Macklemore 's Stand For Homosexual Equality

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

The appeal he uses most often is pathos, it is found throughout the song. Macklemore uses a word that is very hurtful to homosexuals: “faggots" (Haggerty, Lewis, Lambert, 2102). He uses it to show how people inappropriately use the word, but it is a word that causes a lot of pain to some people. His word choice is effective in bringing out emotion as in the line, “plagued by pain in their heart.” The choice to use the word plague describes just how bad the pain is. When people hear the word plague, we think of a widespread disease that affects hundreds and causes worldwide scare. He is saying that this pain is what they have in their heart every day. By using pathos to appeal to the emotion of love in every chorus, “my love, she keeps me warm,” Macklemore successfully tugs at a listener’s heartstrings because most can relate to the feeling of love in some way or another. Another phrase that he uses that applies to pathos is “some would rather die than be who they are.” In today's society, the topic of suicide is extremely emotional, which is what this lyric refers to. Macklemore uses a great deal of pathos appeal to reach out to his listeners and get his argument across.

Finally, the last way the music video argues for the rights of homosexuals is through logos. Logos refers to persuasion by means of logical appeal or reason. The video uses logic to show that the main characters do not deserve the treatment they receive. They are shown in the video doing nothing that would cause their house to be destroyed or beat up. It is only logical that people should treat others the way they want to be treated.

Ben Haggerty, Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert have written a song and made a music video that will make others look at gay’s rights and America differently. The message was powerful and well phrased, which made it interesting to listen to. The music video was also entertaining and unique to watch. The emotional impact of the visual story just makes you want to see the video over and over again. “Same love” is quite literally like nothing anyone has seen before. It has become a new revolution for the gay rights movement. The powerful message, the entertainment value, and the emotional appeal make the video well worth watching.

A major reason for the writing of this essay for Roxane Gay was to express the idea that gay celebrities have an obligation to come out and be counted to become role models for the community. Throughout the essay she focuses on three major coming out stories of three well-known celebrities : a journalist by the name of Anderson Cooper, Sally ride a famous astronaut, and Frank Ocean who is a up incoming hip hop artists. Using a strong narrative through the recalling of the stories of these three individuals Roxane gay express the importance of strong role models in the LGBT community. She compares the brave story of Frank Ocean’s coming out story in a community, that in the past has been known for being very homophobic, to the work of famous rapper “Tyler the Creator” . Gay expresses that people looking up to and idolizing Tyler the creator, a rapper whose work contains “213 gay slurs on one album”, is a step backwards, while having a brave role model like frank Ocean would help drive the progress of gay rights forward. Gay uses the rhetorical strategy of repetition by repeating the phrase we must “stand up and be counted” in order to support her idea that strong role models help the community and work towards a greater good.

In the music video "Same Love", Macklemore used pathos, history, and symbolism to emphasize on gay marriage, marriage equality, and homophobia in hip-hop. It follows a storyline of how a boy started to feel like he was gay in the 3rd grade, but his mom reassured him that it was just a phase. Throughout his life, he still had that strange feeling that he could not shake. He was even pressured by his peers to play a game called seven minutes in heaven. He became very uncomfortable which caused him to leave to another party. One day, he decided to bring his partner to his parents' house for dinner and disclosed that they were getting married. As usual, the parents are surprised to hear that their child likes the same sex. Towards the end of the story, the two men get married and by their sides were their families supporting them in every way. Finally, they were happy with a child

In the last several years the United States of America has shown progression towards equality for LGBT. With whole states being the frontrunners of support for LGBT rights it has become apparent that change is happening. In 2012 gay marriage was legalized in all fifty states, allowing many couples the ability to wed. Close friends of my mom were able to wed because of the law. Not only has there been steps taken for sexuallitys but, also for those who are transgender. In the last couple years the Transgender Community has seen discussion after discussion about the use of bathrooms. It has shown that there’s many who support trans bathroom rights and that the country is willing to move forward. Also on the chopping block of the transgender

In the article, “BOW DOWN, MACKLEMORE: Why Same Love is NOT My Queer Anthem,” Kelly Fox argues that Macklemore’s song Same Love is homophobic, racist, and that Macklemore is a poor excuse for an LGBT ally. While Fox may have a few good points, she rants throughout her article, and establishes almost no credibility with her audience. All of this makes finding those good bits really difficult and not worth it.

