Gender Schemas and Doing it Like a Dude

Jessie J in the music video "Do it Like a Dude"

Tags:  art/music, gender, intersectionality, race/ethnicity, sex/sexuality, androcentrism, female masculinity, gender performance, masculinity, schemas, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2010
Length: 3:21
Access: YouTube

Summary:  [Trigger warning: there is explicit language used in this clip.] This is the official music video for  English pop singer and songwriter Jessie J's debut single "Do it Like a Dude" (2010). I use this video to discuss gender schemas, or cognitive processes by which individuals become gendered in society. I begin by asking students to identify, according to the video and society at large, the different characteristics that compose "doing it like a dude." Students might mention such things as wearing certain attire, making certain movements or gestures, drinking beer, smoking cigars, having money, being aggressive, or having heterosexual penetrative sex. Students can be encouraged to think how our ideas about these behaviors serve to gender individuals. The video is also a useful catalyst for a discussion about intersectionality and the multiplicities of masculinities (and femininities). For example, instructors might ask students to identify characteristic associated with racialized constructions of gender (e.g., Black masculinity, Latino masculinity, white masculinity, etc...), and how different constructions of masculinity are similar and/or different from one another. Further, the juxtaposition between the lyrics and the styling of Jessie J is also a useful illustration of capitalism and marketing. While singing about performing masculinity, Jessie J performs a sexualized femininity, and students are often quick to connect this with the drive to sell albums. Finally, the video can be used to discuss issues related to androcentrism—can we imagine a male artist trying to "do it like a woman?"

Submitted By: Michelle Sandhoff

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