Today as I was riding home from hockey practice I heard the song "I'm Still a Guy" by Brad Paisley. The song made me think what it meant to be a guy. Some of the lyrics caught my attention. Here's the song if you haven't heard it:
He talks about how fighting, fishing, and hunting make him a man. And if you are "feminized" then you aren't a man anymore. The lyrics that especially caught my attention were "then turn right around and knock some jerk to the ground 'cause he copped a feel as you walked by." This stuck out to me because it reminded me of White Noise by Don DeLillo.
When Jack finds out that his wife, Babette, has cheated on him Babette refuses to give Jack the man's actually name because she believes that Jack will seek revenge and kill him: "We all know about men and their insane rage...Insane and violent jealousy. Homicidal rage" (214). It is a common stereotype to believe that men are filled with an anger that surfaces with every chance. All men are subjected to violent jealousy. I believe that it is the stereotype that forces men to believe they should be insanely jealous. Jack wasn't planning on hurting the man Babette cheated on him with, Willie Mink, until another of his friends also told Jack that men are filled with violent anger and that Jack should shoot Willie Mink.
I think that this song is super interesting and raises a few interesting point. One of which comes up in the very first lines "When you see a deer you see Bambi and I see antlers up on the wall.g" These two lines shows that the singer is defining gender roles and differences between his audience (most likely a female) and himself. He is saying that women only see the innocence in animals, "Bambi", while men see hunting and aggression. This shows that America really hasn't progressed as much as we'd like to think we have if there are still people writing songs playing into gender stereotypes.
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