Lily Allen Gender Roles

Beyoncé is a singer known for her fantastic voice, rejuvenating dance moves, and most importantly her empowering throughout her songs. These skills are no different in her song “Pretty Hurts.” Released on June 10, 2014, from her self-titled album Beyoncé, the song written by Sia, Joshua “Ammo” Coleman, and Beyoncé herself resonates its empowering message with people of all different genders, body types, and races. This song, in particular, is targeted towards women, especially young women who are still developing. Beyoncé gained popularity when she started off in an all-female group named Destiny’s Child back in 1997, and once she broke off from the group, she only continued to grow as an artist and person. In all six of Beyoncé’s solo studio albums, there are songs with galvanizing messages of female power and all of them reached number 1 on the charts. In Beyoncé’s song “Pretty Hurts,” she uses social issues, rhetorical appeals such as pathos, literary devices, metaphors, and vivid imagery to further the theme of female empowerment.

This song displays the traditional messages sent by male artists. What about female artists? What do their songs portray? Andsager and Roe’s findings give a good description. According to them, there are two kinds of female artists. The strong, more established female artists portray women as “fully equal.” These women are in their thirties at least, they are more established, and they dress in casual suits. They sang romance, female emancipation, and heartbreak like the rest, but they did not compromise their image in their videos. They use Trisha Yearwood as an example in her song Everybody Knows. The other type, were women who “fell into the lowest level on the consciousness scale.” They used Deana Carter’s song We Danced Anyway as an example. In this song she rolled on the beach in a wet t-shirt. Another one is Faith Hill’s song Breathe. In this song, Hill is seen rolling around in her bed sheets with no clothes on.

Her use of the term “patriarchal” throughout creates emphasis on the prominence of hip-hop figures depicting such influential imagery. The use of euphemism can also be interpreted as a rise in misogynistic attitudes, as opposed to the patriarchal manhood.

She elaborates more as she continues further into the fifth paragraph by stating that “Sexism and homophobia saturate hip-hop culture and any deviation from these forms of bigotry is made marginal to its most dominant and lucrative expressions.” Her argument is further explained when she uses the actions of female rapper, Eve, who appeared in “one of the most hateful misogynistic anthems in hip-hop”, to give the reader a real-life relatable example of how male rappers use women like her to become influential in their choices. Mclune goes on to explain how this appearance “displays her unity not with the women branded “pigeons”, but with the men who label them.” This defines the author's point that in the hip-hop scene, the male species calls that

In order to please her man, she is willing to do anything. As a result, she expects to get the things she wants. However, throughout the song she gives some clues that allow people to have an idea about her inner struggles. For example, she is self-conscious about her weight, she does not have a good relationship with other women, and she feels the need to use sex as her weapon to gain, material wealth and power over men. This song is congruent with Morgan’s opinion that women are denied access to power and are suffering for it. It also give people an idea, why men are referring to women as bitches.

In her chorus she also says "Run and hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady/ Cause I raised you better, gotta keep it together/ Even when you fall apart. " This to me makes me feel like society holds women up to a higher standard, where we always have to act like ladies and be ok. I feel as if we cannot show our emotions because we have to live up to that standard of society. We always need to act like ladies and be ladylike, when in reality there are times we want to go crazy.

McFarland 2003 argues that the origin of Misogyny in music, not only in hip hop is the society and culture it has for so long endeared. Normally, people in America have valued the boy child, to endowing men as adults (McFarland, 102). At the same time, they have considered women as subjects to men who should show total submission. This argument has found many backups, with scholars and authors arguing that the American culture is the force

look and point at gay couples, it is human nature to feel singled out and targeted. This song states that We are beautiful no matter what they say/ Yes, words can't bring us down, oh no. It is trying to help the stereotypes understand that being beautiful is more than the image, it is the inner beauty. Gay people may become ashamed of there orientation because the socially acceptable way to be is straight. This is a double standard of the lyrics, because it states that even if people do act in rude and unkind manners, the gay people will still consider themselves beautiful. But this

This is the message that is portrayed in song “Bitch Bad” by Lupe Fiasco. Although the song can be said to have various interpretations, the most striking one is that of patriarchy and the roles of a man. The song reinforces patriarchy in the society and makes it clear that the man has the role to protect his woman by defining her.

