Hi everyone, 

I have enjoyed the reading and learned a lot about Feminism: it is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. I have done some research based on the reading and I came across the song “You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore. 

The song is very powerful and If you guys would like to listen to the song, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWCMhL5qxlE

You don’t own me

I’m not just one of your many toys

You don’t own me

Don’t say I can’t go with other boys

And don’t tell me what to do

Don’t tell me what to say

And please, when I go out with you

Don’t put me on display ’cause

You don’t own me

Don’t try to change me in any way

You don’t own me

Don’t tie me down ’cause I’d never stay

I don’t tell you what to say

I don’t tell you what to do

So just let me be myself

That’s all I ask of you

I’m young and I love to be young

I’m free and I love to be free

To live my life the way I want

To say and do whatever I please

And don’t tell me what to do

Oh, don’t tell me what to say

And please, when I go out with you

Don’t put me on display

I don’t tell you what to say

Oh, don’t tell you what to do

So just let me be myself

That’s all I ask of you

I’m young and I love to be young

I’m free and I love to be free

You Don’t Own Me, A Feminist Anthem With Civil Rights Roots, Is All About Empathy Ever since a 17-year-old Lesley Gore sang it in 1963, the coolly mutinous song has moved women to reject passive femininity. Its writers, though, say there are layers of resistance in its words. 

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to review my snapshot. Based on the readings assigned, I decided to do some research about music created to inspire thought about gender identity, expression, and modern-day feminism. I came across a song entitled “IT” by Christine and The Queens and decided to share the lyrics here.

If you’d like to listen to the song, here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9XeN3MSbyk

The lyrics:

With it I become the death Dickinson feared
With it I’m the red admiral on his ship
And I raise with infants for my coronation
I’ve ruled over my all my dead impersonations’Cause I’ve got it
I’m a man now
‘Cause I’ve got it
I’m a man now
And I won’t let you steal it
I bought it for myself
I’m a man now I hit the bird-dogs who are pulling my hair
Because their teeth should ravage a golden beard
I’ve lost some eyeless friends whose blood runs cold
My new people
On silent heels pretends to be old’Cause I won
I’m a man now
‘Cause I’ve got it
I’m a man now
And I won’t let you steal it
I bought it for myself
I’m a man now
Oh lord She wants to be a man, a man
But she lies
She wants to be born again, again
But she’ll lose
She draws her own crotch by herself
But she’ll lose because it’s a fake
It’s a fake, it’s a fake, it’s a fake No! I’ve got it
I’m a man now
Yes I’ve got it
I’m a man now
And there’s nothing you can do
To make me change my mind
I’m a man now She’s a man now
She’s a man now
And there’s nothing we can do
To make her change her mind
She’s a man now
She’s a man now
She’s a man now
And there’s nothing we can do
To make her change her mind
She’s a man now
She’s a man now Oh, oh, she’s a man now (Oh, oh yeah)
And there’s nothing we can do
To make her change her mind
She’s a man now

Listening to the lyrics and reviewing some interviews that the artist completed, I realized that she achieved a form of sublime expression letting go of the notion of fitting into gender roles. Christine, who often goes by Chris, identifies as pansexual. When she started her career, she mentioned having trouble being taken seriously because she was a woman. “Man” used in this song is used loosely to represent a person who is in control.