...onto my soap box!
If you have kids (or ears), you may have heard a little song called "What Makes You Beautiful" by the UK boy band One Direction.
This song has been praised by many as highlighting the beauty within a young woman as opposed to her physcial beauty.
I interpret the lyrics differently. Read or listen to the lyrics for yourself. I don't see any reference to her inner beauty at all. The way I see it is that the boy finds the girl beautiful for the simple reason that she doesn't find herself beautiful (i.e. she has low self esteem).
This isn't the only song I've come across in the last few years with this theme. The lyrics in Bruno Mars' song "Just the Way You Are" also describes a young man's love for a confidence-lacking, self-depreciating young woman.
While some may say these boys are trying help boost a girl's self esteem by professing how beautiful she is despite her own doubt, what these songs are really doing is reinforcing the idea that a woman's own self-worth is based on her physical appearance and that she needs validation from a male to believe this for herself.
I find these two songs (and others like them) harmful to girls' perception of what makes them special human beings.
While targeting an more mature audience, Ne Yo's song Miss Independent is the exact opposite of the songs mentioned above. Ne Yo sings of his attraction to a woman who is able to support herself emotionally and financially. Couldn't this theme be translated into high school terms? Why aren't there any songs out there where the boy is professing how much he likes his girlfriend's good grades, performance in the marching band, or volunteer work?
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