Stereotypical Representations of Women in Some Selected Xitsonga Songs: A Content Analysis

Some Xitsonga music composers recurrently depict women in a stereotypical manner in their musical outputs. In these stereotypes, women's identities and roles are largely associated with weaknesses, greed, immorality, poor intelligence, promiscuity, laziness and lack of credibility. Such depictions are notable in the songs composed by popular Vatsonga musicians such as Dr Thomas Hasani Chauke and Shinyori Sisters, Solly Makamu, Oscar Makamu, General Muzka and Eckson Maluleke. Hence, this article purposely selected one song from each of these artistes to highlight their stereotypic thematisation of women and womanhood, yielding five songs for analysis. Guided by the feminist literary theory and qualitative in approach, the study observed that selected Vatsonga artistes generally portray women as gold-diggers, untrustworthy, greedy, bullies, prostitutes, immoral, troublemakers and betrayers. To counter this stereotypic perception of women, the article recommended that artistes in particular and the music industry as a whole be mindful of the gender representations they foreground through their music. In essence, the artistes should advocate a subversion of these stereotypes to promote gender equality, empowerment, and a more respectful and inclusive representation of women.