Gender Symbolic Messages in Music and Magazines Consumed by Young Mexicans

Martha P. Zarza Delgado, Héctor Serrano Barquín and Carolina Serrano Barquín

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca, Mexico
e-mail: mpzd@hotmail.com

INTRODUCTIONtop

A great number of answers could be proposed to the question of what contributes to violence against women in countries like Mexico, creating a multicultural and complex mosaic where an andocentric social structure predominates. Similarly, there is cultural, identity, religious and educational information –formal or informal– which supports a patriarchal or generally sexist social organization. This form of power over women allows for submission, domination and exploitation. Many women do not have access to conditions of equality and live in contexts with symbolic or physical violence.

The question being posed in this paper corresponds to the hypothesis that the cultural consumerism of musical images and lyrics, as well as youth magazines which display traditional stereotypes of feminism and masculinity, as antagonistic expressions, cause distinct forms of gender violence, given the exclusive and opposing implications. It appears that music, as well as magazines, television programs and several other daily goods function as “ritual accessories” for children and youth mainly, and which are symbolically categorized as for men or for women. They serve as mediums of expression and manifestations of the personal ideals and values about feminine or masculine identity which is reflected in a specific body image. In other words, these children and youth find a wealth of meanings and values in music, especially referring to the body, which are socially legitimate and promote a series of social norms which establish limits between what is permitted and what is prohibited, as well as what is desirable or undesirable. With this perspective, we will analyze the consumption of music and youth magazines to identify the meanings, values and norms baggage which emanate from them and help to reaffirm the feminine or masculine identity of young Mexicans today.

Music and magazines were chosen as representative examples because they occupy a very important place in the daily coexistence of youth, mainly with music and the exchange of music between iPods or computers, dancing at private parties or at nightclubs, by listening to them and singing them at recess, attending concerts or live performances, etc.

LITERARY PRECEDENTS IN THE AREA OF THE CONSUMPTION OF POPULAR MUSICtop

Consumption refers to the group of socio-cultural processes which include the appropriation and uses of the products. With this perspective, consumption would be a fundamental area to construct and communicate social differences. Even more, consumption can also be a method of integration and communication. Consumption is, therefore, an exchange of meanings. It is possible to maintain and create relationships between people, give meaning and order to the environment in which we live with these objects. With consumption, the possession of these objects and the satisfaction of these needs are as important as the definition and reconfirmation of meanings and common values (García Canclini, 1993: 28).

In other words, these consumer goods function as a way in which individuals try to get access to a particular social sector, as a control of cultural meanings, adopting strategies to insure they are not marginalized by the system or showing a rejection or inconformity towards the hegemonic values of the system. The culture of consumerism is much more than a merely commercial function. Apart from concepts of exchange, price and economic relations, it also involves concepts like meanings, values and communication and, as we already explained, definitions of identity. From this perspective, consumer goods are not only perceived as objects of use; they also have significance and act as distinctive elements of social relationships, to the point that the most mundane of objects from daily life has cultural meaning. Therefore, consumer goods are a medium that serve to make basic categories visible and stable. With these categories, we classify people in society. The categories are a source of social identity and transmission of social messages (Lury, 1996: 10–51).

As groups of objects which are around us every day, these products also become invisible to the people who acquire them and, according to Jean Baudrillard, their owners feel they are alive (Baudrillard, 1969: 83–97). When complementing, collecting or consuming more than what is useful, not only in private, but as an expression of status or cultural level, the owner feels that there is no difference between the objects, there is no hierarchy among the objects … each one possesses a special beauty (Kassner, 2001: 37). This was in reference to a very influential art collector in the country.[1]

For Celia Lury (1996) and Dick Hebdige (1979), in general terms, consumer culture comes from the base upon which individuals construct an image of their life, including daily practices and values perceived from several different images representing life and its ideals. Along the same line, Mike Featherstone (1991) indicates that the images promoted in today's consumer cultures are frequently oriented towards youth and in them youth find that one of recurring topics is the conservation of the body and implies certain ideals of femininity and masculinity. The devotion to the body which is promoted through consumer goods is centered mostly upon appearance, in the movement and control of the body, in public and socially.

