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Women's Roles As Objects In Music

Women's Roles as Objects in Music


This past week's readings were very interesting to me, largely because I pride myself on being somewhat of a popular culture aficionado, and the role of women in music is an intriguing idea to think about and reflect upon. The article "Greatest Hits: Domestic Violence in Country Music" was an interesting reflection upon women's transition in American country music. When I read it though, it struck me how the reading perceived as though domestic violence is not an extremely important issue still in the United States. The statistics do not lie when we analyze the problem of domestic violence in American society. "Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year." (Domestic Violence) Women's transition from victim to assailant in country music is an interesting reflection of the prevalent attitude through this country against abuse, yet the statistics still show that women are attacked at a far too frequent rate. This past weekend the Dixie Chicks dominated the Grammy's and reinforced the fact that you can succeed as females while still speaking your mind and producing controversial music.
With this success we must consider how much women's rights and opportunities have changed throughout the greater part of this past century. "In 1970 there were no shelters to house battered women throughout the entirety of the United States."(Simon) 37 years later the laws have changed to prevent women from being abused and given them shelter when victimized. Throughout high school I did community service at a battered women and children's shelter in Waltham, Massachusetts. The two years that I spent working at the shelter gave me an interesting perspective on how the women who are victims of abuse cope in their every day lives. While dispensing food to the families I...