Men and violence

Today we watched a documentary type show about men and masculinity. It talked about why men behave the way they do in order to be "masculine" and where our thoughts come from.

Honestly, I thought the guy was a little over the top, but he still made good points. Men today do act aggressively to show how macho they are. I do it, and I'm a very passive person. It made me wonder if that's why me and my friends always reply something along the lines of "Don't do it or I'll kick you ass!" Did we pick that up from TV shows? Music? Probably both.

And the statistics -- well they were scary to say the least. I guess in the back of my mind I always knew they'd be that skewed toward male violence versus women violence, but I just didn't quantify it. 

But at the same time, I think the guy just read a little too much into himself. You can't put all the blame on media we consume. Parental guiding is a huge issue in America right now, and without the proper parenting, it doesn't matter how much Eminem your child listens to or how many time they watch Goodfellas. The bottom line is that violence is a problem -- but overall, I think it stems more from home life than it does our media consumption.

Rap and Misogyny

Okay, just to preface this blog, I’m that typical white boy who loves Eminem. I’m not sure if it’s a subconscious thing or if I just think he’s the best – but I do think he’s the best rapper around today. But are his lyrics homophobic and misogynistic? 

Most definitely in some of his songs. 

The thing I like about him is that he also sings about some real stuff. He had a song called Mosh that talked about the Bush/Kerry presidential election. He has songs talking about his daughters. And he has songs about the loss of two of his close, personal friends Bugz and Proof.

But yes, he has a song about killing his ex-wife and plenty about doing bad things to his mother and other women throughout his lifetime.

So where do you stop taking his lyrics seriously? I don’t know any more than the next person, but I would say that he at least tries to talk about things other than “bitches and hoes.”

Take another rapper I like, Ludacris. I think the guy puts words together very well, but he is your typical rapper. He rarely talks about anything other than money and women. And when he does, it’s usually a rap “love” song if there is such a thing. He’s had a couple of songs that weren’t like that. Take Blow It Out for example, where he’s basically firing back at people who have disrespected him throughout the years, like Bill O’Reilly.

But the majority of his songs are pretty cliché for the rap genre.

So maybe Eminem seems to be angry at the world, but that’s his prerogative and who are we to judge it? I’d rather listen to an angry rapper than another song about how much money Rapper_A has or how many women Rapper_B has slept with in the past week.

But what rules all is that there is money in what most rappers sing about. There is a market for what they’re pushing, and as long as the money stays there, the songs won’t change.