I have chosen the video for No Doubt's "Just a Girl" to show American attitudes of gender and sexism against women. Gwen Stefani sings about how women are stereotyped into little girls and coddled by society. The video shows the band (No Doubt) packing up their equipment and going to a gig. In the car, Gwen sings about how she knows "exactly where I stand. The world is forcing me to hold your hand" about not being allowed to live without being dependent on a man. When they arrive at their gig, the male members are sent into a filthy men's bathroom, while Gwen goes (alone) into a posh women's bathroom with a bathroom attendant. Gwen says she is basically being held hostage by society when she sings "I'm just a girl, living in captivity" about
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As the mother figure, women have been protected and kept safe away from potential conflict to make sure that children could be born and humankind could thrive for another generation. Women were the only ones who could provide for small children still nursing, so women were grouped together in homes and villages for safety and convenience. This resulted in women becoming associated with being in the home exclusively, which fueled the attitudes that women could only be useful in the home other than being beautiful objects for men to treasure, as would happen if war brought the "property" of women to another group of people. Gwen vocalizes this exclusivity when she sings "I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite, so don't let me have any rights." She's commentating on the lack of rights women have traditionally had, and that despite the fact that we do now have "equal" rights, society still treats women as fragile, pretty creatures instead of as human citizens and people, and asserts that there are things we shouldn't be doing, be allowed to do, or are too weak to …show more content…
I probably listened to "Tragic Kingdom", the album this song came from, hundreds of times because I just really loved the strong messages Gwen sang about. No matter the subject, No Doubt had a way of taking something dark and serious and making light of it, while still getting a political jab in at it. Many of my favorite bands and authors do that. I think the draw was that Gwen was saying, 'this is the world we live in, but I'm not happy with that, and you shouldn't be either. Recognize what's going on, take a stand for yourself, and make the changes to better your world.' I believe that only through conscious effort and armed with knowledge can we make changes to how society thinks, a generation at a time. I wish more young women in the current generation could hear this song like I did, at the height of my becoming a knowledgeable young adult. I think it could help women in other countries, who are just now starting to shed the manacles of their societies and saying they are just as capable as men are. It should be one of the anthems of strong, young women like Malala Yousafzai as she fights for the rights of Muslim girls to go to school; or the young 11-year old Yemeni girl that ran away to escape an arranged marriage. This is the kind of song that supports a message to girls and women to be strong and to throw off the veil of oppression just because of our
As the mother figure, women have been protected and kept safe away from potential conflict to make sure that children could be born and humankind could thrive for another generation. Women were the only ones who could provide for small children still nursing, so women were grouped together in homes and villages for safety and convenience. This resulted in women becoming associated with being in the home exclusively, which fueled the attitudes that women could only be useful in the home other than being beautiful objects for men to treasure, as would happen if war brought the "property" of women to another group of people. Gwen vocalizes this exclusivity when she sings "I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite, so don't let me have any rights." She's commentating on the lack of rights women have traditionally had, and that despite the fact that we do now have "equal" rights, society still treats women as fragile, pretty creatures instead of as human citizens and people, and asserts that there are things we shouldn't be doing, be allowed to do, or are too weak to …show more content…
I probably listened to "Tragic Kingdom", the album this song came from, hundreds of times because I just really loved the strong messages Gwen sang about. No matter the subject, No Doubt had a way of taking something dark and serious and making light of it, while still getting a political jab in at it. Many of my favorite bands and authors do that. I think the draw was that Gwen was saying, 'this is the world we live in, but I'm not happy with that, and you shouldn't be either. Recognize what's going on, take a stand for yourself, and make the changes to better your world.' I believe that only through conscious effort and armed with knowledge can we make changes to how society thinks, a generation at a time. I wish more young women in the current generation could hear this song like I did, at the height of my becoming a knowledgeable young adult. I think it could help women in other countries, who are just now starting to shed the manacles of their societies and saying they are just as capable as men are. It should be one of the anthems of strong, young women like Malala Yousafzai as she fights for the rights of Muslim girls to go to school; or the young 11-year old Yemeni girl that ran away to escape an arranged marriage. This is the kind of song that supports a message to girls and women to be strong and to throw off the veil of oppression just because of our