How Does The Beatles Present Negative Attitudes Towards Women In Music

“Though rock music was gradually becoming more political, it wasn’t becoming feminized; in fact often the opposite” (Stark 192). During The Beatles introspective era they introduced music that had a deeper message in it and often dealt with more mature content. In the album Rubber Soul, The Beatles show negative views towards women in songs such as “Drive My Car” and “Run for Your Life”.

The Beatles “Drive My Car” is not solely about driving a car. In the song “Drive My Car,” they wrote, “I wanna be famous, a star of the screen. But you can do something in between”. A woman shares that she wants to be a famous movie star but the man tells her she also has to do something for him. It can be inferred that the woman must do a sexual favor for

The girl in the song was referred to as a “little girl” as a way to degrade her. The man makes it clear that he doesn’t want the girl to be with any other man. James Decker writes “At first blush ‘Run for Your life’ appears to be the bitter final act on the drama initiated in ‘You Can’t Do That,’ an earlier song wherein the narrator threatens his loquacious lover and declares that he’ll go out of [his] mind” (88). The threat continued when they wrote “Catch you with another man, that's the end, ah, little girl”. His choice of words show that there will be consequences if the girl disobeys him. The girl has no sense of freedom because of the man's insecurity. As a result, the girl lacks her self identity. Decker confirms “Many of the Beatles’ songs – particularly those penned mainly by Lennon – reveal a misogynistic streak, and this composition is clearly the most overt, with its dictation of ownership and control as well as the obvious violence” (88). Without a doubt the song displays resentment towards women being

During the song Paul McCartney also adds his vocals to the song. It is true that the group has multiple people singing at certain parts to add emphasis and excitement. The instruments used are guitars, tambourine and drums. The clever use of the tambourines and drums create an upbeat song with a fast paced rhythm. However, Lennon sings with an angry and jealous tone in this song about a girl. This is interesting because the song wants you to believe it is a good song but it actually has a dark message towards women. The group does this to show their maturity in writing songs during the introspective era. If the music was not upbeat the song would not be as popular. So, The Beatles made sure they kept an upbeat sound to attract their audience to share their new sound of