Issues of Women: Messages in the Music

Rachel Nee
3/20/15

 

 

Issues of Women: Messages in the Music

            This week we discussed the issues of physical and verbal abuse against women, we looked at female artists who have expressed these messages within their music. We viewed artists such as Queen Latifah, Eve, TLC, and Rihanna; each of these artists expressed a different message in their videos. For example in Queen Latifah’s video Unity, she discusses the verbal abuse used against women and shows an example in her video of a man approaching her using vulgar language, she pushes him aside and explains in her lyrics how being called names such as a bitch can be abusive towards women and that that is no way to speak to females. She uses powerful lyrics to send out the message to not only females that they aren’t alone in being spoken to by men in a vulgar manner, but also to the male population to express that females shouldn’t be spoken to that way. In TLC’s video Hat to Da Back, the video is based on verbal abuse women receive for what they wear. In the video the girls are wearing baggy clothes and explain that that is how they want to dress, it makes them feel comfortable and they feel they shouldn’t be talked down about what they are wearing. In the video they are also shown wearing  dresses and use lyrics explaining how if they want to dress comfy they’re going to and when they want to dress up they will, it’s the woman’s choice on what she wants to wear and when she wants to wear it. We’re going to wear what we feel comfortable in, we aren’t going to wear something that will lead to men making vulgar comments, or men telling us how to dress, why should that matter so much? Eve displays the issues of physical abuse in her music video for the song Love is Blind. The video shows the image of a man abusing his girlfriend when she doesn’t listen to him, Eve includes in her lyrics that she doesn’t get why the girl stays with him even after he physically put his hands on her. Unfortunately, this physical abuse is what so many women out there deal with and don’t speak up because they feel alone, or fear what the man their in a relationship will do or say to them. It holds them back from getting help, Eve’s video is able to get the message to girls struggling out there that they are not alone and that it is ok to talk to someone about it. Men feel this control and they use words and physical actions to let the woman know they are dominant in the relationship and they have the control. Why do men think it’s ok to put women in that position? Why do women still get blamed for the way the men act towards them? We discussed this in class today how we see women getting blamed for being abused, people will tell them they shouldn’t have led the guy on, they shouldn’t have talked to another guy, etc. I find this to be so disrespectful, because women want to protect themselves that is now a bad thing? Yet the guy can continuously abuse and harass a woman? This discussion was based on the presentation for Rihanna’s video for Russian Roulette. This song was about her incident with ex Chris Brown who beat her, pictures surfaced of her injuries causing controversy everywhere. Some people sided with Rihanna, sympathizing with her and Chris Brown losing a lot of his fan base. However, some sided with Brown once again blaming Rihanna for what he had done to her. So her getting a black eye and bruises everywhere is what she deserved? Absolutely not, and if anything I think it was brave for Rihanna to put out this song and video, people were actually able to understand the message, she was held under control of Brown and let out the story within her music. In interviews she showed the real side of who she was, expressing emotion when asked about the incident. It’s sad to see someone in the spotlight, a women especially who was beaten by another artist, pictures of them before the incident showed them happy and in love, people don’t realize what happens behind closed doors. This surfacing caused people to try and avoid the incident, once again blaming the woman for what had happened. It's good to see that Rihanna has since cut Brown completely out of her life and was able to make a comeback. Being a fan of Brown before the incident, I have lost all respect in him. It isn’t right for a male famous or not famous to put down a woman for what they wear, to beat women for something they said or did, or for no reason at all. The issues of verbal and physical abuse I feel are not taken that seriously in our culture, once again the male is seen as dominant, so when a woman speaks up about abuse, she is just blamed for it most of the time. Women are not weak; they have the right to tell their story without being put down by someone. I admired these female artists for expressing messages in their music that women are afraid to speak up about, it encourages them to gain confidence and not be afraid to speak up about whatever they may be dealing with. Women have the right to have a voice and not be put down anymore or scared by a man.