The “Crazy Women” of Music
“Young women everywhere are going through things that hurt and break them, and music written by women is something that most of us find solace in because it grasps at the emotional turmoil we all feel but cannot explain.”
Oh, you know, like, she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends. All of her songs are just about relationships. There’s no substance there. These are some of the common criticisms of women in music. The list goes on. In the music world, it's very common for musicians to produce songs about their heartbreaks and emotions. But somehow, women are dehumanized for this while men are simultaneously being uplifted and loved for it. Women use their art to express the factors of womanhood, women listening to their music can relate profoundly to the lyrics of their songs.
Womanhood means being told to stop being overly dramatic, to make our emotions die down because of how they will make others feel (men, especially). Often, men will try to protect themselves from women’s feelings, as such feelings disrupt how they view women from their male gaze.
Taylor Swift is a very beloved artist, but just as much as she’s loved she’s equally hated because she actually speaks her mind. Once, when the Netflix show Ginny and Georgia made a sexist joke about Swift, she tweeted: “Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY.”
Swift is also very open with her fanbase on what's going on in her life, making many love her transparency and showing that she is very upfront and doesn't hide much from her fans, unlike many other artists. Taylor Swift has been in the music industry since she was 16, so obviously her life since then has been in the spotlight, and people have followed her every move and stage that's led her from being a teenage girl into a woman.
A lot of Swift's songs are about her trauma and emotions she felt while being in relationships with older men like John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhall. In song lyrics, she has expressed this pain and confusion and discomfort: “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with,” “Don’t you think nineteen's too young,” “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.”
Being judged by the media for just being a girl who has been “in many relationships” is deeply unfair; no one was seeing and understanding that she was openly telling us how much she regrets and what she was going through during these tough times. It goes to show that the media only cares about making negative comments when it comes to bashing women; in the case of Swift, they never questioned why these two grown men were willingly dating her but instead blamed the victim.
Lana Del Rey is someone who also expresses the depth of emotion a girl can feel. As a teenage girl it's normal and often that I feel misunderstood, like there's no words to describe how I feel. When I listen to Lana Del Rey, as she sings, I can feel her words connecting with everything I'm feeling or thinking. When women make music about personal things, it resonates especially with girls because we have so many shared experiences. Lana connects with her audience through her deep lyrics: “I'm not afraid to say that I'd die without him, who else is going to put up with me this way. I need you, I breathe you, I’d never leave you." Lana loves hard; her audience can see and feel that. Teenage girls love hard in general when they find that one person they actually connect with. Lana’s lyrics may seem overdramatic, but most girls can understand her because they know what it's like to be unhealthily and hopelessly in love with a person.
The media doesn't understand this, they bash her and call her crazy. Her lyrics are clearly toxic, as it's not normal to be this unhealthily in love with a person, but she should still be treated with compassion because she's obviously struggling with this. Society is quick to call Lana insane but dont even try to empathize with her. This all contributes to sexism because as a society, it's normal to belittle women for the serious music they produce rather than taking into account their feelings and lives.
Young women everywhere are going through things that hurt and break them, and music written by women is something that most of us find solace in because it grasps at the emotional turmoil we all feel but cannot explain. Women who make that music can pour their essence into it, their innermost thoughts and feelings, and their personal experiences. Those factors are exactly what strikes a chord with young women because they can relate to such passion and experience in their own lives. The women in the music industry get torn down regularly for the music they make when, in actuality, it helps young women the most. Instead of being “torn down,” these women should be praised for their perseverance through hard times while still being strong and successful artists.