The song “You Don’t Own Me” was written by John Madara and
David White, and sung by Lesley Gore in 1963. Lesley Gore was a
seventeen-year-old pop singer at the time of the song, so her target audience
was generally teens in the 1960’s. More specifically, the target audience was
likely comprised mostly of girls between the ages thirteen and twenty. The song
was meant to empower girls and teach them that they do not belong to men. However,
the song itself was sung as though Gore was speaking to a boy. This way, when
teenage boys (and men of any age) heard the song, it was like she was speaking
to them, telling them that they don’t own her or any other woman. In this sense
the audience was also meant to be men. In the 1960’s, with the second wave feminist movement starting to take off, a song like this was very radical for a
pop musician to have made. Many girls were hearing about feminism and equal
rights, but not fully understanding it. Women were starting to fight for their rights,
but younger girls weren’t even sure what those rights were. With this song Gore
was attempting to convey to her audience, the younger generation of the 60’s,
that women are strong individuals and not property, through the use of a medium
that did not have the same extreme connotations of other feminist arguments.
-Ryan Young
-Ryan Young
I think that you make a good point when you say that the audience of this song is both male and female teenagers. I wonder how you think this song would generate a response from the people opposing feminism. I feel like that it's generally a good idea to include how the "non-audience" might respond to your piece of rhetoric, especially in this sense. "You don't own me" is a song and everyone has easy access to it. People who had access to pop music of the 1960's was the audience, but only teenagers were the intended audience, making the audience response much more diverse.
ReplyDelete-Louie
You did a very good job establishing who the target audience was and how the song managed to expand the audience to include other groups. I also think that you were very successful in establishing the ideas Gore intended the audience to get out of the song, instead of just stating who the audience was. Also, the links that you included were very effective in helping me to understand your analysis in regards to the events happening around the time the song was published.
ReplyDelete~Micah Plotkin
I agree that the audience of the song is male and female teenagers. As a young female singer, she could relate to the female audience, but she also addressed the male audience. You did a good job with explaining Gore's intentions when addressing the audience.
ReplyDeleteYou supported your case with facts, which makes for a good blog post. Your use of hyperlinks males it seem professional too. I agree with your statement that her audiences was boys and girls, because of the tone she used when she sang.
ReplyDelete-Garrett Fitzgerald
Speaking of men as the audience, not to be too banal, but has anyone seen this?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SeRU_ZPDkE
This new take on the song presents a male rapper as a counterpart, who's singing the praises of the female lead. Perhaps this speaks to how times have changed, in terms of the audience for this song?
Speaking of men as the audience, not to be too banal, but has anyone seen this?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SeRU_ZPDkE
This new take on the song presents a male rapper as a counterpart, who's singing the praises of the female lead. Perhaps this speaks to how times have changed, in terms of the audience for this song?