Much of the cultural consumption seen today in Mexico is promoted by mass media whereas in the past it was through popular literature and romantic novels of the 19th century. Diverse publications offer weekly collection installments which are put on the market of large cities every week for several months. The suspense over the sequence of a weekly story is cleared up in the next installment, similar to the mechanics and seduction of international television series, soap operas and long-running daily Latin American soap operas called culebrones. Today, as in the 19th century, these stories contain gender stereotypes and paradigms which continue to confirm the patriarchal order and promote the victimization of the main character, always young and beautiful, surrounded by villains until she finds the prince who rescues her, invariably, from a slanderous and perverse environment, taking her to the alter to enjoy permanent happiness.

The narrative of Columbian Jorge Isaacs in the 19th century, in particular, exposes the idealization the author makes –in a nineteenth century romantic context– about the perfect woman: beautiful, demure, virtuous, demonstrated by María, the character in his novel. This character would lower her eyes, swallow her pride, became divine, a smiley caring child or a woman so pure and seducing … with a charismatic smile. Isaacs adds the convictions of the masculine character: “she will become even more beautiful to my joy and pride” (Isaacs, 1978). María, without a doubt, was a model for the women of her time, who in this work is surrounded by an environment of flowers, aromas and vegetation. In 18 small continuous paragraphs of the novels, Isaacs includes 26 references to the word flowers, types of flowers, flower pots and gardens. A second group of words make reference to gender and the beauty of women.

It is important to remember that, because of advances in natural sciences like biology, anatomy and medicine, physical and obstetric processes were beginning to explain, in more detail, the wonder of fertilization and fetal development. Add to that the romantic environment already mentioned and you have an accentuated relationship of woman to nature, being the reproductive entity of the species. In other words, all things feminine as conceptualized as a representation of all things natural, leaving all things artificial to the men, which subsequently exclude women from science, literature and culture in general, giving preference to her roles as a self-sacrificing mother taking care of the home and her children. In this way, it was “natural” that women were absent from public life and masculine intellectuality. From the time they are girls, women were set aside, even from family conversation. This is confirmed by the following passage from a weekly publication called La Mujer (Woman):

That's my girl … so charming, innocent with her childish ways. Later on as well, like a flower giving fruit to society … she is, an ideal image of innocence, honesty and purity … from a young age we can already see what she will be in time: the public and beautiful virgin.

… the mouth of a virtuous young girl should always be closed for everything that diminishes the glory of others or that would highlight her own. (Serrano, 2008: 80)

Mexican Guillermo Prieto, author, learned and influential intellectual, and politician, wrote about popular culture, documenting it, within a discriminating and elitist context. In Musa callejera (Street Muse), Prieto, with no gender perspective, uses certain stereotypes describing a woman as a man's property:

I don't know if I'm pretty, or if I am snow or fire, but I do know that I have a sign on my forehead that says: “Toribia López” and then: I serve my owner. And it is true that he adores me, look well and to the right, there is the church: God understands me and I understand myself. (Prieto, 1992: 38)

The turn-of-the-century, author Vicente Riva Palacio, in one of his novels, describes the suffering of a nun in the hands of inquisitors:

Do not take all my clothes off. Please sir, it is so shameful … Taking my clothes off …! She screamed because the jailers had pulled off the last bit of clothing and she was naked in the presence of so many men … They laid her down on a long table. They tied her arms and legs with ropes that tightened as they wrapped around four wheels … she thought she was dreaming, she saw men touching her everywhere with their course hands, with no respect, no decency. (Riva Palacio, 1999: 163–65)

By the first decade of the 20th century, Mexican ballads break into the consumer market, describing scenes of violence and military life. The exploits of some of the female soldiers are praised in spite of their bravery and performance in open spaces. We can also detect stereotypes and representations of gender violence, for example in the ballad of Rosita Alvirez, who was murdered out of passion, receiving three shots, but only one causing death. Frida Kahlo remembered this, decades later, in a painting entitled Unos cuantos piquetitos or Just a Few Stabs, to explain the apology given by a husband who killed his wife. In his opinion, since he only stabbed her a few times with a sharp object, she should have been able to survive an obviously correct punishment.

