From the 1970’s much has changed in how media would typically portray women as housewives who wanted to please their husbands by catering for them and looking after the children and home. Since then various legislations have been enforced which changed how media could portray women, now in modern media women are represented as beautiful stereotypes who every woman would want to be like. Their body image is still important in how they are viewed by the public and the media are very strong to bring this forward for the given audience. Here is where gender and identity come into account. Women’s magazines formulate images of femininity which are diverse in how women look aesthetically and their lifestyle; once this has been accomplished they
In 2016, the Queen B, Beyoncé, dropped her fifth solo album called, Lemonade. Lemonade is a visual album. Beyoncé’s album first premiered on HBO, April 23rd 2016. This album have many famous collaborators like, Jack White, James Blake, The Weeknd, and Kendrick Lamar. The speaker is Queen B, of course. The occasion is about tracing a story of infidelity and reconciliation. Beyoncé’s audience in this album are her fans and all the women experiencing the same thing she’s experiencing. The purpose of this album was about Beyoncé’s personal struggle and some of the wider issue faced by black women today and throughout history. There were also guests she added in this album such as, Serena Williams, the young actresses Quvenzhané Wallis and Amandla Stenberg, and the actress/singer Zendaya. Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, and Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, are also featured. Jay Z and Blue Ivy both appear in the later parts of the short film, when the story is focused on reuniting and future happiness. Beyoncé’s Lemonade uses many rhetorical techniques to appeal to pathos.
Music is universal, and we all use it for different reasons. It can help you get through a bad day, cheer you up, and it even enhances the mind. What about literature? Usually, when an author refers to a song in literature, the reader doesn’t think too much of it. However, a closer look at the text may change your view. For example, author Julie Otsuka uses this element in her the novel, When the Emperor was Divine. This novel is set during World War II. It is about a Japanese family sent to the internment camps because of the American prejudice towards their people. The author includes a lot of vaguely written details, including the main characters’ names. So, the reader relies on indirect characterization and symbolism to comprehend the story and the characters within it. One example of this symbolism is the musical aspect that the author decides to include, the songs. Through the songs and the context in which they are used, the author establishes the mood, provides the reader with better
Music all over the world has been shaping generations for many years now. The rock n roll of the 70’s and 80’s, pop and hip-hop of the 90’s and early 2000’s and finally, many different popular genres of the generation we now live in. Music provides a means of expression for all types of individuals. Some music even goes against the social norm and tries to bring attention to social injustices. The song “Crooked Smile” by rapper J. Cole tackles the issue of unrealistic expectations of women with the songs exceptional lyrics, broad metaphors, and positive tone. In this essay, I will talk about how J. Cole goes about empowering women through exceptional lyrics, broad metaphors, and positive tone.
The song “Pretty Hurts” was written by Beyonce Knowles. Known for her empowering anthems, she effectively connects with an audience of women with her gut wrenching ballads and unifying messages. She began her career in the girl group, Destiny’s Child, and embarked on a solo career in 2003. Since then, she has proved to be one of most famous and influential female singers of all time. In the song “Pretty Hurts” by Beyonce Knowles the speaker, a young woman who is dealing with body image issues, illustrates the idea that societal beauty standards are unattainable and harmful for young women. However, the speaker feels that women can overcome the pressure to adhere to these standards and be happy with their bodies. This message is directed toward other young women who, like her, are also affected by these detrimental beauty standards.
E SONG “I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU”, AS SUNG BY DOLLY PARTON AND WHITNEY HOUSTON
Though there are quite a few songs based on hatred and anger, songs such as “i” by Kendrick Lamar and “Love Yourz” by J. Cole teach viewers to love themselves despite all the negativity in the world. As for songs regarding sexually exploiting women, there are songs that speak out against this as well. Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y” is the perfect example of a feminist rap song, saying “I’m not your personal whore, that’s not what I’m here for”. These songs prove that there is positivity in the hip hop
Music is a way for people to send a message through the lyrics. Most songs are designed to entertain, however, they also communicate a certain message that the rhetor(s) intend to share with an audience. Songs can defy societal norms and provide a new perception of a problem in our culture. Dr. Funnell uses Beyoncé’s song, Flawless, as a prime example in her “broad based discussions about the women, the industries, and the messages in popular culture that are being presented to our society and what effects they have”. So when she uses
Ludacris, a famous male singer released a song featuring Mary J. Blige in 2007 called “Runaway Love.” This song speaks for itself and Ludacris does an excellent job of portraying his message about various struggles that some people are faced with in life. Runaway Love reperents the struggle of life through hip-hop and rap music. The song portrays a story of little girls who are for instance “stuck up in a world of their own.” The people around them strictly don’t care about them, which leads them having to own up and care for themselves. These girls are at the ages from 9 to 11 and at a young age their goal in life is to run away from their home. In this song, Ludacris try to bring a message to the listeners by trying to get people to realize the struggle that children have to face. Adults aren 't the only people that go through hard times and struggles, children do as well. Though people believed adults are the only people to have problems, children just have problems in their own different ways.
Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.
“If I should stay, I would only be in your way…” Anyone today could probably finish the rest of this song after hearing these lyrics. “I Will Always Love You” is one of the most iconic songs of the 21
Taylor Swift is an American songwriter who is well known for her music that focuses mostly on love stories. She writes pop music about heartbreak, and making up. In the song “You belong to me” Taylor Swift sings a song about a typical teenage drama that a lot high school females may experience.This song shows a young girl who is portrayed as having a dorky nerdy look. Also, it shows a girl that is opposite of her, who is a pretty brunette known by the highschool kids. The “nerdy” girl is in love with a football player, who she believes will never have a chance with, because he is with another girl. “Taylor swift” has a crush on a boy who is blind to see that she really loved her and not the girl he is with who is portrayed as a “popular” Brunette.This is an important aspect to Taylor Swift because she is known to sing love stories that she hears about or experience herself. Taylor was not a one-hit wonder type. Her album parlayed record- breaking singles including “Teardrops on my guitar” and “our song.”Girls all over the world were falling in love with her music, they could resonate with the love stories (taylorswiftplanet). In the same way, her songs are mostly related to stories. In the song “You belong with me”The catchy hit single from the album fearless topped country and pop charts. Swift was inspired to write the song after she overheard a male friend quarreling over the phone with his girlfriend
In a society that is heavily influenced by mass media, women are repeatedly compartmentalized into unrealistic, and often degrading standards of appearance and sexuality. Doris Bazzini’s research on magazines and Caroline Heldman’s blog explores themes related to a woman’s appearance, while Jessica Valenti elaborates on the concept of virginity in her essay titled, “The Purity Myth”. Despite the diversity in scope when it comes to womanhood, there is a numerous set of expectations that a female must fit in order to be “ideal”. However, this checklist is so specific and debasing that it renders the criteria useless. The three main pre-requisites in being the ideal woman include physical attractiveness, sexual accessibility, and purity. The pressure
This song represents Vera. She is one of the ten guests invited to the island by Lawrence Wargrave, a man concealing himself amongst the guests as the killer. They are all brought here to inevitably be killed, to serve justice against their previous crimes that didn’t get properly justified by the law. Wargrave kills all ten of them going in order from most innocent to most guilty. Vera means truthful, but she isn’t truthful at all. Lawrence Wargrave kills her last because he concludes that she committed the worst crime of all. She’s a very paranoid lady, and murdered for love. Vera baby-sat Cyril, a boy that came from a very wealthy family. His father had died, and Vera was dating Cyril 's uncle, Hugo. If anything were to happen to him, Hugo
Throughout out the text, the author repeatedly uses the work “flawless” coupled with pronouns and or actions, for example, “You wake up, flawless” (Knowles line 46, 50). This connection between physical actions and the word creates this idea that only visible things can be perfect. The author also describes physical objects as flawless like “This diamond, flawless” (Knowles line 50). By also describing an object as flawless, the author is stating that females are like objects. Diamonds are an especially interesting choice as they are mainly seen as something to be bought to look nice. This is then inforcing the idea that women are just commodities that are only needed for their looks. This sends out a potentially harmful message, that only what a person looks like or does is worth paying attention to. While the song is not defining what it means to look “flawless,” it is still putting emphasis on outward appearance, not on how a person acts. As this song is marketed at women, who the media often say are only good for their looks, it can reinforce the idea that it is still physicality that is important, even if the song doesn’t define how their appearance should be. “I woke up like this” is a hashtag where people show pictures of themselves without make-up, but it is still focusing on what women look