Our popular culture offers us endless images & messages about intimacy, romance, and sex. These themes were present in numerous songs throughout history. How do you think that these images & messages have changed over time? And, how do you think these popular images & messages affect our own perceptions and pursuit of these things? Today, many music videos tell a story about masculinity that equates manhood with power & domination. And often this story complements the story of femininity as passive and women as submissive. Men’s violence against women is eroticized in many music videos. For example, in the video “Eat You Alive” by Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst, the group’s lead singer ties a woman to a chair and sprays her with a hose while screaming violent threats & insults in her face! Images like this, found in music videos, normalize & glamorize sexual violence. We must ask what consequences they have for relationships between real men & women who grow up with these images. We can also look at song lyrics and the messages that they might convey. *For this assignment you should find a current song relating to anything about Human Sexuality and take a look at the lyrics. Use something current with in the last 5 yrs. ( Or, definitely keep it in the last 10 yrs.) Then, go back in time and find a song with a similar theme from a different era so you can make a comparison to the lyrics of both songs. This 2 nd song must be from 1980 or older, 1970s, 1960s 1950s etc. *After listening to both songs & looking at their lyrics you will do a brief write up discussing the differences, similarities and the message being conveyed in these songs. You can talk about some of the following questions. How do the lyrics reflect the era of the songs you chose? Do the lyrics reflect a specific perception about women or men? You may include a discussion about the images of the music video for the current song. How are we affected by these lyrics & images? *Your write up must be typed and should be 3-4 paragraphs. *Here is an example of this song lyrics comparison: The Commodores’ “Brick House” (1977) and Luda’s “My Chick Bad”………2 of my favorites. Another example of this theme is “Something” by the Beatles, 1969. The theme in both of these songs is about a relationship & how special his woman/partner is to him. You can use any theme that pertains to Human Sexuality. Another example would be the theme of abuse or the dark side of relationships, in Love the Way You Lie, by Eminem & Rihanna. .

1. Our popular culture offers us endless images & messages about
intimacy, romance, and sex. These themes were present in
numerous songs throughout history. How do you think that these
images & messages have changed over time? And, how do you
think these popular images & messages affect our own
perceptions and pursuit of these things?
Today, many music videos tell a story about masculinity that
equates manhood with power & domination. And often this
story complements the story of femininity as passive and
women as submissive. Men’s violence against women is
eroticized in many music videos. For example, in the video “Eat
You Alive” by Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst, the group’s lead singer
ties a woman to a chair and sprays her with a hose while
screaming violent threats & insults in her face! Images like this,
found in music videos,
normalize
&
glamorize
sexual violence. We must ask what consequences they have for
relationships between
real
men & women who grow up with these images.
We can also look at song lyrics and the messages that they
might convey.
*For this assignment you should find a current song relating to
anything about
Human Sexuality
and take a look at the lyrics. Use something current with in the
last
5 yrs.
(
Or, definitely keep it in the last
10 yrs.)

2. Then, go back in time and find a song with a
similar theme
from a different era so you can make a comparison to the lyrics
of both songs. This 2
nd
song
must
be from
1980 or older, 1970s, 1960s 1950s etc.
*After listening to both songs & looking at their lyrics you will
do a brief write up discussing the differences, similarities and
the message being conveyed in these songs. You can talk about
some of the following questions. How do the lyrics reflect the
era of the songs you chose? Do the lyrics reflect a specific
perception about women or men? You may include a discussion
about the images of the music video for the current song. How
are we affected by these lyrics & images?
*Your write up
must be typed
and should be
3-4 paragraphs.
*Here is an example of this song lyrics comparison:
The Commodores’ “Brick House” (1977) and Luda’s “My Chick
Bad”………2 of my favorites. Another example of this theme is
“Something” by the Beatles, 1969. The theme in both of these
songs is about a relationship & how special his woman/partner
is to him. You can use any theme that pertains to Human
Sexuality.
Another example would be the theme of abuse or the dark side
of relationships, in
Love the Way You Lie, by Eminem & Rihanna.