Independent Women - Arts & Culture

The song “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child focuses on promoting female independence, both financially and relationally. She mentioned that it came to light after hearing a song Beyoncé came up with about an argument with her boyfriend, she said that she thought to herself, “I don’t need a man, I’m independent” and go working on this song. This song focuses on power, although it can be a great thing, this focused on the fact that the idea of power in gender is predominantly dominated by men having power over women. She says, “It is men who sing about women’s bodies being what they use to measure their worth”. This song uses lyrics like, “I worked hard and sacrificed to get what I get ladies, it ain’t easy being independent”. The focus of this song is to share the message to women not to settle for what they think they deserve, that even though the odds seem against them most of the time that they are just as worthy of accomplishing even more than men. She wants women to get out there and work hard to be an independent woman, to know her worth and to strive for greatness. The focus of this song is to empower women to be the best they can be.

In response to this song, I thought the meaning was a very important message for women. Although men have always had the easier path set for them in regards to success and independence, that doesn’t mean women can’t achieve success and independence as well. Through history, women relied on men to have the job, do the work, be the man of the house while the women took care of their kids, cooked and cleaned the house. Now in society, women have the right to be important and matter if they work for it. Being a woman myself I understand the comparison of yourself to men in fairness and accomplishments. I think in “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child she did a good job in creating a pop cultured song that’s both entertaining and relays an important message of women’s independence, she uses lyrics like “Girl I didn’t know you could get down like that” to motivate and “hype” up women to show off what they’ve got that men don’t, use their femininity to their advantage to accomplish their goals. Overall a motivational song that I thought portrayed a good message of women empowerment and importance. Listen to the song and tell me what you think! -Kelly