‘To Wear a Pretty Skirt’ and RaeLynn’s Reasons Why ‘God Made Girls’
Former “The Voice’’ contestant RaeLynn (full name, Rachael Lynn Woodward) has a new single called, “God Made Girls,’’ and no, it’s not about superior God-like women as its phonetic pronunciation may suggest. RaeLynn’s alarmingly popular country single is indeed about “girls,’’ and it does mention God many, many, many times, but make no mistake: This is not a feminist anthem of any sort.
The opening lines go something like this: Somebody’s gotta wear a pretty skirt/Somebody’s gotta be the one to flirt/Somebody’s gotta wanna hold his hand/So God made girls
Jezebel breaks down a selection of additional meanings to life as rattled off by a twang-tinged RaeLynn. They write, “It’s perhaps a sign Pinterest has achieved sentience and is now producing country pop songs… The term ‘retrograde’ doesn’t do this song justice—it’s outright Victorian.’’
But — is it?
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Here are some more of RaeLynn’s reasons for why girls possibly exist. Most(ly all) of them are in reference to ways girls are valuable to their male love interests. Maybe they will clear things up:
– to be “somethin’ fragile to hold him when he hurts’’
– to be “the one to flirt’’
– to “wake him up and call his bluff and drag his butt to church’’
– to “give him a reason to wash that truck’’
– to “put up a fight, make him wait on a Saturday night, to walk downstairs and blow his mind’’
The 20-year-old artist seems to think this is the norm. In a voiceover intro for the video, RaeLynn speaks on behalf of “every girl’’ saying, “It’s to be romanced and to reveal beauty, and to play an irreplaceable role in a greater picture, the heart of every girl longs for these things. It’s what makes us come alive.’’
OK. Let’s just make one thing clear: Taylor Swift owns the fairy country princess genre. She owns it. And even she seems pretty over it.
RaeLynn also seems to put the creation of rigid male-female roles on God as she declares again and again throughout the song. (Jezebel drops the word “blasphemous’’ so we don’t have to.) A higher power has carefully crafted decades and decades of gender-based stereotypes that define lady-ism as we know it. Sorry.
And God made girls for singin’ in your front seat/God made girls for dancin’ to our own beat/He stood back and told the boys, “I’m ‘bout to rock your world.’’/And God made girls
Well, at least now we know.
🙁
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