Lesley Gore released the song, "You Don't Own
Me" in 1963 in the middle of the feminist movement. The song is blatantly
feminist no matter which way you look at it. One of the major points in feminism
at the time was equality in relationships. Women were expected to be monogamous
while it was okay men to have multiple partners or "sleep around". At
the beginning of the song, Gore sings, “You
don’t own me, I’m not just one of your many toys, You don’t own me, Don’t say I
can’t go with other boys”. Gore makes the point of saying if a man can’t be
loyal to her, she shouldn’t have to be loyal to him. Because most of the
audience was teenagers at the time, she gets her argument across to the younger
generation that is more often exploring new relationships. Additionally, Gore
sings, “I’m young and I love to be young, I’m free and I love to be free”. In
this case, gore is furthering on her point of women being equal to men in a
relationship in that they can be “free” the same way boys are. She explains
that being young and being free are things that men and women can both want. She
goes against stereotypes to argue for the equality of men and women in
relationships.
I like how you discussed how this is especially relevant for teens who are exploring new relationships. It is so important for the youth to become involved with a movement such as this one because they often play such a large role in social change.
ReplyDeleteA major point of this also seems to be that though men and women want the same things, only men get what they want. Gore wants to change this by writing music expressing her desires and encouraging young women to express their desires and to break societal norms.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the blatancy of her message was anywhere near common at this time? Even in a covert way; were other women inserting this message into music/media? I'm also wondering who she inspired in years after her.
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