Girl Power Anthems

Women have been discriminated against for all of history and discrimination still occurs today. One huge example of women being discriminated against is the only recent addition of the domestic violence law. This law is only two years older than most incoming freshman (1994), but domestic violence still occurs today. Thirty to forty years ago domestic violence would be almost commonplace in American households. Women have banded together and really put an emphasis on gaining equal rights to men, some get their fierce independence from listening to girl power anthems and songs that make women feel better about themselves. These anthems help women gain confidence in themselves and the values they believe in. Shown in the videos that continue to be made by these pop culture stars, trying to empower women through their music videos. As girl power anthems grew there was an equaling out in pop culture between the male and female artists and what the female artists were saying; that was helped by reaching out to the women and gaining a whole new audience and customers to sell to. The pop culture industry started to embrace these women fighting back against the system.

In Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture, Kidd relates these five functions to pop culture and how they affect society. One of Kidd’s claims is that social norms are “guides to social behavior, are important in social cohesion” (75). Kidd states this because pop culture provides role models, who are basically the “guide to social behavior” and provide common ground amongst people. Kidd claims that “Popular culture goes further than providing tools for social change; in many cases, it is actually the driving force behind social change” (80). This view suggests that girl power anthems can inspire the changes that need to be made; like pop culture these girl power anthems help mold society as well and help women become more confidant in who they are and the choices they make. An example of this would be the fan bases following these girl power anthems and the stars that sing them. These fans hang on every word their favorite star says and tries to apply what their celebrity says to their own life, which is why these girl power anthems are so powerful and can help the women’s movement of trying to gain equality.

Samhita, a blogger from femisting.com, comments back against these claims saying that these girl power anthems are actually just music and don’t empower the women to gain their independence from men. She says that these anthems actually do quite the opposite. She claims that these videos of girl power provide a sense of “faux-feminism” (Samhita para 1) and hurt the feminist movement towards equality, because even though the stars are singing about running the world like her example of Beyonce’s “Run the World (Girls)” they are still caving to the male stereotypes that all women should be sexy, which can be seen in Pink’s video where she is walking around in lingerie. Samhita comments on an article by a women named Natasha who supports the sexiness in these girl power anthems and believes that women have the right to dress how they want and that they way they dress is for themselves and not some male stereotype.

Pink’s video “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” is an example of one of these girl power anthems that helps embrace the girl power and help women feel more in control of their relationships, showing they don’t have to take any flack from a guy just because he is good looking. Pink’s video can be related to two of Kidd’s five functions of pop culture; social change and social norms. The social change from men having all the power in the relationship to a relationship where there is an even distribution between the man and the women. The men that are in these relationships feel that they have all the power because of the social norm of women feeling like there is nobody better for them, and that they have to settle for a man that has hurt them in the past. Pink displays these messages through all three aspects of music videos: the music in the actual song, the visuals in the video, and the actual lyrics of the song. All three help convey a message to women and are trying to empower them.

Girl power anthems are not always seen in the bright shining light by women, especially feminists, they see girl power anthems in a negative light. Samhita explains how girl power anthems are just a plot by people in the pop culture industry that only care about girls if they are buying the product that the industry wants them too. Video blogger named 19percent would agree with these While some women, specifically feminists feel that the girl power anthem in general retard the advancement of women’s rights to gain equality of the sexes; Pink’s video is an example of Kidd’s claims of social norms and social change in her girl power anthem, “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”.

One of the main functions of music videos is to clarify messages in the song that might be to subtle to some, and the visuals make the messages blaringly obvious. The visuals in Pink’s “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” show her overcoming a man that treated her so badly for so long. She shows this in the opening seconds of the video where it starts with Pink and her guy in a field on a romantic date and staring into each other’s eyes and enjoying the company of one another.

Then shortly after this scene she sings, “ White knuckles… But there’s nothing to grasp so I let it go” (Pink, “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)”). She sings this because she does most of the work in the relationship and she is holding on tight to him and the relationship, but he’s not giving her anything in return for her trying so hard. Samhita and 19percent would comment on this based on their views of Beyonce’s video by saying that she is following the stereotypically pattern of women falling back to men and this is not empowering women, but rather empowering men. Empowering these men by saying that they don’t have to try in a relationship and that woman will do all they work. Which is why men are stereotypically displayed in a bad light in these girl power anthems that focus on relationships because the past experiences of the women haven’t been good for them. The social norm created by these videos and popular culture is that men don’t treat the women they love the way they should. Also in most of the girl power videos having to deal with relationships there is one moment where the girl decides to take the guy back and even Pink in her spunky girl power anthem has a part like this.

Pink, who throughout the whole song is a strong women and sticks to her guns of breaking up with this man and leaving him in the dust shows weakness in one part of the video. Pink, wearing all black symbolizing an elegance as well as power. Showing her strength then comes down into a party where everyone is wearing all white, and while all the women are wearing dresses which is stereotypical gender role playing, she comes in in a pants suit and a hardened exterior that breaks the gap between genders. As Pink walks through the crowd she sees a woman in all white, which symbolizes a young more innocent version of her stares at herself and they start to dance. Showing a balance of light and dark in the video, or both sides of Pink and how she can either be innocent or powerful.

Another example of Kidd’s social norms in pop culture where the man doesn’t want the strong independent women, he wants the women who will conform to his opinions much like in today’s society. Pink shows acceptance of his love here, forgetting all of the stuff that he had done to her from the social norms society is comfortable with to the social change that isn’t embraced to the fullest. Pink shows up to the wedding in all black and rejoices when the wedding is ruined and shows that he needs her more than she needs him. “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” tries to flip the gender roles as a way of social change to prove a point to women that they do not have to deal with anything negative in a relationship. Samhita would say that even though the messages in both videos are meant to be a positive thing towards girl power, the real power would come from girls studying and doing their schoolwork instead of listening and adhering to these videos. Both of these videos show the social change that women themselves need to make in order to become happy in relationships.

The feminist population thinks that the girl power anthems have a negative effect on society, the comment page on Samhita’s Behind Every Strong Man is a Stronger Beyoncé that the feminist population agrees with all of her points and ideas. Although this may be true, Pink’s songs and other girl power anthems focus is for at least women to go out and dump her degenerate of a boyfriend, then it has done the purpose of the artist and can show women that not everything has to be taken to literally and be serious after a break up. Pink shows that it is ok to have fun and find a new guy after a woman breaks up with the presumable “love of your life”.