Bloody handprints on an extra-long twin bed and a turned down blanket insinuate a dorm-room rape. Pictures of women as war prizes are accompanied by domestic violence statistics. The Residence Life Social Justice Committee’s Tunnel of Oppression examines inequality and hatred while forcing participants to question different types of gender roles, violence and biases against immigrants and people with disabilities. Seen through a college student’s perspective, these injustices are presented in a string of residence hall rooms.

Around the corner, masking tape arrows on the carpet usher people into a bathroom. An audio collage reports the names of transgender victims of violence, and a reminder that these people were persecuted because they do not fit into society’s gender expectations. In the next room of the interactive makeshift museum in the Stephenson South hotel, extremely harsh rap music is blaring. A large poster of a black man with the caption “Amerikaz Most Wanted” adorns the upper left corner as the predominant visual. There is a poster of Green Day, but slightly lower and hidden. The walls are covered with black butcher paper and inscribed with spray paint graffiti of derogatory slang toward women. Obviously questioning the effects of violent music, the adjacent room further analyzes violence in movies and television.

However, these questions seem to bring up some unintended consequences. The presentation largely suggests, by the audio and visual predominance, that hip-hop and rap music are the only genres promoting violence against women and misogyny. This notion in itself is promoting more stereotypes, something the whole tunnel is trying so creatively to dispel. “Just because it’s not in your face doesn’t mean it isn’t oppressive against women,” said Jayme Crumpton, a junior education and comparative ethnic studies major. She was concerned about this misrepresentation of black culture and asked the attendant why only rap music was being played. He replied that it has the most sexist lyrics, she said. This is a misconception, and a further oppression that is being neglected within the tunnel. Like many aspects of society, there is gender subjugation in the mere structure of industry; it’s systematic. Many political and social foundations are inherently sexist and racist, for example the United States Constitution. Eleanor Madsen, a sophomore accounting major, said she listens to pop, hip-hop and alternative rock music. However, she admited that “hip-hop jumps to mind as being derogatory and racist against black people and white people.” Rap music is not all about sexual violence and drugs. There are instances of misogyny in country, rock and pop music. Carmen Lugo-Lugo, an assistant comparative ethnic studies, professor who teaches classes focused on Chicano-Latino studies, said she believes that instances of sexism can be found everywhere, in every kind of music. Lugo-Lugo gives her classes an assignment to mute a music video channel in order to focus on the images portrayed by music videos. There are always the same kind of images no matter what the type of music, she said. “It’s not particular to rap,” she said. In these videos, women are “caught” in body parts, a way of presenting them sexually. “Objectifying them as a butt or a boob,” Lugo-Lugo said. Women are reduced to the sexual value of their bodies. Lugo-Lugo said racism in pop culture today is more subtle, seen predominately in the representations of the race. These are not the same cues that we used to get 50 years ago, with name calling and segregation, she said. “Racism is more subtle than sexism. Sexism is more tolerated than racism,” she said.

The very organizational order of the rooms within the tunnel also seems to suggest that the gender gap in clothes, beauty products and toys and violence against women and transgendered people, are all products of the media. Music is a social artifact, an explanation of where we are at as a collective culture. Pop music, like many other forms of media, is often an example of attitudes than run much deeper than lyrics and images. The mainstream music industry is systematically marginalizing women and minorities. On the radio, most artists are male and sing about content that affects them the most, and not necessarily about issues all females can relate. It is not reasonable to blame pop culture for society’s problems. If it were the root of continued inequality, it would be easy to solve. Examining the cultural implications of these types of media is important. However, it is imperative not to fall back on this easy way out and ignore the true meaning of why there are violent, racist and misogynist songs, videos and advertisements being produced.