To Be or Not to Beyonce
Amber Poirier
Popular culture is all around us, in every aspect of our life. According to sociologist Dustin Kidd, popular culture provides vital functions within our culture. It often identifies us, separating us from those we are unlike and drawing us closer to those we share commonalities with (Kidd, 76). Popular culture promotes social norms which produce rituals, offering solidarity between those who share these sentiments; such as an artist with a large fanbase and concerts (Kidd, 74). Social norms, according to Kidd, are guides to social behavior that are a mechanism of social cohesion. Failure to follow such norms can lead to exclusion. Social norms then produce rituals which result in feelings of shared sentiment and meaning. This also leads to social cohesion and solidarity by bonding members of society through rituals creating relationships (Kidd, 79). These result in boundaries that confine us and place us into boxes. Although popular culture can provide a multitude of conveniences, it can also have detrimental effects. A piece of popular culture are girl power anthems which hold empowering messages.
Not all women believe these messages are empowering, such as many feminists. Feminists Samhita, Nineteen-percent and Natasha believe girl power anthems are a harmful tool of popular culture. Girl power is the more widely accepted, popular culture-endorsed version of feminism. It’s sexy, loud, attention grabbing and femme. This is in contrast to traditional feminism, which is stereotypically thought of as unsexy, rough and radical. The two both claim to support female empowerment and equality however both are typically oppositional to each other. These feminists believe popular culture uses girl power anthems to further promote the norms and boundaries of society born from popular culture itself. As Nineteen Percent points out, “messages of “girl power” in…media are useless unless there’s actual work being done behind them.” (Nineteen Percent, 4:27). She explains that our society is far from an egalitarian society so why do girl power anthems exist? These “faux-empowering” (Samhita, para. 1 ) anthems are simply masking the inequality within our society between men and women thereby “lulling [women] into a false sense of achievement and distracting them from doing the work it takes to … [reach a] socially egalitarian society” (Nineteenpercent, 0:29). It is a premature celebration for a struggle not yet won or laid to rest. Other than falsifying woman’s place in society, girl power anthems accomplish nothing. If a woman thought about what she must accomplish in order to have a successful life according to popular culture and society, what would she think of? Perhaps marriage, a good job, maybe children and being a good mother to them would come to mind, and maybe it is what a woman should want. Although it is wonderful to have aspirations and fantasies, those values influenced by culture can skew what is truly progressive in our society. Our values and perceptions have been brought to a point where women are looked down upon by someone regardless of which path they choose. The perception should be women are celebrated regardless of their path in life and doing what makes them happy. Although social and cultural revolution is not the intent of many girl power anthems, some truly attempt to put forth empowering messages to young women that could be considered beneficial, such as Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter”. Her anthem is about the man she loved using her for his own gain, but more importantly it’s about moving on from it.
Girl power anthems are a microcosm of the greater beast, popular culture. This begs the question, what is the purpose of girl power anthems and what role do they play in society? If popular culture consists of the most widely advertised and accepted beliefs and values, it makes sense that the targeted audience will follow the lead exemplified for them. Kidd explains “mass media [is] the key means by which the ideas of the dominant classes might be transmitted to the whole of society in the era of late capitalism” (Kidd, 75). Feminists ask the question who is the dominant class (but more accurately the dominant sex)?
All facts point to men and pleasing the male gaze, discussed by Natasha as “feminist scholars to describe how the film industry typically adopts the point of view of heterosexual men by using camera angles and filming techniques that objectify women” (Natasha, para 3). However this does not stop at camera angles, it continues to children’s TV shows and movies (what size is Ariel anyway?), and advertisements all around us. Societies standards are the biggest enforcer of actions because we are told what we need to do, and then we attempt to achieve it. Magazine covers are plastered with goldilock guidelines of being the perfect balance of both promiscuous and prude. Samhita explains “larger power structures” (Samhita, para )are what provide these choices for us.
In this advertisement, this woman has literally been reduced to an object, a beer bottle — which leads us into a quick discussion regarding beer in order to come full circle. Beer tends to correlate with the man bar drink and therefore this ad is to appease and attract men. The ad provided before shows one of the lowest ways society depicts women. In the TIME magazine cover where Malala Yousafzai is named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” could be considered a higher point, but it is not considered the best because this image has been photoshopped. This is an attempt to provide a spectrum, from where we are to where women should be. What can be concluded is according to society, in order to be influential you must also be appealing. Popular culture brings our society to a place where women are objectified and hyper-sexualized. As Nineteenpercent states, “Female sexuality is for sale; it’s profitable” (Nineteenpercent, ). Where on this spectrum can girl power anthems reside? Women like Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry and Beyonce are attempting to relay empowering messages, so what is the problem? It is hard to put forth empowering messages while already being packaged how society will accept you. While singing about being powerful and strong, there is an attempt at of a perfect mix of sexy and empowered. This results in girl power anthems being somewhere in the middle, not terrible but far from the best.
