As Ariana says, “You’ll believe God is a woman” by the end of an intimate act. In her song, “God is a Woman”, Ariana emphasizes women empowerment and raises awareness to a topic that is frowned upon in society- woman finding pleasure in sexual relations. Ariana encourages female empowerment through lines such as “And I can tell that you know I know how I want it” and “I’m tellin’ you the way I like it, how I want it”. In doing so, Ariana sheds light on the idea of women placing their needs and desires above men, this way the act of intimacy shifts from being man-dominated to woman-dominated. These lyrics emphasize the importance of women openly speaking about their sexual desires and reclaiming their bodily autonomy.
This idea of being confident in speaking about sexual desires relates to Foucault connections between knowledge and pleasure, and how sex is just not supposed to be a learning experience, but also an opportunity to teach us something about ourselves. There is an urge to know something from sex and pleasure, but there is still the paradox of the sex talk where sex is silenced, yet we still talk about it explicitly and incessantly. Ariana paves the way for women to skip the act of silence and feel confident in speaking about their needs in a sexual relation.
However, it is important to note there are limitations that exist in how gender plays a role in her song. Ariana references intimacy in a relationship between a male and female both in the song and the music video. For example she sings, “And he sees the universe when I’m the company.” With the usage of the pronoun, “he,” Ariana excludes homosexual relationships. Also, the exclusion of queer relationships does not address other women’s sexual experience, such as those who are transgender and lesbian.
Despite this, “God is a Woman” by Ariana Grande encourages female sexual liberation and celebrates female pleasure.
For starters, I love this song and I love how you mentioned Ariana’s emphasis on women empowerment and the raising of awareness in regards to women finding pleasure in sexual relations. I also think it’s important that you acknowledged that women finding pleasure in sexual relations is something not welcomed with open arms in society. The way you incorporated some of her lyrics and then analyzed them, was very helpful in describing the song’s message, especially if one of your readers has not heard this song. Communication is something I think this song does a good job of placing importance on – the importance of women openly communicating to their partners their feelings and their wants. It does indeed allow women to reclaim their bodily autonomy. Lastly, I like that you pointed out the limitations within this song of not incorporating queer relationships and not addressing the experiences of those who are transgender or lesbian. My song also had very similar limitations. Overall, great job!
Great song! I loved your analysis of the lyrics and the underlying messages in the song. I think it’s so important to normalize female pleasure because it has been a taboo topic in society and has been silenced for such a long time. Through media, especially in movies it is common to seen a emphasis on the male’s pleasure in heterosexual relationships compared the womens’ so I think that it’s really cool Ariana is empowering women by talking about pleasure and sexual desires from a women’s perspective.
Great analysis! I love this message of women taking charge and doing what they want with their own bodies. I really liked the comparison to Foucault in using bodily autonomy as a learning experience for ourselves, and I loved the point you made about women owning their bodies and being confident in it is still often considered quite taboo, even though sex is rooted in so many things around us. The limitation you mention is also very important to note, as neutral pronouns could have made the song more relatable. Nice job!