Musical and literary consumption is characterized by the manipulation of signs that, according to Le Breton (1992), centers upon the body as individual and social investiture. It is through our bodies that we construct the person we want to be, transmitting information about ourselves and about the relationships we hope to establish with others. In other words, the body rhetoric created by mass media imposes practices where through a sign game, the body is converted into a “social signifier” and an important referent for this type of consumption.

So, according to the logic of consumerism, the body becomes an object that can be molded, modified or adjusted according to social imperatives or for the personal intention of integrating or separating oneself from hegemonic groups. The structure of personal and social meaning of the body comes from different social institutions or systems where various consumer mechanisms, specifically systems and communication networks, are of particular importance. The body, then, is created from images, showing symbolic bodies proposing specific body practices, observed esthetics and behaviors. Young Mexicans are using this model for the self-construction of their body image.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FOR YOUTHtop

The data obtained to complete this analysis of music and youth magazines was taken from a series of detailed interviews with a group of young Mexican university students. From these interviews, music was identified as an important cultural consumer product in everyday life. Apparently, none of these young people subscribe to a particular musical movement. Their preferences include “everything”, as they themselves stated. They say it depends upon the circumstances or situation. For example, “electronic music and reggaeton are for dancing”, rock or pop is good for listening to while they are in the car or doing homework.

Without a doubt, likes, habits and cultural consumption are usually more homogeneous and similar in relation to the age or the type of consumer. Several different processes characterize changes in each generation. One of these is how they socialize their new codes, language and way of perceiving, appreciating, classifying and distinguishing values and principals, as well as all the cultural processes involved in the transformations (Bermúdez et al., 2005: 122) in each group of youth. In other words, habitus, and other types of preferences are more restrictive inside a generation with similar socioeconomic levels compared to the likes of their own family members with differences in age or towards other communities which are not marked by similar age ranges.

We can confirm that body categories are found in daily interactions between youth. They take on, construct and/or re-functionalize, in a large part, diverse musical products –popular CDs and videos– where a particular language about bodies is used and which promote determined esthetics and general behavior. These become dominant because of their power of promotion and infiltration into the habits of youth.

According to Zeyda Rodríguez (2006: 105–131), the discourse analysis expressed in the lyrics of these songs, as well as the visual discourse used in the same videos, is fundamental because youth use them as a vehicle for expression, manifesting their ideals and personal values. In order to analyze the lyrics of songs, Rodríguez used a discourse concept that is used in social practice in three stages: how is it a provider of meaning for human actions, as a wealth of meanings and legitimate values; how is it a manifestation of a series of norms which define the limits between what is prohibited and permitted; how does it allow for personal discourse. Following Rodríguez's model, the discourse analysis of the music lyrics and of the visual discourse in music videos allows us to get closer to the cultural gender baggage about the body and specifically female and masculine stereotypes, emanating from music products.

First, we must point out the diversity of the images used, especially in videos, but some song lyrics also highly praise the female form. Evidently, the body seems to serve as a means of expression or communication. With the body, the woman says concrete things to men, seduces them. In the music videos we studied, the female bodies appeared to be continuously showing their stomach, hips, legs and to a lesser degree, their breasts. We identified that contemporary music uses many lyrics that suggest real or symbolic gender violence or contribute to the feminine and masculine stereotypes which objectify women. They also often conceptualize women as sexual objects which lead to some type of violence towards women, sometimes literally or through body fragmentation, focusing only on erotic parts of the body. There is evidence of this objectification in songs that compare the female form to different objects or material goods like car parts (phallic objects) or dolls. For example, we looked at the lyrics of the song On the floor by Jennifer López and Pitbull:

… And back it up like a Tonka truck (large breasts), Dale! That badonka donk (big rear-end) is like a trunk full of bass on an old school Chevy

This part of the song describes erogenous areas of women's bodies as being equipped like car parts (tonka and trunk), showing the objectification as a premise for symbolic violence against the sensual woman stereotype. In a way, we can hear the same in the song Es un secreto or It's a secret, from Plan B when they say:

… You know you were born for me/ you are what I like, my flow … you are a Barbie/doll, princess and not from Mattel/ you are perfect, your face, your body, your eyes and your skin, I want all of you, sexy dancing, that is the way I want to see you

The message it sends relates to the desire to possess a woman, as if she were a product we could buy, literally a doll. We can identify the idea that a woman is more valued for her appearance than for her work, reinforcing the female “ideal” as a decorative object.

