My 14th portfolio post will be looking at gender and sex roles along with stereotypical feminine and masculine characteristics in the One Direction song, “Little Things”. This song is from the boyband’s Take Me Home album. The lyrics in this song refer to a boy talking about all of the little things about this girl that they love, even though the girl is insecure about them. He is attempting to give her reassurance and show how much he cares about her. However, some pieces of the lyrics are somewhat backhanded and stereotypical of women. This song brings up insecurities that women typically have due to society’s stereotypical standard of beauty. Below is a list of some of the important insecurities that are brought up throughout the song:
- The crinkles by your eyes when you smile
- You’ve never loved your stomach or your thighs
- The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine
- I know you never loved the sound of your voice on tape
- You never want to know how much you weigh
- You still have to squeeze into your jeans
- You’ll never love yourself half as much as I love you
These lyrics bring up the common insecurities of women due to not being society’s standard of an ideal woman. A woman is supposed to be confident, but not too confident, have a soft-spoken voice, be youthful/childlike, be small, and be stereotypically “beautiful”. This song gives the idea that women aren’t self-sufficient or emotionally strong enough to love themselves for what they are and they need men to validate them. Overall, I can see that this song shows what a woman should stereotypically be by showing what this woman isn’t.
Shared by: Abigail Gonnering
Image Credit: Nylon