Heather Holley Blog # 5

So-What am i not s'pposed to have an opinion?
Should i be quiet because i'm a woman?
Call me a bitch (bitch) cause i speak what's on my mind
Guess it's easier for you to swallow if i sat and smiled

When a female fires back
suddenly target don't know how to act
So he does what any little boy would do
Makin' up a few false rumors or two
That for sure is not a man to me
Slanderin' names for popularity
It's sad you only get your fame through controversy
But now it's time for me to come and give you more to say

Chorus:
This is for my girls all around the world
Who have come across a man that don't respect your worth
Thinkin' all women should be seen, not heard
So what do we do girls?
Shout louder,
Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground (our ground)
So lift your hands high and wave'em proud (wohoh)
Take a deep breath and say it loud,
Never can,never will
Can't hold us down

Nobody can hold us down(us down)...Nobody can hold us down(us down)...Nobody can hold us down(hold us down)
Never can never will...

So what am i not supposed to say what i'm saying
Are you offended with the message i'm bringin'
Call me whatever 'cause your words don't mean a thing
Cuz you ain't even a man enough to handle what i sing
If you look back in history it's a common double standard of society
The guy gets all the glory, the more he can score
While the girl can do the same and yet you call her a whore
I don't understand why its OK,
The guy can get away with it while any girl gets named
All my ladies come together and make a change

Start a new beginning for us,everybody sing

Chorus

Lil' Kim:
Here's something I just can't understand
If the guy have three girls then he's a man
He can either give her some head, or sex her raw
If the girl do the same, then she's a whore
But the table's about to turn
I'll bet my fame on it
Cats take my ideas and put their name on it
It's aight though, you can't hold me down
I got to keep on movin'
To all my girls with a man who be tryin to mack
Do it right back to him and let that be that
You need to let him know that his game is whack
And Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera got your back

You're just a little boy,
Think you're so cute,so coy
You must talk so big, to make up for smaller things
You're just a little boy
All you'll do is annoy
You must talk so big, to make up for smaller things,
This is for my girls...

Repeat Chorus X2

Ahh Wahoo 7X ahh
Spread the word
Can't hold us down
Yeh we here
We Back again
Yeh Lil Kim and Christina Aguilera
Yeh
Can't hold us down!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H0bjiyvWqb4

I actually listened to this song in high school, off of her then newly released album, “Stripped”. Back in the golden days of yore, I didn’t actually know what the words were getting at, I just liked the music and beat. Now looking at these lyrics I can understand the power message of double standards and societal expectations. They singers talk about many aspects of inequality; how when men sleep around or hustle women it’s supposed to mean that he is “the man” but when women do it she is a slut, when women talk about what they want and don’t take crap from their male counterparts how they are seen as a bitch. The central point being that when women have been with more than a certain number of men she is a slut or skank or what have you, and if she is fooling around while she is in a relationship that she is this horrible person who’s reputation gets slandered and attacked ten times more than any man’s would.
I think that the address to the issue of double standards between men and women in the sex circle is very often ignored in society. Women are normally told in a young age that they should not sleep with men and should wait til marriage or they are in love. But as a general rule men are seen to be the one sex that is allowed to be interested in sex and want to have it. When men cheat it seems more socially acceptable than when women cheat, because women are to be the more subdued sex that wouldn’t leave their partner and so on.
I wouldn’t say that the song makes me feel empowered, but it brings a lot of issues to hand. In a small sense it does make me feel more in control and in charge but only in a way that is showing society is trying to make a change to bring equality to the sexes, but I am not one to be with numerous people at the same time so in that regard, I cannot relate to the song.
I don’t know if I could say that this song will revolutionalize common thinking on ideals of sex, but I think that it makes a start. I can’t say that if the radio was bombarded by these types of song that are as intense as this one, that the nation would change. It is a very intense song, that focuses on a small portion of American culture, one that in my thinking is not at the top of the list for fixing. The double standards I find important but the way that sex as used as to represent those double standards may not be the best road to reach the public, it might actually cause a problem because of language and such.
I would like to tell the author I liked it, and it was insightful, but the to reach more people to get this point across it may have been better to take down the language a bit and possibly change the main focus point from sex to maybe dressing, or weight or something less vulgar.