You Don’t Own Me

The classic song “You Don’t Own Me,” was originally sung by Lesley Gore and now by Grace and G-Eazy for the movie Suicide Squad. The song was considered a feminist anthem ahead of its time. The lyrics sang by Gore praise her independence and her lack of desire to be controlled or to impress a guy. She is who she is and she doesn’t need anybody.

Gore sings “You don’t own me. Don’t try to change me in any way. You don’t own me. Don’t tie me down cause I’d never stay.” Gore focused on herself and who she was in the song. She even tells the guy that she won’t tell him what to do and in return he shouldn’t try to tell her what to do either.

In the most recent release of this song in 2015 by Grace and G-Eazy, the song takes a little of a different route than the original. Grace still sings the same lyrics, but G-Eazy raps a new part to the song. His first verse says:

“But I’m Gerald and I can always have just what I want
She’s that baddest I would love to flaunt
Take her shopping, you know Yves Saint Laurent
But nope, she ain’t with it though
All because she got her own dough
Boss bossed if you don’t know
She could never ever be a broke ho”

I love parts of this because he is acknowledging that he knows she doesn’t need him. She is independent and she can take care of herself. He acknowledges that she is strong, independent, and fully capable of doing anything and everything that she wants. The issue I have with his rap is that he refers to her as a ho and later on in the second verse he has he refers to women as bitches.

Overall, I think this song does a good job at representing a strong woman who is in control of her life and knows what she wants, but I think there are a few parts that stick out to me and bother me slightly. She owns who she is and in G-Eazy’s part, he acknowledges who she is and he likes her even more because of it. I think it is important for people to support each other and who each person is instead of trying to hold people down for their own benefit.