In many videos, especially in reggaeton, dance is an apparently important element for female seduction. It is through these moves that they seem to attract the men unilaterally. Dance is also a good excuse to “show off” a slim and “sculpted” body that attracts attentions and allows for more closeness. On the other hand, the masculine body images, if they even show or highlight any specific part of the body, are concentrated on the bare chest, slim and muscular. For men, the back, chest and arms are clearly parts of the body that show strength and are frequently complemented with certain body movements that represent domination and self-confidence. In general terms, the body models promoted in music videos for youth are usually thin, “sculpted” in the case of the women -who dominate this kind of product- while the men show “defined” muscles shown in a much lower proportion compared to the attractive female bodies.

On the other hand, the hips, stomach and breasts highlighted in women represent the ideals of femininity related to concepts of fertilization. This is due to the direct relationship these body parts have with pregnancy, maternity and their possibilities for eroticism. In the opinion of García Canclini (1993: 314), certain rituals are promoted through the images presented in cultural youth consumption. Society selects them and fixes them to contain the course of their meanings. With this perspective, the images youth receive through their consumption of music, through their lyrics and music videos, appear to make explicit the public consensus of what a man and a woman should look like. This is where we perceive the images to be so different: he should be strong, muscular and dominant to show control over the situation; she should be beautiful, slim, tanned and sculpted, as well as seductive and complacent. In some way, these representations symbolize or reflect a woman's weak social position as compared to men, due to the fact that she is characterized as a sexual or decorative object.

With this framework, as described by Gilles Lipovetsky (1999: 258), a large part of a woman's energy goes to esthetics, putting the brakes on, in some way, the social advancement of women and their personal growth. In some way, this esthetic pressure, that is particularly evident in women, allows for the reproduction of traditional subordination with respect to men, keeping women in a condition of beings who exist more for their appearance their work. With these ideals, distorted and negative gender stereotypes are promoted, leaning towards the construct of women as ornaments and not involved in intellectual or labor activities.

POPULAR YOUTH MAGAZINEStop

The most popular youth magazines were Vanidades (Vanity), Cosmopolitan, Men's Health and car magazines. The contents of magazines like Vanidades and Cosmopolitan are divided into sections: beauty, fashion, decor, cuisine and love. The index itself is rather indicative of the values they promote, the celebration of what is feminine in direct relation with the value of physical beauty and the continued ornamental role which appears to be attributed to women of any age and condition. The youth who consume this type of text will be exposed to ideals and paradigms of femininity in the contents that have existed for generations.

At the same time, magazines like Men's Health have sections with titles which suggest the values and ideals they promote, “Workout, Exercise Your Whole Body in a Flash”; “Don't be Lost, Find Yourself and Find Success”; “Spectacular Sex”; “Party Without Consequences”; “Goodbye Fat, Burn Fat Like Athletes Do”; “Sex to the Limit”. The index reflects a male ideal that could easily be described in the following way; a man with an athletic body, successful, who likes to party and is also a “good lover” with optimal sexual performance. On top of this, the usual content of this kind of magazine has articles that refer to superheroes (Superman, Spiderman, Batman, etc.) in one way or another. Using these sexist images, many different messages are sent to men about body values -all superheroes are strong, muscular and big- but also about other masculine attitudes, like bravery, spiritual strength, resistance, intelligence and honor, aspects that are related to more traditional concepts of masculinity.