“Girl On Fire” by Alicia Keys is an empowering song wrote to emphasize the strength in women of all jobs. Alicia Keys, who has always promoted female empowerment, wrote this song to explain how she was feeling in a woman in this society. Within the song and the music video, the song talks about a women who really has the typical “female” job. She is a mom who takes care of her kids, cleans, and really runs the household. The message, however is not shaming women who are in this role. Instead, the song speaks of how women are strong no matter what role they play in the world. Keys speaks about how we live in this world where women are so oppressed, but because we are so strong, we are going to stand our ground and fight for what we believe in

A prime place in the media where sexism can be found is in music. Robin Thicke’s 2013 song, “Blurred Lines,” is an excellent example. The song contains many lyrics suggesting rape and assault, such as, “I know you want it,” “let me liberate you,” and “swag on ‘em even when you dress casual.” These lines shouldn't even need an explanation of why they're sexist, including the line “I know you want it.” Amid many articles on mic.com, one written by journalist Elizabeth Plank states that the song is about, ““liberating” a good girl by showing her that she actually wants “crazy wild sex” that she isn't asking for.”

Furthermore, the men in the music video bring their instruments and music equipment into the bathroom and have a party. In the women’s restroom, Stefani is alone with two female bathroom attendants to ensure her safety and comfort. Stefani shows much aggravation in the video as she sings, “I'm just a girl in the world / That's all that you'll let me be! / Oh I'm just a girl, living in captivity / Your rule of thumb / Make me worry some / Oh I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?” Stefani presents an existential frustration within these lyrics, she’s just a girl which seems to delegitimize her individual and equal experience of her life in relation to a man’s total ability to fulfill his wants and needs in his own life. However, she seems to be addressing society as a whole, and not solely men’s ideas about women as being vulnerable. The “rule of thumb” she refers to can be seen as the gendered norms of masculinity and femininity that have been instilled through time that hinder one’s ability to have total life fulfillment.

For twelve weeks Blurred Lines was at the top of the Billboard 100 charts and could be heard thumping from speakers everywhere. Sung by Robin Thicke and featuring prominent rappers T.I. Harris and Pharrell, this track was proclaimed the anthem for summer 2013 . At the surface the song is seemingly harmless with a cheery rhythmic beat and catchy lyrics, but when examining the song and accompanying music video, Blurred Lines is anything but harmless. Dubbed “that rape song” by many discerning listeners, Blurred Lines is a song about the blurred lines of consent. With gems such as “You’re an animal, just let me liberate you” and “I’ll give you somethin’ big enough to tear yo ass in two” featured throughout the song it is astonishing how

For instance, one of the lyrics in the song states, “After every fight, just apologize, like cooking dinner and baking pies. And then maybe I’ll let you try and rock my body right.” This quote goes to show that the stereotype of women is that they use sexual pleasure as an ultimatum to get the things they want. This is degrading to women because they are then seen as desperate to have to stoop so low that they must give an ultimatum to men on order to have their standards and expectations met. Another example of how women are controlling towards men in this music video is the image of women cooking for men if the men do what they are ‘supposed’ to do, such as bring home the money and always do the things that will keep the woman happy. This is also degrading men because they fall into the ultimatums of the women and do what the women want in order to fulfill the standards and expectations that they hold. Meghan Trainor was able to achieve this sense of dominance to each gender by using a strong method of pathos in her video. The video directly has an emotional appeal towards women and their need to be “treat[ed] like a

Blurred Lines is a popular summer song that is constantly played on the radio. A song like “Blurred Lines” should not be played on public radio. A big problem with “Blurred Lines” is that it attempts to normalize disrespectful behavior towards women. Robin Thicke teamed up with rapper T.I. and singer-producer Pharrell to deliver arguably this summer’s most popular song. The song “Blurred Lines” has placed number one on the billboard hot 100 and has sold over one million copies. Critical reception of the track is mostly positive. Yet with the success comes a not so positive response. When first listening to the song a person might find themselves nodding your head to a catchy tune, but perhaps once a person listens closely to the lyrics some people may not want this song on their iPods.