Discuss the term essentialism with regard to both race and gender and discuss how these ideas relate to popular music studies.

Essentialism in society is "the practice of regarding something (as a presumed human trait ) as having innate existence or universal validity rather than as being a social , ideological , or intellectual construct or in simpler terms , ascribing one trait or set of traits to a specific group of people , disregarding individual variations or possible variations ( Spelman , n .d . Essentialism is practiced by everyone as a biological pattern-recognition mechanism . It can , however , and frequently is , used as a hostile tool to oppress and subject people grouped together by race , gender , financial circumstances , and sexual

br identities and orientations . Essentialism is a dangerously powerful tool employed by politicians hoping to incite the emotions of the general populace enough to overlook the rationality of their words and meanings Essentialism is degrading to every person on a personal level it strips individuals of individuality , attributing traits based on skin tone hair color , religious beliefs , sexual preferences , sexual identity gender identity , body type , clothing choices-- leaving room only for what are considered the "basics " regardless of their truth or falseness . It defines "gender roles "race roles " any role based on these traits (Narrative Therapy , n .d . The increasingly accessible media of popular music acts only as fuel for reducing whole bodies of people to one set of traits . Statistics regarding record sales are null and void when the actual listening audience of any popular music is concerned it is played in shopping malls , on public transportation , in private businesses , often on public streets : any genre of popular...