In a concrete example, take the widely known “grrl power” anthem of “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera, an anthem of fabricated love and gained wisdom. Using broken ballerinas, moths and the theme of metamorphosis, Aguilera accurately depicts aspects of popular culture and norms pushed on women throughout the video. However, in order to do so, she herself succumbs to the norms of society. This supports Natasha’s claim that girl power anthems are simply “a creative, aesthetic, call to empowerment” because women are viewed to be the most accepted and powerful when demonstrating beauty and promiscuity (Natasha, para. 5). Aguilera’s message is going against those of popular cultural norms and rituals. However, although she is going against aspects of popular culture she continues to use sexuality to her advantage. Her sexuality is displayed in order to be accepted by society and get attention, and once she grasps societies attention she unleashes her message of empowerment and strength. In the beginning both the ballerinas and a moth are struggling to stand and progress because they are damaged in some way. This is a visual representation of this hierarchy of puppeteering. Popular culture pushes norms on women; to be graceful, proper, dainty, passive, beautiful, submissive—much like ballerinas. When society thinks of ballerinas some words that come to mind are graceful, beautiful and demure. However, people who perform ballet would consider it a rigorous and painful sport. This is a comparable representation of how women are seen versus what they truly are. In the video, the ballerinas are meant to represent societies restraints on women and the damage they cause. The ballerinas depicted in the video represent the weight of these norms by appearing broken or damaged.
Popular culture can be defined in infinite ways. To Mimi White, popular culture is a cultural artifact that we as a society use to work through mainstream social beliefs and values as well as the “contexts in which they are produced, distributed, and received” (White, 122). Drawing from Durkheim, Kidd argues that popular culture “offers a complex system of identity creation and separation”, such as social norms and boundaries (Kidd, 76). Continuing, this song also depicts Aguilera’s metamorphosis using moths to do so. Although in the video she is following norms, the video contains symbols that go against them. Together is how Aguilera effectively portrays her attempt to distance herself from the norms of society. She ends in a white, tattered gown and seems to emerge from the pool of darkness. She continues to progress forward with moths fluttering around her. At this point in the video she has discussed and portrayed her negative experiences and shed her dark clothing. Moths are the choice of insect in this video. Moths are basically the ugly cousin to butterflies, and this choice holds significance. Societies views of butterflies are similar to the ideas surrounding ballerinas, and women. They’re beautiful and majestic. Moths, although incredibly similar, are followed by a completely different connotation. They are seen as unappealing and creatures of the night. This is a representation Aguilera breaking the norms of society. Instead of choosing the most beautiful, she chooses the second best. It is an attempt to have the audience focus on the metamorphosis, lessons and strength of both her and the moths while not focusing on beauty. Aguilera has in a sense created her own beauty as opposed to complying to society’s standards. In the climax of the video, Aguilera is a focal point of light surrounded by darkness. The darkness can continue to represent norms and boundaries set by society. At this point, her contrasting the darkness is her statement of growing into her own version of beauty and not allowing societies standards to prevent her from getting her message to the masses. Although Aguilera’s song and video do not encompass every issue women have in our society, one cannot argue that the message is an important one.
Popular culture uses girl power figures to promote the norms of society and produce anthems to further promote such norms created by the rituals born from popular culture itself. Considering popular culture produces and promotes the most widely spread and known beliefs and values of a culture, what is being put out there is important in terms of how groups are depicted on such platforms. This is because what is put out there is what society will then accept and think is acceptable in terms of behaviors, beliefs and actions. If women are projected as objects and sexualized, that’s how society will look at women. That being said, women are sexy. Women are also beautiful, powerful, strong, resilient and more. Popular culture must figure out how to put forth these complex aspects of women as opposed to diluting them to something other than everything that they are. We as a society should push for that change and women specifically should begin with supporting and empowering each other as an example for how society should act towards women as a whole. Although I have been exposed to a small portion of this large issue that affects over half the American population, including myself, I have taken away many lessons. Echoing the feminists mentioned before, be weary of how the media you subject yourself to is portraying women and question if it is a message and image you wish to support. If you do not agree there is always the options of taking a stance and not supporting that form of media. How women should be represented in our culture is uncertain, whether it be more along the lines of typical feminism or girl power, no one is fully comfortable with either end of the spectrum. If we as consumers support and shape popular cultures output, perhaps we as consumers should only accept what are holistic depictions of people, values and beliefs within our culture.
Amber Poirier
Works Cited
“Behind Every Strong Man, There Is an Even Stronger Beyonce.” Behind Every Strong Man, There Is an Even Stronger Beyonce. Feministing, 24 May 2011. Web. 12 Sept. 2014. <http://feministing.com/2011/05/24/behind-every-strong-man-there-is-an-even-stronger-beyonce/>.
“Beyonce’s “Run the World” (Not So Much).” Beyonce’s “Run the World” (Not So Much). Feministing, 20 May 2011. Web. 8 Sept. 2014. <http://feministing.com/2011/05/23/beyonces-run-the-world-not-so-much/>.
“Why I Like My Feminism Gray…” The BeGirl Manifesta. Wordpress, 23 May 2011. Web. 8 Sept. 2014. <http://begirlmanifesta.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/why-i-like-my-feminism-gray/>.
Aguilera, Christina. “Fighter.” YouTube. YouTube, 17 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.
