Many
people watch music videos just for entertainment, but many people don’t
recognize that a lot of music videos were created with more serious motives. So
how can a four-minute video capture and attack a serious issue, such as females’
social roles, in such a manner as to intrigue its audience and convey a heavy message? In Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to
Have Fun” (1983), she declares rebellion against traditional females’ roles
through dramatic comparison, flamboyant apparel, and martial arts.
Above all, the singer’s physical
appearance is designed to attract the eyes and raise the eyebrows. Clearly understanding
the importance of first impressions (and using this knowledge to her advantage),
Lauper chooses to don turbulent clothes before she even begins singing. The
flaming, low-cut party dress and rocker-style spiky hair allude to the changing
role of women in society; they no longer need to dress prim and proper and
uniform.
Since
ancient times, the world considered women weak and dependent on men to protect
them. Lauper tosses this traditional
view out the window as well in her music video. As she implements a
martial-arts-style arm lock on her father, she makes it known that women can be
independent in the modern era. Possibly for reference, the traditional views
against which she is campaigning are portrayed by her mother. Sitting at the
kitchen table, her husband patronizes her with a looming appearance. Since
Lauper is part of the ‘new generation’ after her mother’s, these self-defense
moves are especially representative of a new view of females’ roles.
Watching
the video, the first scene appears as one with the girl’s mother sitting at the
kitchen table in an apron, cracking eggs. In contrast with the alternating
shots of Lauper dancing wildly down the street after staying out all night,
viewers are treated to a demonstration of the belief that females no longer
must abide by tradition’s precedents.
Without
openly telling her audience that their harmless source of entertainment is
actually a feminist campaign, Cyndi Lauper gets her point across with a powerful
presentation. Applying 2014 knowledge of how feminism played out in favor of
women, it can be said that supporters such as she must have given convincing
campaigns.
Thanks Anne Marie. This post is good. I think you accurately capture Lauper's intention, and you present it is a succinct manner. Did you know that Lauper's mother in the video is her real mother? Also, her father in the video was a famous WWF wrestler. Thus, the "martial arts" move has slightly more rhetorical significance. Lauper literally takes on the strongest of men.
ReplyDeleteOverall, this post is well written. However, I would like to make a few comments. Please consider them. First, I find your analysis to be really well written, but your introduction is less-than-engaging. As a general rule, I would not preface any textual analysis by telling the reader that there are "more serious motives." I think this should be implied in any texts. Remember, everything is an argument. This is a common mistake. Second, I would also avoid the use of vacuous adjectives. For example, you write "heavy message" and "a powerful presentation." These expressions don't really say anything, because they depend entirely on a subjective interpretation of what "heavy" - a word I would always avoid - and "powerful" means. Lastly, when you introduce a sentence with "Watching the video, the first scene appears..." you include a "dangling participle." Technically, in this sentence the noun "scene" is doing the "[w]atching." Therefore, we say that the participial phrase "Watching the video..." is dangling because a "scene" cannot watch anything.