The most prevalent issue observed in the lyrics and music videos was gender and sexuality. This was in issue that was present and reoccurring in all of the top songs but occurred in different ways. This was no surprise though because we live “In a culture where sex and gender are centrally important” (2015; 73). The issue arises in the genre of music because of the way gender and sexuality is presented. In the top song “Die a Happy Man’ by Thomas Rhett, objectification was presented in both the lyrics and the music video. In the lyrics he says “Baby that red dress brings me to my knees, Oh but black dress makes it hard to break” and goes on to say “You’re a saint, you’re a Goddess, the cutest, the hottest, a master piece” (lyrics). It seems that his goal is to complement her, but he is objectifying her by judging her femininity (2015; 203). He also does this in the music video by having the girl in a bikini the whole time. Not only was the women objectified, but Thomas exposed a stereotypical relationship consequence. In modern society men tend to make a stereotype that they have to give up everything to be with a woman. Thomas did this in his lyrics when he talks about how he could “never get to see the Northern lights” or “never get to build my mansion in Georgia or drive a sports car up the coast of California” (lyrics). The second song was “Strip It Down” by Luke Bryan. In this song Luke definitely introduces gender roles in both the lyrics and the video. The song

While this song does convey a large and important message, what gives it its power is the situation our society is in right now. It is not hard to reflect on Macklemore’s song and realize all of the things he described are still very much in our world even today. People still hold physical possessions at an untouchable esteem, and practically worship brands.

Macklemore’s song, “Same Love,” with Ryan Lewis, featuring Mary Lambert, tells the younger generation about discrimination against gays, homophobia, and inequality. The song calls out people who want freedom, where our country came from, and what are religion says to show how if we don’t accept gays, there is a lot we can never have. Macklemore is disappointed with the way hip hop and rap talk about gay people without realizing how difficult they are making gay’s lives. It is also great when Macklemore practically asks religious people how exactly they do not support gay rights, and why they believe it is wrong because God is supposed to love everyone. Macklemore gives his honest opinion on how he feels everyone should be equal, and there are no “buts” or “ifs.” I stand by his opinion about love being love no matter what. Macklemore’s song, “Same Love,” he talks about societies false ideas of gays, the way the term “gay” is used in hip hop music, and that we are not equal until we allow gay rights with a huge change at heart.

Ben Haggerty otherwise known as the artist Macklemore is a rapper who has been working as an MC or Microphone Controller since the early 2000 's and has often collaborated with Ryan Lewis on his songs such as "Thrift Shop", "Can 't Hold Us", and "White Privilege II". He has done songs that target a wide variety of subjects and issues ranging from non-conforming to traditional gender roles to White Privilege and the Black Lives Matter movement. Like some other artists, his work demonstrates how he views the world around him using past experiences, interests, and feelings towards events like the protest that had occurred nearby his home on the night of Officer Darren Wilson 's non-indictment trial which he joined. The 33 year old music artist from Seattle has themed quite a portion of his work behind some liberal and nonconformist ideologies that involve experiences in his life like Thrift shopping which he has always loved.

He says, “no freedom ‘til we're equal, damn right i support it” (Macklemore). What this line means is that justice and freedom is only fair when everyone is equal. He supports everyone being equal. “Whatever god you believe in we come from the same strip away the fear underneath it's all the same love”(Macklemore). He is saying everyone is equal and should have liberty and freedom. Lastly he says, “its human rights for everyone, there is no difference.” (Macklemore). He believes everyone should be treated the same no matter what.

When you listen to most rap music a leitmotif of drug use and glorified alcohol consumption can be heard on most Hip-Hop artist’s albums. Macklemore is a self-proclaimed abuser of these vices. Unlike most he does not elevate these depravities but speaks of his struggles overcoming their drowning influence. In the song “Starting Over” he expresses the disgrace he feels when he relapses. Macklemore painfully illustrates this shame with the verse “Feeling sick and helpless, lost the compass where self is / I know what I gotta do and I can’t help it / One day at a time is what they tell us / Now I gotta find a way to tell them”(“Starting Over”). He explains that he knows what needs to be done to overcome this evil; nonetheless because of his dependence he has become lost, and is ashamed to say he has a problem. In his song “Neon Cathedral” he discusses how going to

Macklemore the rap sensation was born June 19, 1983 as Ben Haggerty, and was raised in Seattle. The rapper rose to the number two spot on the Billboard 200 album charts with very little help, and his second release in 2012 debuted at number two with the only obstacle being Mumford and Sons at number one. Macklemore grew up listening to “a lot of East Coast underground hip hop”. This inspired him to become Professor Mack Lemore in high school, then he released the Ep, Open Your Eyes, in 2000. His debut album, The Language of My World, was released five years later, but he only received a small amount of followers. But when Macklemore teamed up with the DJ and producer, Ryan Lewis, their work took off and eventually went widespread. When Macklemore