Under My Thumb

It always seems that you can never come across an influential person or group who does not have some hitch in their story. After listening and reading more into the famous rock and roll band, The Rolling Stones, I have come to realize they were more of a tough rock band than I expected. More specifically, the song “under my thumb” gives s strong picture of how they promote their gender and attitudes toward women. The lyrics, time period, and author of the song by the Stones send a clear message that women are to be tamed, by men. Right from the start the author, Mick Jagger, has already put a perspective of control into the song by its given title “Under My Thumb”. What exactly is under his thumb? In general you would see it as just a normal hunger for control but this song promotes the accomplishment of having control over women. However this song's lyrics are an examination of a sexual power struggle, in which Jagger's lyrics celebrate the satisfaction of finally having controlled and gained leverage over a previously pushy, dominating woman. His goal to control this woman is fired by the need of a man to have power of her socially and sexually. It is a matter of satisfying his gender tendencies. From line to line, Jagger continuously refers to the woman as pets such as cats and squirming dogs. This shows how Mick Jagger viewed his male gender against the female gender. Not only did he find himself to be satisfied with control over them like they were animals from the wild but he felt it was his duty to break the pushy women down. He repeats “its down to me” because he feels that it is up to him to change this woman for the better by taming her under his spell. In the end, Jagger is only responding to a woman who did not give him the light of day but he twists it into sexual dominance because that’s how his belief of power and gender work. The infamous Rolling Stones have managed to stay relevant for current and past generations. Their appearance and music has only aged physically but their fans have evolved throughout the years. At the time of “Under My Thumb” the people of the world were different because it was the Sixties. There was a heavy amount of culture in society but an equal amount of counterculture. The free willed people of the time period went against almost every norm of the era. Sex, drugs, alcohol and music is truly is the best way to put it. The Stones were essential to such a time period of open-minded people because their music fuelled their fire for freedom and anti government. Sex played a vital role is the hippie’s movement and a sexually suggestive song fits right in. For them it was just another song that simply expressed an idea and belief. A large majority of the people listening to the music had more focus on the power of the hierarchy rather than the power among genders. All music was seemingly controversial at the time so it made it easy for the Rolling Stones to fit in without issues. However, in a society such as todays where gender is one of the top debates of the world, this song would spark a few fires and eventually grow into a forrest fire. The timing was everything for this song and made it such a simple task for the Stones to persuade people to enjoy their music. Mick Jaggers legacy is significant in the world and due to him being a sexual