Magazines can also be studied with the images or photographs that offer different products and services. The importance of studying promotional images, according to Erving Goffman (1979: 2–9), is that they serve to illustrate the social practices of specific conduct through the use of models that pose for them. In other words, social practices reflected in promotional images are strongly coded because they are presented daily in a routine way and with specific social meanings. All of us in society are capable of using a common language of postures, looks and gestures that allow us to interact in different social situations, being able to interpret the scene in question. This same language is used in photographic compositions, in a way that the promotional images not only show the rules of scene production, but also reflect particular social conventions. In other words, publicity not only shows the way in which people behave in real life, but also the way they think their behavior should be. Promotional scenes have the objective of convincing us of how we should be or should want to be, not only in our relationship with ourselves, but also in our relationships with others (Goffman, 1979, 2–9).

It is interesting to see that promotional images found in magazines like Vanidades, Cosmopolitan, Oye! or Men's Health, make up the baggage of social images with specific messages about the body, femininity and masculinity within a framework of fairly traditional stereotypes. For example, in the magazines geared towards the female population, the women in the promotional images are young, slim, have fairly white skin and are dressed according to the latest fashions. Apart from mere physical appearance, the promotional images used in these magazines suggest body language and female bodies that, according to the author, have the objective of convincing the reader that this is the way women want to be or should be. The young people interviewed, who pointed out magazines like OK! Cosmopolitan or Vanidades as their favorites, find images of smiling women, with their head slightly down, a low gaze, hands on their waist, lying on a bed or on the ground, among others.

In general terms, the messages received by these young women appear to tell them that apart from being “pretty”, they should be smiley, playful, timid, submissive, innocent and fragile. According to David Le Breton (2007: 9–14), this body language in promotional media reflects a social and cultural fact and not a congenital or biological nature that is imposed upon the actors. The body language and gestures in this kind of magazine have meaning and value. These representations appear to symbolize a female ideal, directly related to the body and body language, whose essential value is found in the woman's decorative role in the social sphere and an inferior position in relation to another superior or true acceptance of subordination. In some way, the images chosen as favorites from magazines like Vanidades, Cosmopolitan and OK! make up the cultural baggage from where young Mexicans look for, select and choose the images that help them reinforce their gender identity, as well as their being part of a particular youth style.

The magazines oriented towards the male population like Men's Health, as well as automobile and motorcycle magazines, have promotional representations where men are serious, with well-defined pectoral and abdomen muscles as well as muscular arms. We also see representations of a man-machine, or a type of “superheroes” that appear to symbolize, through ritualization[2] the male body, ideals of strength and superiority as an essential characteristic to his gender identity.

Through the consumption of these magazines these ritualized messages and images about the body are manifested and received by young Mexicans. These images are a part of the cultural baggage where these young people certainly look for, select and choose the image that help them create their personality and style. The magazines themselves also become concrete vehicles of expression; symbolic means through which young people let the rest of us know what their values and ideals are, particularly concerning masculinity and femininity, within their binary ancestral counter position.

In relation to the topic of sexuality, we find that magazines like Cosmopolitan, consumed mainly by women, have sections about “love, desire and passion”. In this section, we find titles like the following: “How to be an excellent lover …” “Cosmo will reveal erotic moves which will calm your anxiety and increase your pleasure … for both of you”, “tips to keep the sex hot”. These titles appear to show a certain opening for women to enjoy their sexuality, but they also show the apparent need or obligation on the part of women to sexually satisfy men, without abandoning their position as mothers who have to look out for the welfare of their family and children. As Victor Seidler (2001: 10) described, women are often expected to interpret and satisfy the needs of their partner and this interpretation can be conceived as being part of the labor within heterosexual relationships. In other words, she needs to identify what he feels or needs.

A specific text from Cosmopolitan titled “What kind of seductress are you?” identifies three types of woman: the super daring vampire; the seductive mermaid and the kitten without training. The article describes each one of these “seductresses”: “Super daring vampire: they think that you are not girlfriend material. Seductive mermaid: very natural flirtatious style that seduces the boys, but they also respect you. Kitten without training: if you drown your flirting, you lose all the fun”. In this classification of women, you can see two important things. On the one hand, as Ana Amuchástegui says, the moral evaluation of women varies depending upon the type of erotic knowledge and apparently also on her ability for seduction (Amuchástegui, 1998: 110). The woman who takes an active and direct role in flirting or seduction of a man will have a damaged reputation and will not be considered a candidate for a formal relationship or matrimony. With this classification, women should conserve their “natural” flirting, and overdo it or lose “respect” for men. It appears that men are given permission to treat women differently depending upon the attitude of seduction they show. In this classification of seductresses, we perceive a certain objectification of women when she is referred to as “material” for men, putting her in a position as a consumable and passive object for men that clearly reflect a situation of unequal power where the man has an advantage over the woman.

