I'm just a girl and that's all you'll let me be!!!!!!!
I was always the loner in school. Very different from everyone else, but too scared to let it show, so I just stayed to myself. I can relate to Sara Schelde age 14 and I can learn from her. Where I tried to disown my strange personality she embraced hers and loves herself for being different. I wish Sara had been around when I was in school, maybe I wouldn’t have hidden my weirdness, because the truthiness about it is weird is good—-its what sets you apart from the crowd and gets you noticed.
"I’m just a girl” was and still is one of the greatest songs during my girlhood. The article titled “just a girl? Rock music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female youth” attempts to make sense of what female rock musicians and what their images are invoking in girl culture. I am not totally sure what the author was trying to voice, but I think it was the fact that men own the media or music industry and men are selling the contradictory images of female rock stars, which are sexualizing young girls. Therefore, women cannot claim girlhood as their own; rather girlhood is modeled into what the men in the media visualize it to be. That being said, “I’m just a Girl” and Gwen Stefani helped me realize the struggle of women in society. I had heard of the women’s movement in school and I was living my life as a girl, but her lyrics made my life make sense. I was sick of not being able to do what I wanted BECASUSE I WAS A GIRL. My brother was younger than I and he could stay out later hang out with his friends and do whatever he wanted because he was a boy. My fathers all seeing eye was always focused on me and simply for the fact that I was a girl and that’s all he would let me be. I recognized the contradiction in Gwen, but I saw her as a powerful, attractive woman speaking out against men seeing her as an innocent helpless girl and proving to the world that she wasn’t. I think her image gave me hope for my own future and goals. So as the Butchies resonates in queer girls so too does No Doubt and Gwen Stefani in me. Music is very powerful and there have been many musicians that have helped me through tough times. That being said, I think this article was created too early. Think about female musicians in our current time. The main musicians that come to mind are Brittany Spears, Miley Cyrus, lady Gaga, and Katie Perry. I think all of these girls are way too sexualized and are sending a poor message to the girls today. I can understand looking at today’s society why the author of “just a girl, Rock music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth” was so concerned about regaining girlhood as a woman’s identity. Looking at media I can see that girlhood is no longer a depiction created by a woman, but a perverse sexualized creation of man. From the girl teen magazines who focus young girls attention on young teen boys to the sexualized young teen girls displayed all over the media—Girlhood is not a woman’s tale.
"I’m just a girl” was and still is one of the greatest songs during my girlhood. The article titled “just a girl? Rock music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female youth” attempts to make sense of what female rock musicians and what their images are invoking in girl culture. I am not totally sure what the author was trying to voice, but I think it was the fact that men own the media or music industry and men are selling the contradictory images of female rock stars, which are sexualizing young girls. Therefore, women cannot claim girlhood as their own; rather girlhood is modeled into what the men in the media visualize it to be. That being said, “I’m just a Girl” and Gwen Stefani helped me realize the struggle of women in society. I had heard of the women’s movement in school and I was living my life as a girl, but her lyrics made my life make sense. I was sick of not being able to do what I wanted BECASUSE I WAS A GIRL. My brother was younger than I and he could stay out later hang out with his friends and do whatever he wanted because he was a boy. My fathers all seeing eye was always focused on me and simply for the fact that I was a girl and that’s all he would let me be. I recognized the contradiction in Gwen, but I saw her as a powerful, attractive woman speaking out against men seeing her as an innocent helpless girl and proving to the world that she wasn’t. I think her image gave me hope for my own future and goals. So as the Butchies resonates in queer girls so too does No Doubt and Gwen Stefani in me. Music is very powerful and there have been many musicians that have helped me through tough times. That being said, I think this article was created too early. Think about female musicians in our current time. The main musicians that come to mind are Brittany Spears, Miley Cyrus, lady Gaga, and Katie Perry. I think all of these girls are way too sexualized and are sending a poor message to the girls today. I can understand looking at today’s society why the author of “just a girl, Rock music, Feminism, and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth” was so concerned about regaining girlhood as a woman’s identity. Looking at media I can see that girlhood is no longer a depiction created by a woman, but a perverse sexualized creation of man. From the girl teen magazines who focus young girls attention on young teen boys to the sexualized young teen girls displayed all over the media—Girlhood is not a woman’s tale.
Comments
I was the oddball in high school because people wanted different but conformity. Conformity was a huge word for some reason as students struggled to find their identity. This was in New Smyrna Beach.
I never really got in to No Doubt except for the song “Spiderwebs” and I thought “I’m Just a Girl” was just some cutesy-wutesy song that annoyed the crap out of me. It was interesting to read that there is some contradiction in that song about being a girl as I never knew. “Twiddle-dum there’s no comparison.” I think critics are hard on Gwen Stefani for taking the parts of girlhood she can identify and rejecting the rest. I imagine that we all live in some kind of contradiction and shouldn’t be completely ostracized for it (as the author mentions the critics given Gwen Stefani a hard time for enjoying some of the benefits of girlhood while rejecting some of it).
My Mother was also the kind that told me how I would have more freedom if I would have been born a boy. Oh boy.