Blog #2
Blog #2
Prompt 1: The cultural artifact that I chose for this blog was the song/music video, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper. Both the lyrics and the video challenge gender representations about women which is why I chose this as an example. It can be interpreted in different ways depending on the viewpoint for the subject which is another reason why I selected this cultural artifact.
Prompt 2: The song, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was created by Cyndi Lauper and the music video was created by VEVO. It is definitely a very fun and catchy song, so that is what grabs my attention and most likely the attention of many other girls. This song is directed towards women, but can also be directed towards men; sending out the message that just like men, women also want and are allowed to have fun and be free. The social world for this cultural artifact would be the 80’s in the U.S. In the beginning, it presents the singer’s mother in the kitchen where it appears she is cooking. This is a very common social norm for women, that they belong in the kitchen either cooking or washing dishes. Unlike her mother, the singer believes being out all night is not a problem because “girls just want to have fun.” Cyndi Lauper sings the lyrics, “Some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world, I want to be the one to walk in the sun,” which illustrates her viewpoint on what it means to be a woman according to the social construct of gender roles. Typically, women have to be passive, quiet and submissive, almost like they are being hidden away by the man. Lauper clearly states in her song, she wants to be the one to walk in the sun, generally meaning, she wants to shine as an individual without the dependency on a man. She is trying to utilize this song as a celebration of female freedom driving away from the expectations of what a woman should and should not do. As her parents being an older generation, they do not understand their daughter’s(Cyndi Lauper) perspective that there is not anything bad about a girl who simply likes to have fun. Although this is my interpretation of this cultural artifact, it is possible that different people may understand the message that this song portrays in a different way. What Cyndi Lauper refers to as girls just wanting to have fun could be viewed as women acting in a way that might be seen as “inappropriate behavior.” Some people could view this message as a bad influence for younger girls because even though girls should be allowed to act as they please, there is a distinct line between having fun and acting improperly. For a long time, even up until now, there have been social norms about gender and their roles in society. The message that is sent by this song was created to challenge social norms about the roles women must undertake in society.
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