"Stupid Girls" - P!nk
Sex tapes, Chihuahuas, and pink sports cars… are these real life?! The music video “Stupid Girls” provides a very interesting social commentary about the pressure on young girls to conform to certain roles that are set out for them. The narrative revolves around a young girl, who has a paradigm of conflicting voices in her head symbolised by the iconic angel versus the devil. The devil represents the antagonist characters within the music video, to try to convince the young girl she should act like all of the young, Californian, Hollywood starlets. There are allusions to characters like Shakira and Paris Hilton and the images they connote (Hicks). Alternatively, the angel is symbolically dressed in white, carrying connotations of purity and goodness; she aims to convince the girl that she can be a real girl; who eats and plays sports.
The multiple sections within the narrative are viewed via a T.V, which reflects an influential tool of the media. The lyrics are reflected within the multiple sets of images. “Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back” is a classic line within the song, reflecting the pressure to look a certain way to get any attention (Hicks). The devil character acts as a metaphor for all the popular culture elements which carry negative impacts, such as plastic surgery, the need to be skinny, drive flash cars, have “Daddy” pay for champagne and dropping names. The images, which accompany these phrases, create an ironic, comical affect, as it is so ridiculous. P!nk gets a bright orange fake tan, walks into a glass door, and runs over multiple people in her car, whilst drinking coffee, talking on the phone, and applying lip gloss at the same time! P!nk gives the young girl alternative role-model characters and aspirations with which she could associate with, such as “what happened to the dreams of a girl president?”, yet sadly, “she’s dancing in a video next to Fiddy Cent”, showing just how little respect and expectations there are for women.
Furthermore, P!nk distinguishes herself apart from these girls, singing “They travel in packs of two or three”, whereas, she says “I’m so glad that I’ll never fit in”. Sadly, she continues that her kind of girl is an “outcast”, demonstrating that popular culture and modern day society all push the images these young, dumb, robot-like girls uphold. There is one particular image within the music video where P!nk is on a date with someone and a “stupid” girl catches his attention. A sign is used and its meaning demonstrated and P!nk wins back her man. She pulls an inflation tag to make her chest bigger, this is the signifier, and the signified is that she gets back the attention of the guy. This is a sign which can be understood by many people in society, especially girls, because within movies, music videos and day-to-day life, its commonly felt that guys will judge females via their bodies before getting to know the real them. The video clip also demonstrates the demeaning image of women within the media these days, as P!nk makes a parody porno, poking fun of the multiple sex-tapes of celebrities which wind up on the web. Overall, P!nks “Stupid Girls” carries strong messages and provides alternative role-models for young girls to follow, like the young girl in the video clip who eventually choses to pick up the rugby ball. I hope that multiple other young girls can be their individual selves as well, and turn down being cloned into another Paris Hilton.
Beth, Alecia P!nk. “Stupis Girls”. 2006. Billy Mann & MachoPhycho.
Hicks, Brad J. “The Infamous Brad”. Pink: Stupid Girls.
This writing, is for my Cultural Studies class blog we need to keep. However, I thought it was interesting, so I shared it here.
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