Re: The female image in popular songs

Poster： Kate Liu at 11:16:7 12/17/97 from ts2-ppp-02.fju.edu.tw
RE Jessie Chu at 8:41:22 11/24/97 posted 「The female image in popular songs」Subject

Hi, Jessie,

I completely agree with your analysis, though I would phrase it a bit differently.

Indeed, there are some phony representations of equality, say, in the Hollywood film "Switch." However, we cannot say that some films indeed present active and assertive women.

As for Taiwanese popular songs, I'm really amazed by some lyrics which say that oh I only want to cook for you and all that. To look at the dominance of male lyricist, I want to ask,
"Does it really matter which gender the lyricist is? Or to what extent does it matter?"

I should say that it matters because we still want women to speak for themselves. On the other hand, women have been speaking for themselve with patriarchal language, with strategies such as parody, pseudonym, double voice, etc.
To then also consider the possibility of male "feminist" like you did, we cannot say that lyrics written by men do not allow feminist expressions by female singers, right? This is a theoretical inference, though in reality we see few women singers in Taiwan now stand out to rebel against male lyricists.

But then all things considered, we really cannot say that those lyrics "gives 'women' the illusion that they are free and independent." This is what we will talk about in the last section--audience response, how it is hard to generalize.

Kate

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>> Hi, Jessie,

>> I completely agree with your analysis, though I would phrase it a bit differently.

>> Indeed, there are some phony representations of equality, say, in the Hollywood film "Switch."  However, we cannot say that some films indeed present active and assertive women.

>> As for Taiwanese popular songs, I'm really amazed by some lyrics which say that oh I only want to cook for you and all that.  To look at the dominance of male lyricist, I want to ask,

>> "Does it really matter which gender the lyricist is?  Or to what extent does it matter?"

>> I should say that it matters because we still want women to speak for themselves.  On the other hand, women have been speaking for themselve with patriarchal language, with strategies such as parody, pseudonym, double voice, etc.

>> To then also consider the possibility of male "feminist" like you did, we cannot say that lyrics written by men do not allow feminist expressions by female singers, right?  This is a theoretical inference, though in reality we see few women singers in Taiwan now stand out to rebel against male lyricists.

>> But then all things considered, we really cannot say that those lyrics "gives 'women' the illusion that they are free and independent."  This is what we will talk about in the last section--audience response, how it is hard to generalize.

>> Kate

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