"Will the Rules Change Up or Will They Still Apply"

Ciara Princess Harris was born on October 25, 1985 in Austin, Texas. Since her father was in the army and she moved around a lot, they found a permanent settlement in Atlanta, Georgia. Through watching Destiny’s Child, a popular female R&B group at the time, she decided to pursue a career in music. Her first professional opportunity as a singer came when she joined the group: Hear’Say; she was able to work on her songwriting skills during this time. She eventually left the group, graduated from high school and signed with  LaFace Records in 2003. With producer, Jazzy Pha, on her side her first album, titled “Goodies”, was released in 2004.

In 2006, Ciara released her second album Ciara: The Evolution, with “Like A Boy” being one of her popular tracks on the album. The song was written by Ciara, Candice Nelson, Balewa Muhammad, J. Que, Ezekiel Lewis, and Calvin Kenon. This record empowers women and shows that women do not have to take the disrespectful and unfair treatment that they sometimes receive in relationships. Ciara emphasizes--in the song--that in society there are double standards between men and women in relationships. The main question to consider from this song is, “Would the rules still be the same if the roles were switched?” Men are allowed certain freedoms; however, if women do the same things as men then, then the women are perceived to be less than the woman who does not commit herself to a man’s mindless actions. On the one hand, when a guy has a lot of girlfriends at one time, he is congratulated; on the other hand, if a woman has a lot of boyfriends at one time she is considered a whore. This double standard can be explained further by a quote that I stumbled across while talking to a friend: “A key that opens up many locks is a master key, but a lock that is opened by many keys is useless...”

The lyrics of the song emphasize the stereotypical boy in a relationship and sometimes overemphasizes certain male characteristics found in society. In the first stanza she focuses on physical characteristics. For instance, boys normally sag their pants, so she says “Pull up your pants, just like em”. Typical chores for guys involve rigorous work, or something that requires some unknown amount of strength; She says “ Take out the trash, just like em”. Because mens’ jobs normally pay more, she uses the lyric “Getting your cash like em, fast like em…” Then Ciara begins to talk about how guys act in relationships. In the stereotypical relationship the guy is secretive and very emotionally detached. The boy  is constantly telling lies and trying to play the girl for a fool. Throughout the second verse she urges the girl to go ahead and start acting like the guy to get some results. She then asks the guys “Why [they] getting mad? What, you mad? Can you handle that?” She confronts men, saying that they would not be able to handle the emotional distress, pain, and worry that girls go through. Ciara also emphasizes the male stereotypes in her music video.

The music video for the song “Like a Boy” was directed by Diana Martel, also known as Ms. D. Diana Martel has also directed the videos for other songs that we have discussed in my first-year seminar class, Music and Gender, such as “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring TI and Pharrell and “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus. The “Like A Boy” video premiered on BET Access Granted and Yahoo Music on February 21, 2007. The video was received very well by her audience. It peaked at number one on BET’s 106 & Park. It also made number thirty-three on BET Top 100 video countdown. The black and white video starts out with Ciara sitting in a chair she says “2007, Ladies, I think its time to switch roles” She is dressed in a masculine style and has  fake tattoos. She is literally switching roles at this point. She sits like a boy and has a masculine demeanor. As the video continues she is confronting her boyfriend, who is played by Reggie Bush, as the girl Ciara. Throughout the first verse of the song Ciara is dancing with her male alter ego. This is where she straddles the fence, in that she tries to figure out whether or not she wants to actually act like a boy. Then she says, “Wish we can switch up the roles,” and she changes into a full boy. She gets irritated and decides that she will start acting like a boy to see what will happen. So during the second verse, Ciara and female dancers portray masculine tendencies while dressed in all masculine styles. They have all “switched up the roles”  

I think that this video and song is a call to action for all women to stop putting up with guys’ excuses and nuisances. Guys only treat girls the way they do because we allow them to. If we just understand that we have the power, then maybe guys’ behavior would change. I think if we switched up the roles then guys will better understand what girls go through.

As a girl I agree with Ciara. Sometimes I do wish I could act like a boy because it would limit the pain that I go though. However, in our society today, when girls act like boys it is frowned upon. Unfortunately the rules do not still apply when the roles are switched. We live in a world full of double standards. I do not think there is anything that we can do about it. It sucks, but we just have to live with it.