Analyzing Taylor Swift’s Song, ‘Blank Space’

Taylor Swift has been on top of the music charts given that she began her career. Her most recent album, 1989, has broken many records and has provided the public quite a few songs that will be stuck in the heads of Americans forever. One particular of these is “Blank Space”, a song about a psychotic serial girlfriend who goes via the familiar procedure of falling in and out of enjoy with a boy each and every couple of months. Some of the lines in this song contain phrases such as, “Find out what you want/Be that girl for a month,” and “Boys only want adore if it is torture”. Overall, the song shows how women are supposed to be completely poised and sophisticated however, when they are not they are observed as crazy and manipulative. It also shows that males are pigs who only love for selfish motives. This song stands out as a commentary on gender as it addresses troubles that pertain to both genders. It is observed how this song impacts members of the diverse genders psychologically by way of the concepts of essentialism, overt aggression, the Id, and benevolent sexism.

Essentialism describes the behavioral variations among genders as a product of qualities resident in that gender. So, for instance, below essentialism, a woman is crazy and manipulative simply because it is naturally part of her genetics as a woman. An example of this in the song is, “Stolen kisses, pretty lies/You are the king infant I’m your Queen”. This line gives the concept that because she is his queen, “pretty lies” is an expected side impact. The adjective ‘pretty’ with the word lies is also an instance of benevolent sexism, where a member of a specific gender is treated specially properly since they are that distinct gender. With ‘pretty lies’ it provides the connotation that the lies are acceptable, due to the fact they are gorgeous like a females, when truly anybody should be scolded for lying. Essentialism is also seen in the idea supported by the song that males use ladies in relationships it is just a trait that comes with the Y chromosome. An example of this in the song is, “’Cause you know I enjoy the players/And you enjoy the game”. By producing players plural, it implies that the subsequent line about players applies to all guys who are identified as players. The complete line implies that all men, who are players, really like the discomfort they result in when they ‘play’ girls. General, the song blank space utilizes the thought of essentialism to commentate on how some qualities of men and women are noticed as innate and are consequently excusable.

One more notion illustrated in the song is overt aggression, which is a physical threat or action that purposely harms yet another particular person. This concept in the song is very best observed in the music video, where Taylor Swift is a wealthy bachelorette who brings guys to her mansion whenever she is single. By the finish of the music video she has thrown a vase at the man, stabbed his portrait, destroyed his vehicle, and either knocked him out or killed him, it is not completely clear. The overt aggression goes along with the notion that females are manipulative and crazy. Overt aggression is also discovered in the song with lines such as, “You can inform me when it’s more than/If the higher was worth the pain”, and “It’ll leave you breathless/Or with a nasty scar”. It becomes clear that the finish of this partnership constantly had the intention in ending in discomfort.

For the duration of the whole song of blank space, both in the lyrics and in the music video, the characters are led purely by their Id. In psychoanalytic theory, the Id is the component of the subconscious that drives the wish for sex and aggression, and other issues that are observed as socially unacceptable in society. An instance of this in the song is, “Rose gardens filled with thorns/Hold you second guessing like/”Oh my God, who is she?”/I get drunk on jealousy/But you will come back each and every time you leave/’Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream”. There are several examples of the Id in this line. 1st, the line that states “Rose gardens filled with thorns” does a wonderful job at explaining the idea of the Id. The Id gets an individual to do what looks pleasurable and fun, just as a rose looks desirable, but there are most often negative consequences for following this want, hence the thorns on the rose. Yet another way the Id is observed at this point is when she states, “I get drunk on jealousy”. Obtaining drunk connotes an unrealistic bliss and possibly an obsession with the substance that causes the drunkness. The reality that she gets drunk on something noticed as poor, jealousy, is another way the Id is used in this song. The Id is totally primarily based on finding joy in issues that are observed as bad, such as getting drunk on jealousy. Ultimately, “a nightmare dressed like a daydream” is exactly how the Id presents itself, anything that will lead down a dark road, but sounds so enticing that it is followed. General, the entire song is based off of characters following their Id and letting it guide their lives.

All round, it is not clear whether or not Taylor Swift was attempting to commentate on gender or if she was oblivious of the messages she was portraying with the lyrics and the music video of one particular of her hit songs. It is most probably that she was aware of this as she is typically described as a crazy ex-lover who dates as well a lot in the media, so this could be her way of responding to these accusations in a sarcastic tone. Her song exemplifies how males and girls are anticipated to match certain roles and adverse consequences such as overt aggression and side effects of the Id are observed if these are not always kept.

Reflection Paragraph

I did not like this essay. It was beneficial for understanding how the terms are noticed in actual life, but I had a challenging time obtaining one thing to create about that I cared about and I felt like I had to stretch to find issues to speak about when I lastly did discover that topic. Also I had a challenging time reaching the word count for this paper. The entire time I felt like I was stretching to discover discriminations against gender in the song, and I really feel like we should not be attempting to find items to be offended about, due to the fact that is where discontent comes into play. A lot more than something, this taught me that you can find gender discriminations in something and be offended by something if you choose to be. I was honestly really discontent that my assignment was to find troubles in our culture when we have currently have got sufficient to deal with, so why go out and uncover a lot more to add to our list of items to fix? So, general, I think the essay did what you wanted it to do in that I had to study the terms in order to use them correctly, but I did not get pleasure from the assignment and it did not make me feel empathetic towards gender discriminations, it created me far more indifferent.