“Positions”-Women Empowerment Song or Just another Patriarchal Love Song?
Ariana just released a new song under the title “Positions”. As usual, her new song is always good and a lot of people talk about it. The notion of a feminist singer has been entitled to her since she released a lot of songs aimed to empower women such as “God is a Woman”, “Thank You Next”, “Problem”, etc. “Positions” is no exception. People have been talking about how this new song can empower women to do whatever they want either as a president, cooker, or lover.
If we listen carefully, this new song, “Positions”, actually talks about another patriarchal relationship in the ’70s where household chores are still mandatory for women even if they work outside the house. This song shows how hard Ariana tries to comfort his man. She tries to switch her position from being a president, then being a cook, and suddenly she is really good at bed. What are those for? Definitely, to make his man happy. Don’t get me wrong, making your significant other happy can be another happiness. But why should men be happy that way? I think this question needs to be answered by Ariana Grande.
As much as I believe that women can do whatever they want and they are capable of doing everything, switching positions for men in order to make the relationship work is not a sustainable move. Women will get tired just to follow what men want as if women do not have something to follow by themselves. Then, the relationship will be broken anyway. A relationship goes both ways from both parts. It cannot be only a woman in a relationship who tries to make everything work. This kind of notion, “women keep the relationship”, is an old notion from the remaining patriarchal society and we all know how bad this patriarchal ideology has indulged men and prevented women from their true quality.
This song also shows no matter how successful Ariana is at work, kitchen chores and making the relationship work have to be Ariana’s priority as a woman. No wonder anti-feminist women in the ’70s disagreed with the idea of women work outside the house because it could lead to a double job as she had to work at home too. There is no something wrong with women doing household chores, but it becomes wrong if women do it for the sake of men’s happiness or keeping the relationship works.
From “Positions”, we can learn that the glass ceiling phenomena is still happening both in developing and developed countries. The perception of women having to do household chores prevents women from being able to climb up at professional jobs. Somehow, people are afraid to trust women in a high-level job because women have more jobs to balance between household chores and professional work. The same thing does not apply to men. Thus, men have better judgment when it comes to professional work. People see men as better focused human beings since they do not have mandatory household chores.
It could be an empowerment song if Ariana included how men also switched their position in the relationship as their proof of love to their significant other. Both men and women must, hand in hand, make a meaningful relationship. This equality will also make women be more accepted in a high-level job because women do not need to stress out in both household chores and professional work. The couple will share the load of the household chores and the relationship will be so much easier than we have ever imagined before.
Featured image: Youtube
Written By INTAN T. ILAIHAA. A Final Year Student of Communication and Media. Focussed research on media and feminism.
