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Laura Najera

Professor Mooney

ENC 1102

29 September 2019

The Evolution of Sexism as Told Through the Lyrics of County Music

Everyone listens to music, whether that be once in a while or every breath of free time

they have in their day. I relate to the latter, and so since I spend most of my day listening to

music and reading and memorizing the lyrics in these songs, it made sense for me to explore the

topic and the general differences of these lyrics, especially the differences in male and female

written songs. Now, my favorite genre of music is country music, a genre known for its

traditionalism, patriotism, and vulnerability, but being a woman who writes, sings, and loves

country music I can not help but notice the lack of women currently being played on the radio.

Despite this, I know there are hundreds of women in Nashville, whether they are just breaking

into the industry or they are selling out arenas, that are putting out just as much music as their

male counterparts. For this reason, I wanted to research the differences between the rhetorical

content of the songs written by a woman and those written by a man. In addition to this, I want to

explore the differences, if any, between the songs written by independent songwriters that got cut

by male singers than those that got cut by female singers. Lastly, and most importantly, I want to

research whether the establishment of gender roles in country music is usually done in the lyrics

written by men or by women, and how these statistics have changed over the last 20 years. By

doing this research I am able to understand whether the lack of airplay of women-led songs in

country radio is based fully on the rhetoric and style of writing they use, or if the reasoning is
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rooted more in the sexist and traditionalist nature of the genre. It is important that I research this

topic in a specific genre where the disparities in the representation seem to be very apparent

because “genres have the power to help or hurt human interaction, to ease communication or to

deceive, to enable someone to speak or to discourage someone from saying something different”,

and thus, can discourage women from continuing to share their experiences, and participate in

the genre’s conversation (Dirk, 252).

There is some research done in the elements of the writing of this genre, but most of it is

not very in-depth or it is attached as a comparison of a different genre, such as Ryan’s piece:

“Gender or Genre? Emotion Models in Commercial Rap and Country Music.” In addition to this,

there are pieces that talk specifically about how differently society responds to a man and a

woman making the same ideological argument in their songs and why the reasons those could be

(Pruitt 86). Lastly, both Pruitt in “Boys ‘Round Here” and Densley in “Girl in a Country Song”

talks about the different gender roles present in country music and the types of narratives used in

these songs. Despite this, they do not go into great detail into differentiating the specific rhetoric

used between the two genders, and who is more prone to seep these gender roles into their

songwriting.

I plan to conduct my research by both looking through the archives of radio stations to

find the songs with the most airtime per year through the last 20 years and by conducting a

textual analysis of these. If I am in a situation where a female artist is not mentioned as part of

the top songs with the most radio airtime of that specific year, I will go choose the highest

female charting songs I find of that year. Then, I will compare and contrast the fundamental
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elements of each song, their structure, and rhetorical aspects, as well as whether or not they have

a gender bias. I will have these steps done by the dates outlined below:

1. Week of September 29 - October 6: Go through the national radio archives and

records and find the songs with the most airtime

2. Week of October 6 - October 13: Go through and draught down any similarities in

the rhetoric of these songs in each gender. This involves the specific language

used in these songs, the context, general emotion being conveyed, and more.

3. Week of October 13 - October 20: ​Compare and contrast any similarities or

differences between the average rhetoric used between the genders, and write

down any discrepancies, if any, that I see in the data and how my research, if

given more time can become more detailed and accurate.

4. Week of October 20 - October 27: ​Compare and contrast any differences through

time between the songs written by women or by men, and analyze if there are any

changes in any of the rhetorical elements.

5. October 27 October 29: With the data at hand, analyze what gender uses language

that can be thought of as pushing gender roles the most.

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Works Cited

Densley, Rebecca, and Eric Rasmussen. “Girl in a Country Song: Gender Roles and

Objectification of Women in Popular Country Music across 1990 to 2014.” Sex Roles,

vol. 76, no. 3–4, Feb. 2017, pp. 188–201. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0670-6.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by Charles Iowe

and Pavel Zemliansky, vol. 1, Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 249-61.

Downs, Doug. "Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and MeaningMaking." Writing

about Writing: A College Reader, by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, UCF 3rd ed.,

Bedford/St. Martins, 2017, pp. 457-83.

Pruitt, Cenate. “‘Boys ‘Round Here’: Masculine Life-Course Narratives in Contemporary

Country Music.” Social Sciences, no. 6, 2019, p. 176. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.3390/socsci8060176.

Pruitt, Lesley. “Real Men Kill and a Lady Never Talks Back: Gender Goes to War in Country

Music.” International Journal on World Peace, vol. 24, no. 4, 2007, pp. 85–106. JSTOR,

doi: 10.2307/20752803

Ryan, John, et al. “Gender or Genre? Emotion Models in Commercial Rap and Country Music.”

Popular Music & Society, vol. 20, Summer 1996, pp. 121–154.

EBSCOhost,doi:10.1080/03007769608591624