Zack Fenech, Staff Writer
Alexia Lawson, Arts Editor
Featured image courtesy of Cynthia Lam
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we’ve compiled a list of empowering songs to jam to while embracing your inner feminist.
“City’s Full” Savages
Notable Lyrics:
“I love the stretch marks on your thighs
And I love the wrinkles around your eyes.”
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Savages are known for being a strong and leading voice in the independent music community, which often revolves around women and the female experience. Savages’ themes often embrace womanhood, natural unadulterated beauty, speaking up for one’s beliefs, and general disdain with phallocentric society. Savages are a must have for the tough girl in everyone.
“Video” India Arie
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Notable Lyrics:
“Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don’t
Sometimes I comb my hair and sometimes I won’t
Depend of how the wind blows I might even paint my toes
It really just depends on whatever feels good in my soul.”
The lyrics of this early 2000’s classic still rings relevant, as Arie sings how she has learned to unconditionally love herself. She reminds listeners not to tie women’s value to superficial things, symbolically crowning them in the process.
“Til it Happens to You” Lady Gaga
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“You tell me ‘hold your head up’
Hold your head up and be strong
Cause when you fall, you gotta get up
You gotta get up and move on.”
Tell me, how the hell could you talk,
How could you talk?
Cause until you walk where I walk,
It’s just all talk.”
This powerful song highlights the pain of sexual assault with its first-person lyrics, sensitively hinting Gaga’s personal assault experience. The song was written for a documentary film that addresses sexual assault on university campuses. Gaga’s Oscars performance this past Sunday could not have been more timely, considering singer Ke$ha’s contentious legal battle to free herself from her contract with her allegedly abusive producer. The performance brought real victims of sexual violence to the stage, with messages as “Not Your Fault” and “Unbreakable” written on their arms, challenging rape culture, which frequently blames victims for their circumstance. “Til it Happens to You” is a song of solidarity and a reminder of self-worth when violent acts try to take that away.
“Formation” Beyoncé
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Notable lyrics:
“I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros
I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils.”
Beyoncé’s latest track and its corresponding music video is deservingly being credited as the new “black girl anthem.” From embracing black features with her The Jackson 5 reference to let critics know that she loves her daughter, Blue Ivy’s, natural hair, to the scene inside a beauty supply store, showing love for wig, and weave-wearing black women. This song highlights the complexities of intersectionality for women of colour and is unapologetic for shining as a black women in a society that frequently tries to dim it.
“Just One of the Guys” Jenny Lewis
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Notable Lyrics:
“No matter how hard I try to be just one of the guys
There’s a little something inside that won’t let me
No matter how hard I try to have an open mind
There’s a little voice inside that prevents me.”
Jenny Lewis’s hit single “Just One of the Guys” will surely bring a smile to anyone’s face. The talented songstress certainly has a knack for providing simple, yet incredibly sweet and catchy, songs that concern themselves with issues concerning women and girls. It is inspiring, to say the very least, that a simple pop song still manages to address the feeling of misplacement concerning gender roles.