In the case of masculine magazines like Men's Health, the topic of sexuality stands out in titles like “more savage sex”, “spectacular sex”, “Are you good in bed?”, “More sex, better job”, “Sex. The perfect lover”. With these titles and the content of the same, a masculine ideal is reinforced where the man should have ample knowledge and sexual experience so that he may prove his masculinity. These ideas produce, according to Victor Seidler (2001: 8) and Gabriel Medina (2002: 342), a kind of compulsive sexuality between men to avoid doubts of their masculinity, in other words, that he can show his ability to please women. This masculine ideal can also be seen in various sections of “hot chat” which shows various sites and telephone numbers where you can get animations of women doing a “striptease” or simply images of semi-naked or naked women. Through these images, we see that just as Adrianne Rich (1999: 166) describes, the so-called soft porn depicts women as objects of sexual appetite with no emotional context, no meaning or individual personality. In essence they are sexual merchandise to be consumed by men. According to Rich, the most harmful message transmitted by pornography is that women are natural sexual prey for men and that they like it that way.

This perception of women as merchandise or an object is perceived in a very clear way in the car magazines that may young men consume. This is where the woman is objectified to the level that women are compared to cars in the following way: “Model: 1983 / Motor: use sexy underwear / Chassis: ultra-light aluminum / Body: 85-54-88 / Starter: men who are sure of themselves / Suspension: 32B / Power: two hours of tai chi / Brakes: Stuck up and arrogant men”. From this description, it is very clear that the woman is an object that the man can acquire. As described by García Canclini (1993: 22), consumption is exchanging of meanings, through the consumption of this type of magazine, young men appear to reproduce, in the area of sexuality, the most traditional descriptions we have of femininity and masculinity.

CONCLUSIONStop

Without a doubt, music and videos have become an important source of symbolic images of body language and feminine and masculine sexuality in the imagination of adolescents with a strong impact on the configuration of their identity. The evident coincidence identified in the body styles and stereotypes valued by today's youth and those that appear in music and certain magazines are not a coincidence. Certainly they take different ritualized elements from these products which help make up their body image and with that their own gender identity. This corroborates the study of cultural consumption in youth conducted at two University institutions in 2007 (Zarza, 2009).

In general, the analysis of the message contents of youth magazines and music, provide consumers with a wealth of meanings and values about gender which are socially legitimate and which promote a series of social norms. These norms establish limits between the permitted and the prohibited. For example, men should consume the female body in different ways depending upon the type of relationship he wishes to establish with her. It is here where the socially accepted moral establishes that women are not allowed to have sex for pleasure, while it is not only allowed for men, but they are pushed towards it, to the point that the search for pleasure is not only a justified male quality, but socially praised as a part of manhood and power.

The consumption of music and magazines operates as an element of identity as a rite through which young Mexicans symbolically distinguish themselves as men or women. Their values in the area of gender identity could vary depending upon the specific type of musical and magazine consumption. It is important to specify the analysis presented should not be understood as a direct and mechanical link between the musical magazine preferences of young Mexicans the messages about the body and sexuality sent and received by them. It is assumed that music and magazines are one of the diverse socializing agents which help make up the framework of symbolic messages helping them to construct a personal vision of gender identity. Nevertheless, in general terms, we feel that the overwhelming reception of literary and musical messages appears to reinforce the configuration of exclusive gender stereotypes which favor the pre-figuration of women as a decorative, fragile and passive being. The symbolic space generated from these constructions and cultural consumption originates from several different expressions of violence, gender violence as well as aggressive manifestations of masculine power.

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