Research Paper
English 1110.01- Darlene Slack
7 April 2014
Women and Love Relationships
Abstract: Women in love relationships tend to face many struggles when it comes to commitment and the gender role women are supposed to play. Lana Del Rey’s music allows young women, who are going through the struggles, to connect to her music. Today in society the topic of women fearing love relationships has became an issue. The fear women have of relationships can be caused by a wide variety of things. The topic of stereotypical gender roles are also another issue women face. Lana Del Rey’s music genre is a genre that many women tend to listen to. By analyzing some songs of Del Rey’s and articles about her type of music we can become clearer on what causes these fears women have. We can also determine why so many women choose to accept being in bad or abusive relationships. In the book “The New Science of Love” Dr. Fran Cohen Paver says, “Love is essential to the survival of human beings; it is the greatest spur there is to that driving impulse of every living creature: procreation.” Although love is so important to the survival of humans, love relationships can become a fear to many young women if they have had bad experiences with love relationships before. Lana Del Rey’s music speaks about these fears and struggles that young women have in love relationships have, and what young women fear about them. The stereotypes and issues young women face are problems. If we became clearer on the issues we could realize the cause of this problem.
The songs Del Rey writes speak and show the different struggles that young women have in love relationships. Her music represents how young women tend to be the ones who are unsure of themselves when it comes to love relationships. “… she is representing and speaking to a contradiction facing thousands of young women today,” says Catherine Vigier in “The Meaning of Lana Del Rey.” Vigier says, “The references to morbidly dependent relationships, addiction, self-destruction, mental illness, which appear in the songs of Lana Del Rey or Rihanna, are a reflection of what is going on in the minds and bodies of young people.” From this we could take that young woman who may have had issues with being dependent on someone else may choose to just be with someone bad for them just so they are not alone. This allows us to begin understanding why young women may become afraid of being in a love relationship.
“Singers can express deep unhappiness while embracing the conditions that give rise to that unhappiness,” Vigier says in her article. Del Rey’s music tends to express a sense of a young woman’s unhappiness in her love relationship. According to rateyourmusic.com, “Indie pop is a genre characterized by pop conventions and structure, and a melodic, lighthearted sound. Artist generally use typical rock instrumentation (drums, guitar, bass, and vocals), although some artist deviate from this, sometimes including electronics, piano, strings, or even eschewing guitar altogether.” Del Rey’s music falls under this style of music, with the music being lighthearted with many instruments, such as the orchestra in “Young and Beautiful”, and her voice singing about the struggles young women may face in love relationships. “Various critics have argued that she undermines the notion that women can be powerful…” says Vigier (4). Critics may think this because in her music she expresses the fact of young women being dependable on their man. The lyrics, “But when you walked out the door, a piece of me died” in the song “Blue Jeans” shows this dependableness. Vigier states that “…Del Rey sings as a woman who does not know what she wants.” (5) Through her music Del Rey express the struggles of young women not knowing what they want while in relationships or even life. With her music talking about the struggles women have it allows young women to have a type of music that they can relate to.
In the article “Are