Girls Love Beyonce : Progressive or Not?

While listening to my Drake Pandora Station this weekend I stumbled across a song titled “Girls Love Beyoncé.” This song title puzzled me, as it was hard to imagine what this song would be about. However, once the chorus hit I realized it was a play on one of favorite songs from my childhood, “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child. Not only did this song stand out to me for this reason, but also because the overall message of the song contrasts that of the majority of hip/hop and rap songs that are popular in current mainstream music culture. This song stands in contrast to the many that objectify women, and place a large emphasis on power, control, money, and recreational sex. In this song Drake specifically opposes these messages stating,  “All my young boys ‘round me saying, “Get money and fuck these hoes” Where we learn these values? I do not know what to tell you. I’m just trying to find a reason not to go out every evening. I need someone that’ll help me think of someone besides myself.” The fact that Drake blatantly addresses what is seen as “normal” in today's music culture and then attacks these ideas  showing the audience how it feels to be objectified through a flipping of the gendered script is incredibly powerful.

This song showcases male vulnerability and a desire to be to be loved and to be able to trust one’s significant other.  It demonstrates that women can “play” guys too, and that women are not the only ones that can get hurt in a relationship, something that isn’t seen in a lot of hip/hop and rap songs today. In fact, the depiction of men wanting commitment is not normally shown in any the mainstream media. In Kim et. al.’s research she found that the majority of the time, in mainstream media, men are depicted as avoiding relationships and commitment and women are depicted as desiring commitment above all else and sexualizing themselves in order to achieve it (Kim et. all, 2007, p. 148). The adherence to these rules reflect the heterosexual script (a set of rules in the media that demonstrate how men and women should act in relationships) (Kim et. all, 2007, p. 141). This song flips the heterosexual script and gives facetime to the idea that men have feelings and are vulnerable too, and that men may want more than just causal sex from a women.

Additionally, by using the song “Say My Name” to send this message, a song that is originally about a woman waiting around for a man of whom she suspects is cheating on her to be faithful, Drake gets his point across about even more strongly. This song was incredibly popular during my adolescence, and those who were adolescents during this time period  now make up a gigantic part of Drake’s fan base. Therefore, one can speculate that this song resonates strongly with Drake’s current audience making it especially pervasive and giving it the opportunity to have a grand potential impact on the way both men and women think about relationships today vs. the way they did ten years ago when the original song was made.

     While this song is particularly progressive because it flips the normally seen script between males and females and promotes attention to the sensitivity of males, and the power women have in relationships, it still perpetuates some common myths about love that are often found in popular songs.  In Bader’s article “Love will steer the stars" and other improbable feats: Media myths in popular love songs” she states that most popular music promotes one of the "12 Myths about Love" filling audience members with untruthful information about relationships and love and perpetuating these ideas as the norm for society (Bader, p. 141, 2007). Bellow are a list of some of the lines from "Girls Love Beyonce"that demonstrate these myths.

“And this ain’t no time for locking your phone and not coming home and startin’ some shit when I’m in the zone.”

1. Fights are good right?: These lines perpetuate Myth 8 on Bader’s list that states that, “Bickering and fighting a lot mean a man and a women really love each other” because it shows that in the past the two people the song is referencing have had fights but that this is only because of their passion for one another (Bader, p. 149, 2007).

“Neither one of us wanna play the side no more.

No, I’m not alone Even though nothing was the same.

Let me get your ass alone.

Let me make you say my name.

Say my name.”

2. The sex is going to rock: These lines promotes Myth 4 of, “If a partner is truly mean for you the sex is easy and wonderful” because it implies that the sex between the two people in the song will be amazing for them both (Bader, p. 149, 2007). There is no discussion of if the speaker (Drake) would be “able” to make her (the receiver) “say his name” a sexual reference for pleasure (i.e. when your having sex with someone and when something feelings good you might say their name), therefore perpetuating Myth 4.

“I come through in whips that make a young boy take the long way home.”

4. Rich homie: This line is a reference to the material wealth that Drake has. This line is meant to make Drake seem more desirable to the woman in the song, as there is no mention of the woman’s car or her material wealth (only her looks) throughout the song. Therefore this demonstrates Myth 6 of,  “The man should not be weaker, younger, poorer or less successful than the woman” (Bader, p. 149, 2007).

All in all, while this song is progressive because it's message reflects male vulnerability and female power in relationships, when dissected a bit closer one finds that it still carries some traditional myths about love that can be seen in the majority love songs today.

References 

Bader, A. (2007). "Love will steer the stars" and other improbable feats: Media

myths in popular love songs. In M.-L. Galician & D. L. Merskin (Eds.), Critical thinking about sex, love, and romance in the mass media (pp. 141 160). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Kim, J. L., Lynn Sorsoli, C., Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157.