Change begins
with awareness. That is, in order for transformation to occur, society needs to
be aware of its shortcomings. For
example, in late 19th century, suffragettes in the United States
marched with banners showing the need for women to participate in the
democratic process. This was a movement
that made others aware there was a need to change. In the 1960s, reformers
gathered and marched in Alabama, in cities now renowned for their civil rights
activism, such as Selma. These marches
remain of interest in the media today because of how they drew the nation to
change. Today, music video now has the
power to transform us. It can stir our
consciousness to seek change – to free individuals from society’s constraints,
including the restrictions of our culture’s gender ideologies. These are two
examples.
Patrick Wolf’s Lycanthropy challenged gender
dynamics. His lyrics compel us with the
statement: ‘Send all your barriers into the fire.’ Those barriers refer to ones which prohibit
us from freely expressing ourselves. Wolf’s
lines ‘cut my penis off’ or ‘sewed my hole up’ are figurative references to
being free to experience life outside of preset gender roles. He referred to removing yourself from
preconceived responsibilities of what society requires of those who are male
versus female. ‘Now you please yourself and
fight your own wars’ is a message of awareness – that it will be a struggle to
be freed from gender roles. It is
today’s fight, much the same as suffragettes and the civil rights activists
battled inequality in the past. Wolf’s
message, ‘be your own hero/be your own savior,’ speaks to empowering yourself
to succeed outside of gender roles. Lycanthropy was not negative against
society’s boundaries, but instead compels us to break with boundaries when they
are ineffective to do our best as individuals.
In the Spa Day music video rapper, Le1f, also challenged preconceptions of
accepted sexuality with his seductive connotation: "Now what you wanna do? And who you wanna
do it with?" This lyric is a direct
contrast to David Nylund’s statement in When
in Rome: Heterosexism, Homophobia, and Sports Talk Radio that, “The mass
media industry, therefore, often mobilizes pleasure around conservative
ideologies that have oppressive effects on women, homosexuals, and people of
color.” Instead, Spa Day clearly associated pursuit of pleasure with the freedom to
choose partners. Additionally, the
rapper appeared in pink socks and robes, openly sporting typically female
clothing styles, giving license to freedom from the barriers of conventional appearance. In stating, ‘When I butterfly, passersby look
and get shook,’ Le1f was clear that he will attract attention, but that the
rapper was not concerned about his unconventional ways. It is interesting that the video showed men
and women of different races, smashing the notion that only certain groups are
interested in breaking conventions with existing gender roles. Le1f’s rallying
call, where he asked the listener to persuade others to follow: ‘Tell your phobic homey they should get into
it/Unless they not feeling ready for revolution.’ In so doing, Le1f is no different than Janice
Radway in Women Read the Romance in
that both rapper and writer seek to raise consciousness about the failures of
existing institutions.
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