Blog 1
Alyssa Galvan
WMST 205
Blog 1
Prompt 1:The cultural artifact I chose to reflect what it means to be a woman, is the song Flawless, by Beyoncé. There is an excerpt in the middle of the song read by a Nigerian author named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This author is known as the most prominent acclaimed Anglophone author in which the excerpt was taken from a speech she did. The lyrics talk about what society expects and assumes about women. The lyrics mention what a female should typically be taught growing up.
Prompt 2: The excerpt talks about what society teaches females on how to behave, act, what to do, what not to do, and what they are expected of. It says that we teach girls to make themselves smaller, to have ambition and success but not as much as a man has. That women are expected to make life choices that revolve around marriage because it is the most important thing to achieve as a female. She then questions why we teach girls to desire and seek marriage but why we don’t teach boys the same? She continues saying that we raise women to always be in competition with other women for the attention of men and that maybe if we raise them to be in competition for accomplishments, it could be a good thing considering the determination for success they’d have. Coming to the end, she mentions that we teach girls that they cannot have a sex drive that outweighs the strength of a man’s sex drive. Finally, she ends the excerpt by stating the definition of a feminist; the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. The excerpt aims to challenge the traditional ideas about gender by contradicting the old ideology of women and by stating what we can be teaching instead.
Prompt 3:I believe this cultural artifact has greatly impacted the way I think about my own gender. When I first heard this song, I felt empowered and sexy which made me extremely confident and felt more woman than ever. Then, I heard that excerpt in the middle of the song and it completely opened my eyes that society DOES teach women these things. I believe no one should have to act a certain way just because they are a certain gender. I believe people should act the way they feel no matter what gender they are. People are free to test the boundaries of gender because we are no longer in a quiet, small world.
Prompt 4: In the sense of Wendy Griswold’s cultural diamond, the cultural artifact would be the excerpt from the song Flawless, by Beyoncé. The social world in which the cultural object exists in is in the music world. Because the creators of the cultural object are feminist, it is in the best interest of feminist when the song was made. The intended audience if feminist, but I’d also say the audience is everyone, feminist and non-feminist to try and persuade people to stop teaching women to be subordinate to men and to let them be who they want to be.
When I first heard this song I actually paid attention to the lyrics and that is something I never do. The song like you said basically describes what women are expected to do and I think that one of the most influential artists making a song about we should say F off to standards is so empowering to young girls along with girls themselves and that's what makes this song so cool along with your interpretation.
ReplyDeleteHello, I agree with your cultural artifact because it is against the gender expression that little girls are exposed to. I also liked the way you analyzed the lyrics of the song to explain how women are expected to give up everything to have children and and men are not. And I can see how the song challenges the specific description that women are supposed to have in order to be perceived as "real women" by society.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that you decided to do a song for your blog! i think thats so unique. I love chimamamnda, iv done two essays on her becuase of the messages she brings out about women and how society identifies their roles for them. I agree that we should disagree with what society has to say and that we should change those standards that society has for us women
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy the fact that you chose to pick this song for your cultural artifact because it is one of my absolute favorites. I completely agree with what you wrote here about the excerpt that is included in the song because like you said, it really is eye-opening to have someone explain how our society treats women. As a female, I feel like I am often so used to being treated as inferior to men in our society that I often forget just how discriminatory we actually are towards women. As the excerpt expresses, women are often held to much stricter gender rules than men and although we are breaking out of that shell slowly, it is still evident in our society just how much of a patriarchy we are. I also agree that while this song is incredibly empowering to the feminists in the world, I do believe it had a larger audience as well because I don't think many people realize just how prehistoric our society still is when it comes to a women's gender rules.