Tiara
Bertram
Dr.
Brown
ENGL
306
23
February 2016
It’s no secret that women, even in the modern era,
are still oppressed. Feminism is known for being associated with liberal,
radical man-hating, but in reality, it’s about embracing women as multidimensional
human beings and giving them equal power and recognition in all spheres of
life. In a world that constantly reduces women to making sandwiches in the
kitchen, feminists stand up and proclaim that women are awesome. Beyoncé is one
of those feminists, and she has made said proclamation with the release of her
song and music video, “Run the World (Girls)” in protest to the patriarchy. This
song explicitly states “Who runs the world?/Girls! Girls!” The empowerment
message is pretty direct, because one can’t help but contrast it with the
current patriarchal power systems in place. For example, roughly 50.8% of the
United States population is female (census.gov) but only 19.4% of all of the
seats of the United States Congress are women (CAWP Rutgers).
As an object of protest, the song/video has a dual
purpose depending on who is consuming it. For female viewers and listeners,
it’s declaring that we have far more power than the patriarchal societies that
we live in indicate that we do. For male
viewers and listeners, it’s demanding that they recognize how much women are
devalued when we are capable of anything and, furthermore, are really the
source of grunt work behind many functions that are experienced globally, from
raising a family to running a business as an executive: hence, the mantra of
“who run the world?” repeated through the song.
Beyonce’s audience is far and wide. As a mainstream
American popular R&B artist, she has an international reach for the people
who would be listening to her music. While men also hear her music both
voluntarily and involuntarily, her audience is primarily female, and her target
audience therefore would be females who probably identify or at least agree
with feminist ideals.
An underlying and poorly indicated
goal of “Run The World (Girls)” is for men to join in this fight for gender
equality. She calls out “To all the men that respect what I do please accept my
shine,” in the second verse, as a quick nod to let them know she doesn’t mean
to hate on all men (just the ones who don’t respect what she does). Visually,
she has two male back-up dancers in the first minute and a half of the video,
reverse-flanking Beyoncé in the first refrain and part of the first verse.
These two men are dressed in all black with leather vests, red cloth turban
caps, yellow rope necklaces, and red sashes as belts. They are symbolic of an
alliance between the genders, that it’s not just women who are fighting for
gender justice.
Thesis:
Beyoncé's purpose in releasing this song and video is for women of all
backgrounds to unashamedly claim their power, and she does this by relying most
heavily on pathos, but also through ethos and logos.
Most of the pathos can be found in the video more
than the song. The video starts with scenery that looks like it could be a war
zone, open dusty spaces strewn with junk, a fire in an industrial trashcan, the
shadowy silhouette of a chaotic crowd of women running by each other, Beyoncé
on a rearing black horse. The army of men is dressed as we would expect to see
a militia, with dark uniforms, helmets, nightsticks, and riot shields. The
woman army (which includes women of every nationality and ethnicity, to promote
a global feminism of ALL women fighting for their rights) is dressed in
military caps, black bras under black leather studded vests and jackets, and
drape-like sashes and skirts in a variety of colors, carrying red flags,
reminiscent of a sexy rebel army. This incites a feeling of intensity and
admiration of these femme-fatale warriors fighting for gender equality, making
the video effective.
She also uses pathos in how the song is composed and
performed. There is a lot of heavy percussion, and the refrain is more shouted
than sung. This tone of determination bordering on anger gives the song an
in-your-face quality of a street protest, and was actually noted for not being
done in the typical pop song style that’s suited for the clubs where a lot of
Beyonce’s music is disbursed (CNN).
Most of the ethos from this song comes from the fact
that it’s a Beyoncé song. She’s a well-developed icon of American pop culture,
and specifically as woman-empowerment singer (with past songs including “Single
Ladies” “Diva” “Upgrade U” and the Destiny’s Child hit “Independent Woman”) by
the time this song released. In the song, she states she’s “reppin’ for the
girls who takin’ over the world”. She is a performer, business woman, currently
a mom (although not at the time this song was released) and multi-millionaire,
also allowing her to declare herself as a leader. In the video, most of her
positioning centers her as the leader of the female revolutionaries, highlighted
by her brilliant blond hair flowing in the wind, and she snatches the badge off
of the male leader and places it on herself.
Logos is a bit lacking in this particular song. Many
of the lyrics are done like traditional rap hype, in slang and the messages
aren’t always direct in the message. Some of the lyrics account for the
accomplishments of women: “help me raise a glass for the college grads” while
others are more about the sheer resilient awesomeness of women: “we smart enough
to make these millions/strong enough to bear the children, then get back to
business” which seems to point towards working mothers. But with the exception
of those few lines, plus the incessant pulsating chant-like refrain, logos is
not the primary strategy used by Beyoncé for her protest.
As far as achieving her purpose, Beyoncé has
received a lot of pushback from this song being an anthem of modern feminism. A
lot of what she intended with the visuals in particular could still be
perceived as restrictive and even oppressive to women. One of the biggest
controversies comes from the subliminal messaging in having the women scantily
dressed, and with lyrics like “boy you love it” “hope you still like me” and
“endless power with our love we can devour/you’ll do anything for me” indicates
that women get their power from their sexuality, or from the fact that men
sexualize them and are persuaded by means other than reasoning, and reducing
the intellectual power of the college grads she just raised her glass to. It’s
important to realize, however, that the primary purpose of any pop song is
simply to gain listeners, and since the most repetitive part of the song is the
part most remembered, the beginnings of a feminist mindset, stating that “girls
run the world” is basically a positive thing for the feminist movement.
