary American Pop Music”

which explicitly focuses on song lyrics. Unlike the other articles, “I Sing of Misogyny and

Sexual Assault: Rape Culture in Contemporary American Pop Music” focuses on male artists.

This article focuses on the rapey nature of some popular male songs and how it has been

normalized and along with “Media/Visual Literacy Art Education: Sexism in Hip-Hop Music

Videos” both call out the men who make music that contributes to the misogynistic nature of the

music industry that causes women to receive unnecessary backlash.

One strength in the article “Epilogue: THE END OF ‘WOMAN’?” is that it includes two

reviews of the song “WAP”, which is one of the songs that I will be using as an example in my

paper. These reviews and their purpose in the article can help me counter the critics who

believed the song was about being “shameless” or terrible people, as the author explains the

theme of “female empowerment” and women being the “subjects of their own desires” and the

review overall shows how the message in music can be subjected and one’s opinion does not

define the message of a song (Faderman 416). On the other hand, it also holds the weakness that

it does not focus on the music industry explicitly or even just one industry which can cause

confusion in its overall message. One weakness in the article “Subversive Ludic Performance:

An Analysis of Gender and Sexuality Performance in Digital Games” is that it does not focus on

controversies surrounding explicit music made by women. However, it does focus on how

formerly male-dominated fandoms contribute to the misogyny for women creators (Biscop et al

23). It also discusses the male domination that goes on behind the scenes when making the

product (video games) and how the lack of diversity harms the female creators who do

implement diversity in their product(s) (Biscop et al 25). One quality that can be seen as both a
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strength and weakness is the fact that with the genre being mid 19th century piano music in the

article “Journal of the American Musicological Society” which is not a modern genre. While it

can be seen as a weakness as not only do the songs not have lyrics that were analyzed in the

article but the backlash that the female artists received is not completely similar to the modern

controversy that women in the music industry face, the information in this article is useful for

illustrating patterns from different generations of music and shows the evolution of misogyny in

the reactions by the audience toward the work of women in the music industry. In addition, a

strength in the article “Media/Visual Literacy Art Education: Sexism in Hip-Hop Music Videos”

that will help me with my research paper is that it discusses music videos and the elements and

themes that are shown in them. This will help me as one of the components of my paper will be

analyzing music videos and the elements in them.

When finding sources for my research paper, I was able to find sources that each

discusses the misogyny in various industries as well as the controversies that follow it. While not

every one of my sources will be able to answer how the theme of misogyny is present in

controversies surrounding explicit music made by women, I will use each source to provide an

overall explanation of how misogyny is present in those controversies. Each source provides a

different outlook and uses different elements to create different backgrounds that provide

research towards answering my research question. Some information that I have learned that will

be important in using for my research paper is the harmfulness of performative diversity and that

in the article “Subversive Ludic Performance: An Analysis of Gender and Sexuality Performance

in Digital Games.” While it claims to have an intention of providing representation to women, a

minority demographic in video games, its attempt to cater to both male and female audiences due

to creators having a large male audience results in the hypersexualization of female video game
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characters which ends up causing more harm than good for female representation in video

games. These characters contribute to the controversy faced by women that are the face of

explicit music as they enforce that women are just overtly sexual and do not provide substance

that expresses itself outside being sexual. In addition, another significant finding is the theory of

gender performativity which is found in the article “Media/Visual Literacy Art Education:

Sexism in Hip-Hop Music Videos” and was introduced by Judith Butler as a theory that gender

binary just reinforces the “differences” and “inequality” of the male and female genders. This

theory can be related to the controversy faced by explicit music made by women, as well as the

women themselves, because this theory provides an explanation as to why women and men are

treated differently for the content that is in their lyrics. It also explains as to why people react

differently when a man creates explicit music versus when a woman creates music of the same

nature, as the woman will have a lot more controversy surrounding her work.