Who sings? Who Acts? Sexual Behavior in Reggaeton Music and Video Clips

Given the social and cultural relevance of gender representations in Reggaeton and the social and political debate it has triggered in Latin America, the question that the thesis is aiming to answer is: How are gender stereotypes of male and female sexual behavior represented and challenged in Reggaeton? In order to do so, four Reggaeton songs were analyzed. The analysis was made through the close reading of both lyrical fragments and video footage material and building upon Doing Gender Theory framework of Candace West and Don Zimmerman (1987). By choosing two songs sung by women -Reggaetoneras- and two by men -Reggaetoneros-, the thesis does not aim to generalize on these views but rather develop a comparative study on the discourse within singers’ gender. Regarding sexual behavior in Latin America, the three gender-based stereotypes analyzed in the four songs were (1) Objectification of Sexuality, (2) Machismo and (3) Heteronormativity. The thesis concludes that based on the...Show moreGiven the social and cultural relevance of gender representations in Reggaeton and the social and political debate it has triggered in Latin America, the question that the thesis is aiming to answer is: How are gender stereotypes of male and female sexual behavior represented and challenged in Reggaeton? In order to do so, four Reggaeton songs were analyzed. The analysis was made through the close reading of both lyrical fragments and video footage material and building upon Doing Gender Theory framework of Candace West and Don Zimmerman (1987). By choosing two songs sung by women -Reggaetoneras- and two by men -Reggaetoneros-, the thesis does not aim to generalize on these views but rather develop a comparative study on the discourse within singers’ gender. Regarding sexual behavior in Latin America, the three gender-based stereotypes analyzed in the four songs were (1) Objectification of Sexuality, (2) Machismo and (3) Heteronormativity. The thesis concludes that based on the representation found in Reggaeton of gender stereotypes of sexual behavior, the role of Reggaeton represents rather than challenges the status quo of gender identity in Latin America. This research concludes that the analyzed Reggaeton can be described as misogynist. Meaning that even though this music genre cannot be considered steady in its representation of what is the connotative understanding of the traditional Latin male and female, female characters in Reggaeton do present more prejudices than males.Show less

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Who sings? Who Acts? Sexual Behavior in Reggaeton Music and Video Clips