Lyrics
from beyonce.com:
Girls,
we run this mutha, yeah (x3)
Girls,
we run this mutha, girls
Who
run the world, girls, (x4)
Who
run this mutha, girls, (x4)
Who
run the world, girls (x4)
Some
of them men think they freak this like we do but no they don’t
Make
yo check come at they neck, disrespect us no they won’t
Boy
don’t even try to touch this, boy this beat is crazy
This
is how they made me, houston texas baby
This
goes out to all my girls that’s in the club rockin’ the latest
Who
will buy it for themselves and get more money later
I
think i need a barber, none of these can fade me
I’m
so good with this, i remind you i'm so hood with this
Boy
i’m just playin’
come
here baby
Hope
you still like me
f
u pay me
My
persuasion can build a nation
Endless power with our love we can devour
You'll
do anything for me
Who
run the world, girls (x5)
Who
run this mutha, girls (x4)
Who
run the world, girls (x4)
It's
hot up in here dj don’t be scared to run this run this back
I'm
reppin’ for the girls who takin’ over the world
help me raise a glass for the college
grads
41
rollin’ to let you know what time it is, check
You
can’t hold me i work my 9 to 5 betta cut my check
This
goes out to all the women gettin’ it in you on yo grind
To
all the men that respect what i do please accept my shine
Boy
you know you love it how we smart enough to make these millions,
Strong
enough to bare the children, then get back to business
See,
you better not play me
oh
come here baby
Hope
you still like me
f
u pay me
My
persuasion can build a nation
En
dless power with our love we can devour
You'll
do anything for me
Who
run the world, girls (x5)
Who
run this mutha, girls (x4)
Who run the world, girls (x4)
Who
are we, what we run, the world
who run this mutha, yeah
Who
are we, what we run, the world
who run this mutha, yeah
Who
are we, what do we run, we run the world
who run this mutha, yeah
Who
are we, what we run, we run the world
Who
run the world....girls
Works
Cited
beyonceVEVO. “Run the
World (Girls).” Music Video. Youtube. Youtube, 18 May 2011. Web. 8 February 2016.
Dinh,
James "Beyoncé's 'Run The World (Girls)' To Hit Radio, iTunes
Thursday". MTV News.
MTV Networks. 21 April 2011. Web. 8 February 2016.
This is the wrong works cited, so sorry
ReplyDeleteAs a fan of Beyoncé and a feminist I love your topic and object for this paper, and your analysis of some of the still problematic aspects (such as women’s clothing in the video).
ReplyDeleteIn your audience/context/purpose half of your paper I felt was a little short and lacking in content. I understand the context of the protest that you write about in your first paragraph, but I think restructuring this paragraph would help to greater establish it, for example moving the statistic further up in the paragraph. I like your first paragraph in which you talk about purpose; however the 4th paragraph I feel is not as clear or well developed in what the argument is. For example you describe what the two men dancing with Beyoncé are wearing, but do not explain how this helps to establish your argument.
In the second half of the paper, you discuss pathos clearly. However I do not see the arguments about ethos and logos being as strong. I understand what you mean in your ethos paragraph, but I am not sure if ethos is used correctly? I am not entirely sure, Beyoncé singing this song does give more exposure to feminist movements however she does not explicitly refer to herself in the song or mention her credibility. But I believe your reading of ethos in the music video is correct. I feel like you could restructure your paper to have ethos and logos in one paragraph, considering they are less prevalent in the song. Instead I think you could mention kairos, which I think is heavily used in this video (the opening image of Beyoncé wearing all white riding a dark horse, for example).
The suggestions for revision section of the rubric mentions prose style, and I think in your first paragraph especially you could use more academic language. For example the word awesome is used frequently in the paper and I think a different term could be used for the purpose of academic writing.
I agree with Anna on the fact that your essay could use better academic language. Where I feel you're lacking is mainly in effectiveness of Beyonce's stylistic choices. You clearly provide evidence for your claims about Beyonce, thus giving a clear identity of the author. Now all you need to add is how effective you think her choices were.
ReplyDeleteElaborate on her pathos, and how it appeals to emotion, instead of describing her stylistic choices. I think that would add depth to your description of her music video, and provide the clear intended purpose of the song.
You identified the author well, and gave plenty of context as to who she is and what she stands for. You identified the intended audience for her song as well. I think you should add why she wants to reach out to feminist women, and men alike. You say how she reaches out to them, and it makes sense in the context of her song, but why does she require support from men as well? That might provide more support for her intended purpose of the song. Great essay!
I think this topic works very well in that is it well developed and you are open to analyzing a number of angles (i.e. clothing, the dances, the style, the location, the camera angles, etc.)
ReplyDeleteI would agree with both Anna and Julian that your essay could use better language when describing stylistic aspects of the video. You can better improve this by having your screen split into two sections, your essay and then the thesaurus and just find synonyms; that’s what I do anyway.
The Logos paragraph I would also like to add, in the beginning, I feel could be better constructed. The first sentence primarily. Also, if you could incorporate a lot of the language that is included when describing a song (you can typically find this in reviews from magazines, online pages etc.) and then explain what those terms mean, I think it could make your paper a lot stronger.
I would use transitional words, and ease your way into your next topic. It’s very cut and dry, so definitely play with your words to get that fluency and ease in your paper. I would always give examples and evidence of your claim when discussing egos, logos, and pathos and then explain why your evidence is your evidence – if that makes any sense.
Plan for revision:
ReplyDeleteMacro
-add substance to context in beginning
-add kairos paragraph
-do the right WC/citations for the love of all things Beyonce
Micro
-use more academic language
-add more analysis to the symbolic nature of the two male dancers
-define power and where ethos is present in the video