Protest Song Argument and Rough Draft

In the assignment we were supposed to find a protest song and write about what they were protesting. For awhile I struggled with finding a good protest song. Then I decided to go through the list that Mrs.Nall had given us and watch the music videos to them. This songs music video really stuck out to me. It was entertaining and really got the point of the protest across. 

Rough Draft

I had a few small mistakes at first which I later went back and fixed. Those mistakes were things like saying Taylor Swifts full name instead of just using her last name after I already introduced her. Another mistake was putting my comas in the wrong place. 

Deana Carol Nall

"Just use her last name through the rest of the paper.

Deana Carol Nall

"song, Swift says,"

Here is my Protest Song Argument. I fixed the errors pointed out by my professor and I underlined them so you can see what I changed. 

Bailey Glenn

Professor Nall

Composition 1

8 November 2023

"The Man" Taylor Swift

    The Man by Taylor Swift was published in 2019. It's a more recent song about the double standards between woman and men. ITs shows how Tyler (Swift dressed up as a man) is applauded as a womanizer, while Swift was demonized for dating around. This song is pushing for men and women to be treated equally. There shouldn't be any double standards. I feel like this song is very important in today's time because double standards between men and women still occur.

    What really inspired me to choose this song is the music video. The music video is Swift dressed up as a man doing things that woman could not get away with. everyone knows that Swift has been in quite a few relationships, and she has been called a lot of unpleasant words for that. At the beginning of the song Swift says, "Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you" This is talking about how when guts get with a lot of girls they are considered "cool", but if a girl does the same thing, she is considered a "hoe" or "whore". A few seconds later in the video it shows the guy at a train station walk off and pee on a wall. Although it's nor normal for anyone to pee on a wall at a train station; It would be odd to see a man doing it, but if a woman did it people would go crazy. While riding the train you see the man smoking and man spreading in his seat, while the woman is sitting with their legs closed. If a woman sat like that it would be considered unladylike and people would look at her in disgust. Right after that Swift says, "they'd say I hustled, put in the work. They wouldn't shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve." This is a reference to people saying she doesn't deserve the success that she's had. In the music video you can see the man take his child to the park. It's a bunch of women with their children at the park and they are all going crazy and fantasizing over him for taking his child to the park. When it shouldn't be a big deal for a man to take their child to the park. Everyone's applauding him at the park and there's a sign behind him that says "world’s greatest dad", but for all the woman it's just normal for them to bring their children to the park. At the very end of the video the man goes up to Swift and ask if that take was good. Swift says, "pretty good, ah could you try to be sexier? Maybe more likable this time?" Showing that most woman are more like by how much skin they are showing or how sexy they are being. Then Swift turned to the woman that just stood there in the vides and said, by the way excellent work over there Lauren that was astonishing." She's showing the roles of a man and woman reversed. 

    Swift got a lot of backlashes from this song. People were saying that Swifts not a victim and she shouldn't act like one. Swift then responded by saying, "a man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing or whining." Just proving the point of the song even more. That there are double standards when it comes to guts and girls. With the backlash she also got a lot of positive responses. A Forbes column called it "the most important song she's ever written."

    Most people Believe that Swift connected this song with one of her own experiences. I 2013, Swift reported radio DJ David Mueller for sexually assaulting her during a meet and greet. She asked to be believed and wasn't. She ended up countersuing for sexual assault and winning. David Mueller as a result got fired. People believe that in the song when she says, "when everyone believes ya, what's that like?" it's referencing people not believing her in 2013. That's why I believe that this song is a good representation of the double standards between men and women.