Words Heard, Words Read

When it comes to the social status quo, everything's a mess. According to media females are supposed to act one way, while males are to act another way. Females were taught to be nice, wear pretty clothes, put on makeup, and to “respected the man”. Males were taught to play sports, lift weights, don’t cry, and to act tough. However, none of these “traits” are found in every male of female. Some men are not tough, while some women lift weights. All men cry and not all women are going to “respect the man”. Whether, they were taught through music, family, or videos, the lessons learned don’t need to be taught anymore. In this essay I argue that the music I listen, the stories I’ve read, and the videos I’ve watched has shaped my views on sexuality and helped develop my personal and social identity.

There are so many things that could have impacted how I view myself, but I don’t have the best memory. However, I know that I love to read, listen to music, and watch television, and I know out of all the things I may have experienced as a child, these things would have the most impact, besides family. Music, books, and film are a big part of everyone's lives, especially now thanks to the internet. Without them, society wouldn’t have evolved into something greater than it was a few years ago.

When it comes to race and ethnicity, television and movies are the biggest influence in how people view race and ethnicity. As stated by The Critical Media Project under Race and Ethnicty, “the main characters in movies and television shows are white…… people of color are often cast in certain roles such as the maid, the gangster, the “model minority,” the supportive best friend, the terrorist…”. Which is to say that the film industry views people of color as lower class citizens, while Caucasians are viewed as a higher class. However, the film industry are also victims, because they also watched television and movies before they joined the industry. They learned that people of color are lower class, just like people of color were taught. But, over time the film industry has been working on switching the roles between Caucasians and people of color.

Everybody reads, whether they are reading the news, a fiction or nonfiction. Reading has influenced my views on sexuality and gender image. I’ve read lots of fictional stories about sexuality, one book that has impacted me the most is the ‘Heroes of Olympus’ series by Rick Riordan. In his books there are a lot of LGBTQ characters, most of them are hinted that they are. The impact that this series has made on me, was that it introduced me to the LGBTQ community, which I do support. In David Grazian’s book Mix It Up: Popular Culture, Mass Media, and Society, he states that “Advertisers and fashion magazines...simultaneously promote ideals of beauty and sexual desirability….airbrushed images of perfect bodies...unattainable expectation of body definition, physical fitness, and sexual allure”. Which is to say that people were taught to look perfect and wear trendy clothes, male or female. However, this had little effect on me.

Music had always been a part of life, therefore it has been influencing people's views on social identity for eons. Through music men may have learned that it is okay to confess and cry, but they also may have learned that it is cool to date more than one girl at a time. While women may have learned that they have to look perfect all the time, but the may have also learned that they can be strong and independent. The videos of the songs we listen to also impact the people's, perception of social identity. In most music videos women are seen in sexualized clothing, while males are seen wearing casual clothes. The Critical Media Project wrote an article about Ludacris’s song “Area Codes” and how the women are portrayed in the song and the video. The song is about Ludacris has women all over the world that he can sleep with and the video shows women in short tight clothing. They also wrote an article about Beyoncé's song “Run The World”, which also shows females in sexualized clothing, but talks about how females are superior.

Overall, music, books, and film has shaped people's perspective of society for a long time. But, over the years the views have been changing. Even though our “ways of thinking” or ideology, like J. Lull stated in their book Media, communication, culture: A Global Approach “Some ideologies are elevated and amplified by the mass media,” like television and magazines. But, what we are hearing and reading in today’s media is changing for the better.