Rihanna as an Artifact of our Society.
In today’s society, popular culture has always held a certain importance to the general public. It is our defining feature as a community that undoubtedly reveals what we value. Music videos in particular have become artifacts of our culture. There are millions from each phase our society and subgroups in society go through, which is the reason they are considered cultural artifacts. We are currently in the midst of feminism as well as a girl power phase. There are countless music videos that have been made recently to address the gender inequality issues. The issues with stereotyping women as the weaker sex, incapable of achieving what a male would be able to do. Pop culture is pioneering social change to transform the belief that men are better than women.
Singers like Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, and Rihanna have captivated their vast audiences’ attention with their feminist attitudes through their songs and music videos. These girl power anthems are beginning to reform America’s views towards feminism. Their songs are permanent cultural artifacts created solely from popular culture. When it was first released in 2007, “Take a Bow” by Rihanna exploded with popularity. Swide magazine placed it in its list of the Top 25 Girl Power Anthems, competing with songs dating back to the 1960’s. A synopsis of this song is Rihanna asserting her power over her unfaithful ex-boyfriend by kicking him out of her house while he begs for forgiveness. The entire scene symbolized that when relationships are damaged beyond repair, the girl can stay strong too. Instead of the cliché situation where the girl would be extremely upset if she had been cheated on, he is the one crying while Rihanna has self-control over her emotions.
While “Take a Bow” seems to be about the ending of a relationship, it is really a model that is constructing social norms and paving the way for social change. Rihanna challenges the idea that women rely on men. When her ex-boyfriend says, “Girl, I love you. You’re the one.” she drives away with confidence. Most girls love to hear this and melt when a guy says this to them, but not her. She opposes the social norm of a girl depending on a guy for happiness while paving the way for social change by displaying her independence.
Dustin Kidd wrote an article in The Journal of Popular Culture called “Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture” in which he proposes the importance of popular culture, as it is a necessity to a healthy modern society (Kidd 74). He suggests the existence of something that one would not normally draw from pop culture alone. Pop culture is like crime; they are both needed to establish social norms and boundaries while leading the way to social change. Dustin Kidd uses Durkheim’s idea that crime has a social benefit; he uses the same concepts in his idea that pop culture is good for society (Kidd 71). The girl power anthem music videos work as an example for the popular culture in changing social norms. In the article, Kidd writes, “Pop culture offers a complex system of identity creation and separation.” His quote explains that pop culture is supposed to encourage people to be themselves and provide places like organizations that they can be apart of. Our society does not currently do this because of sexism; it is framing the way our women think and showing them pictures of how they are supposed to look. Feminism encourages women to be individuals; feminism does what pop culture is supposed to do.
There are women and men who are for feminism and men and women who are against it, and there are the extremes of both. 19percent is a video blogger and a feminist who expresses her opinion on Beyoncé’s song, “Run the World (Girls)”. She expresses her disapproval of the music video with uncompromising words. One of the first statements that vlogger 19percent makes is that Beyoncé is lying to impressionable young women by telling them that girls run the world when in fact they do not. She explains that girls do not “run the world” from any country or religion, giving girls a false sense of achievement. This vlog points out the element that no one wants to admit, Beyoncé produced a song telling us girls that we run the world, but we did not do anything to cause her to say that. Rihanna’s song “Take a Bow” may have the same effect of giving off the false sense of power. Rihanna proves that she is strong enough to kick out her ex-boyfriend, but not everyone who listens to her song has the same strength. Our patriarchal society still exists in some aspects, which is why Beyoncé and Rihanna have tried to contribute to changing the way we live through the power they have in pop culture. 19percent believes that they are doing more harm than good by producing their music videos.
Natasha Theory wrote a lengthy response to NinteenPercent’s video in which she showed how she is not a cliché feminist. She stands up for what she believes in and still wears her stilettos and lip-gloss. Not all feminists have to be exactly the same and oppose exactly the same ideas. In Rihanna’s music video, she is standing up for herself while still looking gorgeous throughout the song. Who says a feminist can’t be sexy? Theory’s definition of feminism is, “if my understanding of feminism is correct, the ultimate goal is to create a world where women can be whatever they want to be, whenever they want to be it, without limitations imposed by gender and sexism.” And if anything or anyone hinders a woman’s ability to do what they want, they are the enemy of women’s liberation.
“Behind every strong man, there is an even stronger Beyoncé” is an intriguing article written by feminist Samhita. She makes an effort to persuade the reader that Beyoncé’s song “Run the World (Girls)” should not be as empowering as it is. She points out that girl power may be a gimmick for money hungry corporations. She states “Girl power is often a pop culture tool used to encourage females to buy into a mainstream product.” By hearing encouraging words come from a woman who is idolized causes the listener to become empowered but being a girl and having power within herself.
Each critique of feminism through music causes the listener to re-think the purpose of Beyoncé’s Rihanna’s music videos, and any other girl power video for that matter. Some people argue that popular culture changes the way that we think and is more influential over our lives than we know. Each song included in the 25 Greatest Girl Power Anthems of All Time is created with a methodical recipe, every song with the intent to empower females. Rihanna was able to show girl power without the intent of fighting. She shows her power by controlling the situation she is placed in. She doesn’t show remorse while the male is the one begging for forgiveness, which isn’t as common in pop culture to see. The main ingredient in a girl power anthem is a female lead singer telling a story about what or why they are in charge. In many of the videos, girls are sexualized with their costumes and dances and boys are in the background being followers.
Girl power music videos may help some girls feel better about themselves whether it is through self-empowerment or love. These are important parts of pop culture today because girls need to feel powerful, not inferior. Dustin Kidd noted that pop culture is the most effective way of distributing norms throughout a society. This is due to the fact that people pay attention to what interests them. Generally, people are more informed about popular culture than the laws from their own country. This implies that it would be more effective for a celebrity to represent feminism than someone who is a full time feminist. He also writes that people reject popular culture that is associated with people that they don’t like. If someone opposes Rihanna or her music, they are more likely to become anti-feminist. Without solidarity or popular culture to bring solidarity to us, we would be biological and not social beings. We would be more like animals if it wasn’t for pop culture. I we did not socialize with one another we would not have innovation or education.
The cultural artifacts of our time evolve with us as a society. With all of the different viewpoints, feminism will become more prominent with time. Popular culture enables girl power anthems to become widespread and eventually the ideas of feminism will reach out to everyone in the society. For now, we are still working on it with the help of popular culture creating cultural artifacts to document the growth of feminism.
