Many of my fellow teenage feminists tend to think it's sexist to be sad about breaking up with your boyfriend and they act like all (books, movies, songs, etc) should be "girl-power" and positive. For example, here are two comments I saw:
"All of [Taylor Swift's] songs that I've heard have been about guys, apart from Change. On a scale of 1-10, to me she's about a 3. Since so many girls look up to her, I think she could showcase being an empowered young woman through her songs, rather than always finding prince charming or feeling heartbroken and defeated by him."
"In the song [Dancing With Tears In My Eyes by Ke$ha], she thinks she's dying because she broke up with some boy. I'm sorry, but that just sounds like Twilight all over again with the whole "I'm-dead-without-this-boy" thing. It's just not a very healthy relationship in any case. It's obsessive, and pitiful. I mean, I agree it's OK to be sad if you've ended a relationship with someone, but I wouldn't say I was DYING."
Both of these comments made me want to bang my head into a wall. About Taylor Swift, the reason why she writes so many songs about boys is probably because many of the things that have happened to her (that she feels are worth writing songs about) probably involved boys. I mean, sure, "You Belong With Me" has somewhat pathetic lyrics, but her other songs actually have some value. The reason I say that is because a significant amount of her songs are about guys who haven't treated her well or have been mean to her (White Horse, Dear John, Tell Me Why, etc) and I think it's important for girls to know that guys will not always treat them with respect and kindness, even if the songs are more dramatic than you would/should act in reality. It's also important for girls who have been in serious breakups with their boyfriends to know that they're not alone. If your friend broke up with her boyfriend and was sad about it, would you just roll your eyes and say "you'll get over it, stop being such a wimp?" No, you should try to understand how she feels, even if you've never been in her situation before, even if you know she'll forget about it in a few weeks. You should feel some empathy for her.
About the Ke$ha song, breakups are hard. They really are. Even if you were the one doing the breaking up. "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" is probably based off of something that actually happened to Ke$ha. She was probably crying for a long time. Second of all, it's JUST A SONG. Ever heard of hyperbole? Should Ke$ha (or anyone else) be forced to only write songs that are politically correct? If we could only write songs that were politically correct, we would be writing some pretty dumb songs. People should be allowed to express themselves the way they want and not be forced to write songs that are politically correct.
What I'm trying to say is... MUSIC DOES NOT HAVE TO BE POLITICALLY CORRECT!!! Yeah, sure, some songs have pathetic lyrics, but it's not like little girls are going to become overly boy-obsessed over a stupid song.
That brings me to my next topic: political correctness in little kids' shows. Apparently at some point in time, people decided that kids are idiots who take everything seriously. For example, many people complain about how skinny Barbies and Disney princesses are. Guess what? Little girls don't give an effing crap about that; all they care about is their pretty dresses. Also, on Sesame Street, there was that whole Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus thing. You know, where Big Bird tells everyone that he has a friend named Mr. Snuffleupagus and they never get to meet him because he forgot it was his mom's birthday or he needed to go to the grocery store or something like that. Eventually the writers decided that everyone should see Mr. Snuffleupagus because they thought that if a kid was being abused the kid would think "oh, I need help, but remember what happened to Big Bird on Sesame Street? Adults aren't going to believe me, so I should just remain silent, even though I really do need help." Guess what? Kids don't think like that!! In fact, when I was little, if someone was abusing me, I would tell a trusted adult IMMEDIATELY. So if you want to know how kids think, talk to a KID, not some adult who THINKS he/she knows kids.
Another thing that many people complain about is the Twilight series. I sort of have a weird opinion about it. Part of me thinks "it's just a stupid book," but the other part of me thinks that they're in a very abusive relationship that people should be aware of. I mean, ever since Twilight came out, many teenage girls think "Edward is, like, SO hot. I, like, TOTALLY want him as a boyfriend." Like how many little girls only pay attention to Barbie's beautiful clothing rather than the other stuff, I think teenage girls only pay attention to the things that they like about Edward. However, I also think that Edward is a jerk. I mean, he watches her while she sleeps, he controls who she hangs out with, he strongly urged her to have an abortion when she didn't want one (yes, I know her life was in danger, and yes, the baby WAS a monster, but it was still her choice, and besides, she had the option of turning into a vampire and living forever, which is an option that most women don't have), and all this time, Bella still stayed with him because she thought he was attractive. So I think it's pretty important for teens to understand how horrible these things are, but I also think that if they enjoy Twilight, they should be allowed to read it, as long as they understand that the things that happen in Twilight aren't so great if they happen in real life.
So yeah. What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't take things in the media too seriously, unless if they're seriously hurting a large amount of people who do not have psychological issues.
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