Assignment #2 June 7, 2009: Music Videos

In many respects, the progression of music videos has served to exploit and degrade women, making them nothing more than objects of entertainment. I would agree with this to an extent and I certainly believe that the endorsement of women as sexual objects should be considered for their implications on the treatment of women as well as the way women view themselves. On the other hand, the progression of music videos, as displayed by the differences between the Leslie Gore, Fiona Apple and ’Lil Kim videos, also serves to empower women as sexual beings. The interpretation of these music videos and their evaluation in either positive or negative lights depends very greatly on one’s values. So while one person may feel empowered, another person may feel disgusted by any of these three videos depending on what they see as important.

The role that the women play in relationships was a theme that stood out to me while watching these videos and while reading the critique of the Apple video. The Leslie Gore video details a woman who looses the man she loves to another woman and all she can do is cry. She seems to have no control over the situation and further her happiness is derived by how the man expresses his feelings towards her. She has to wait for the man to make the decision about who he wants to be with and all she can control are her emotions. Fiona Apple’s video displays a woman who has control over her sexuality, in that she can chose with whom she has sexual relations. However, in doing so she is equated with the devil and sin. She has control over her decisions, but if those decisions display sexual freedom or promiscuity she is shunned and is in need of repenting. The ’Lil Kim video displays a woman who has sexual relations with whomever she wants with no regrets and no negative consequences. In fact, these relations serve to please her, not the man necessarily. In fact the video explicitly states, “You satisfy her, she does not satisfy you”. The woman definitely has control over the sexual situation.

The way that the women are displayed physically also speaks to the culture of time when the video was shot. The Leslie Gore video shows women fully clothed from neck to ankle dancing back and forth waving a scarf in a sort of “I surrender” manner. Again, this era is not one of sexual freedom for women where they may acceptingly display their bodies and sexual feelings in whichever way they choose. The Fiona Apple video shows women scantily clothed and very frail and thin. This was an era where the boom of supermodel success promoted extreme thinness as the goal for women to attain in order to be seen as sexy. The ’Lil Kim video displayed women dressed very provocatively and further played on the Barbie doll ideal image that women should strive to attain. This is an image of a slightly curvier woman than that of the Fiona Apple video, but it still maintains that a sexy woman is a thin woman. This is a time where curves are increasingly being seen as the goal of women to attain a sexy image.

The topics that women discuss and the manner in which they discuss them has certainly changed over time throughout pop culture. Pop culture has served as a medium through which women (and people in general) can and do express themselves and their views. The progression of these views has been the most salient in terms of women’s sexual freedom, or sexual exploitation depending on the interpretation from the viewer. I am personally on the fence as to where I stand on the subject. On one hand I do not want my daughter to feel as though she is defined by how she is evaluated or wanted by men, but on the other hand I also would not promote little clothing or promiscuity as values to be desired. This is a difficult topic to make quick and definite decisions.

Assignment #1 June 4, 2009: Why Teach Popular Music in Classrooms

As a student, one of the best ways to study information presented in class is to apply the information to real world situations and to find a genuine interest in the information the student is attempting to learn. As teachers, we can help this process along by choosing to present information that is relevant to the students that we teach and that sparks real interest within our students. Professor White argues in her article, “Integrating Music in History Education”, that this sparking of students’ interests can be accomplished through using popular music as a medium through which to teach traditional academic lessons in a modern and relevant format for students. Popular music plays a very large role in many young people today and thus would serve as a culturally relevant mode of presenting information.

One way to teach using popular music could be simply teaching the background and formulation of popular music itself. Wikipedia lays out a quite extensive and involved history of how popular music came to be, a history that teaches about important figures of the past as well as the implications of various historical events and eras of the past. Another way to utilize popular music in classroom lessons is to incorporate this theme into examples to exemplify points in the teachers’ lessons. For example, if the class is learning about revolutionaries in history, they may examine how hip-hop was formed.

Through this use of popular music, the goal would be to enhance classroom experiences by making students feel as though the information they are learning is meaningful to who they are as well as to society as a whole. Gerald Graff, author of “Clouding the Issue”, explains that one of the problems with learning in academia is the lack of learning about meaningful or worthwhile subject matter. Students learn about subjects and in turn discuss subjects that are not important or applicable to many people outside of academia. Perhaps learning through the lens of popular music may remedy this lack of relevance. Perhaps it could even further incite students to be more concerned with contributing to the betterment of society as a whole versus solely to the betterment of themselves as an individual. By this I mean that learning about real people and events in modern societies may make students feel more connected to their society and may make them feel as though they are truly a part of this society that they are learning about.

Throughout this course, I hope to learn more about what exactly it means to teach using popular music and/or popular culture. I currently teach infants and toddlers at an early childhood center where it is vital that we teach in ways that are culturally and developmentally relevant to our children. Not only is this important, but it is a requirement for us to maintain our accreditation status at my childcare center. It would only seem natural that this requirement carry over into teaching older youth and even into teaching adults. I feel that I have a pretty good grasp of how to cater lessons to my little ones, but since most popular music is not allowed in our classrooms and because we do not teach information type lessons as would be done with older students, I am quite unaware of how one would actually incorporate popular music into a lesson plan.

I look forward to also learning to be a more well informed and effective teacher in general from this course. Although the class may be catered to the teaching of how to use popular media in classroom instruction, I look forward to learning about various teaching experiences from my colleagues and instructor.