Found Feminism: Ciara – “Like a Boy”
So, this is number one in an (hopefully) ongoing series of images, videos, photos, comics, posters or excerpts – anything really, which shows feminist ideas at work in the everyday world. What I want to do with this series is to show that as well as all the things that can make us angry, upset or just plain mystified, there are also lots of instances where people are positively engaging with feminism by coming into contact with it in their daily lives and as part of their normal routine.
My offering for today is a music video that stood out from the usual in that it’s a hip hop video that does not contain women in bikinis. Quite the reverse, it explores a subject rather dear to my heart – the different societal rules and roles for men and women. The lyrics are here, if you want to sing along. Oh, and there is some awesome dancing in it too, with women doing moves more usually associated with their male counterparts.
Looking forward to receiving your own contributions – and thoughts on the subject. Please email us with them – [email protected] with the title “found feminism”.
I think this video dovetails nicely with Jamelia’s hit from a few years back, “See It In A Boy’s Eyes”. The vid for that is set in a barracks. And possibly also Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy”. But I’ve only got dim memories of the videos and the dance sequences in this one are brilliant.
Bought this when it came out and loved it.
Ah, university days when I could still watch my parents’ music TV channels in the holidays…
I also reccomend Jessie J’s ‘Do it like a dude’.
It’s weird. I’ve now seen Jessie J’s more recent “Do It Like A Dude” and the sentiment is definitely the same. But Jessie doesn’t emulate male dress in the video, and the “dude like” dancing definitely has as much winding and grinding in it as possible. Which is fine, except that she doesn’t look at all like she’s doing it like a dude. Her backing dancers play more games with the body language and clothes than she actually does. So it’s an odd one – I think the video sort of doesn’t really know what it wants.
Here’s the vid for the interested!
Mind you, on the other side of the coin, it’s got the following:
* women starting fights in a non-prurient way
* she has some amazing lip make up going on in some of the shots – spiky black rhinestones. She’s definitely rocking an aggressively spiky femininity in the vid, even if she’s not doing the same thing Ciara’s done
* there are these shots of hocks of meat, which I assume is some sort of knowing comment…