Gender Stereotypes in Slam Poetry: "george Watsky"

Gender stereotypes in slam poetry: "George Watsky"

According to the Academy of American Poets, slam poetry came to life in the 1990s and became part of an oral tradition among youth of diverse backgrounds. This kind of poetry often focuses on topics of racial, economic and gender injustices as well as other popular subjects (Poets.org). In many cases, slam poets put on more of a performance than just reading their written verse out loud. On September 29th, 2011, recent college graduate and slam poet George Watsky visited UW Oshkosh and put on quite an exciting performance. Not only was it lively and energetic, but it exemplified many of the gender issues and stereotypes that society, and especially young people, face today.

George Watsky is a young, white Jewish man who grew up in San Francisco and attended a mostly Asian-American school district. He explained that his environment during his high school years not only affected his choice in music, but also how he has chosen to express himself now. The hip hop music inspired him to write his own monologues. These monologues grew into poetry, songs and stories about his everyday life and experiences. After graduating from college, George Watsky took this hobby and is currently working on turning it into a career, touring colleges all over the U.S.

George Watsky emphasized that he wanted to make poetry "cool" again. Similarly to how hip-hop is presented, slam poetry thrives on how it is presented, according to Susan B. A. Somers-Willet, author of The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry. Vocal and physical dynamics as well as appearance, setting and audience reaction all impact a poetry performance. Somers-Willet also explained that slam poetry typically emphasizes the role of the author and their identity (Somers-Willet, pg. 16). George Watsky not only gave a stimulating and engaging performance, he used his self identity as key part of his work. He mocked how famous rappers act these days, interacted with the audience and thrived on their laughter.

Oddly enough, George Watsky's audience consisted of mostly males. Not having counted, I would say that the male-to-female ratio was about 7-3. This surprised me at first because I thought that a slam poetry performance would turn away a male audience simply because the word "poetry" was in the title. That may be stereotyping on my part, but in general, one does not put males and poetry readings in the same sentence. It goes against what society has designated as our "gender roles". However, after watching George Watsky's performance and examining slam poetry further, I began to understand why males were drawn to this kind of emotional vocal performance.

In sociology, gender refers to the social identity of men and women. Gender is different from sex, which is the biological distinction between males and females. Gender is socially constructed and creates gender stratification which refers to how the sexes are ranked in a ways that women are not equal to men (Eitzen and Maxine). George Watsky's performance highlighted the stratification between genders. Although he spoke about several topics that could relate to both males and females, many of his pieces contained expressions of societal-constructed male gender roles. He voiced that he felt pressure to find a good paying job and succeed after college, instead of doing what he loved. George Watsky also joked about how guys try to act cool around girls with fancy vehicles, clique sayings and working on their fitness. One poem even explained the conflict he felt after being dumped by a girl and that he felt couldn't express how he really felt about the situation. All of these ideas fit in the socially-constructed idea that men are supposed to be the strong providers for the women, do the right thing, and do not show emotion. This set of behaviors could also be viewed as andocentric norms that become the standard for males in society (The Sociology of Gender). In turn, these so-called norms fit in with the sociological idea of patriarchy, which is a male-dominated social organization and can lead to the oppression of women. George Watsky did not directly attack women and their role in society but it was easy to tell that he was