Female- Kieth Urban

I'm going to write about the topic that we had planned to talk about today in class. When the song Female Kieth Urban first came out I really liked it. After I saw an article writing how the song had stirred up controversy and negative responses I was intrigued as to what people hadn't liked about the song. It also prompted me to look at the song more critically. Personally I normally do not look at things through a women and gender study lens or if I do it's very slight lens. Compared to when I am in class and have a very women and gender studies lens on. So in the blog post I am going to analyze "Female" through a heavy women and gender studies lens.

So a little background on the song. It was released relatively recently in 2017 after the Harvey Weinstein allegations came forward. The intent of the song, I believe was show the need to repeat women. The song goes through many of the roles women play throughout their lives during the chorus and into more specific scenarios during the refrain. The refrain goes through scenarios likes "When you hear somebody say somebody hits like a girl
How does that hit you?Is that such a bad thing?When you hear a song that they play saying you run the worldDo you believe it?Will you live to see it?"
They were intended to be lyrics that women would find similarity in and common ground with. Some viewers though thought the lyrics were more "mansplaining" though and less of an allied intent. I still like the song even though some do not. I might be missing something that makes it less appealing so if anyone that reads this sees this song in a different light I would be interested to see what I missed. (ps that was serious and not sarcastic I actually want to see where the mansplaining argument comes from)

Comments

  1. Allison RossDecember 11, 2017 at 5:45 PM

    I actually got really excited when I saw this blog post because I heard this song on the radio and immediately thought of this class but didn’t get a chance to write about it. Honestly, ever since first hearing this song, I’ve always seen it as a positive song for women. I think Keith is just making people stop and question what women are to men and the typical insults that are thrown at women. Like is it such a bad thing to hit like a girl? One of my favorite quotes from Mia Hamm is, “My coach said I ran like a girl. I told him if he tried a little harder, he could too.” I have a sticker on my laptop of this. I think these typical sayings are so ingrained in our minds that it’s hard to get out of them but things or sings like this that make us think outside the box are helping break the mold.

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