No Doubt's Song Just A Girl

Throughout history, women’s behavior and opportunities have had severe restraints placed on them by society. From strict rules on proper attire to entire guides on how married women should behave, what a woman did or how she acted was not up to her. Despite the advancements made in the 20th and 21st centuries, such as the 19th Amendment and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, many stereotypes still exist and impact the lives of women today. A contributing factor to this is the prevalence of these stereotypes in media from all centuries: literature from the 19th century shows women’s only responsibility to be caring for her family, as did television shows, like Leave it to Beaver, from the 1950s and 1960s. However, in recent years artists have been

No Doubt is a rock band that gained fame in the 1990s and is unique for featuring a female lead singer, Gwen Stefani; Stefani also wrote the song “Just A Girl”, which was released in 1995. Although most of the song has a sarcastic tone, some of the first lyrics in the song acknowledge the seriousness of the situation: “Don't you think I know/Exactly where I stand/This world is forcing me/To hold your hand.” These lines establish both the problems faced by women due to the restrictions they face and the sarcastic tone of the song, as many of the following lyrics reflect the sexist views of society. The lines “Oh I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite/So don't let me have any rights,” subscribe to this sarcastic tone and, in doing that, critique a common defense for gender inequality. The tendency of females to be, on average, smaller and weaker than males is often used to justify women’s inferior role in society, but the sarcasm of the lyrics highlights the inaccurate nature of society’s belief and argues that women are not less deserving of rights because of their biology. Similarly, the lyrics, “Oh I'm just a girl, lucky me/Twiddle-dum there's no comparison” use sarcasm to critique the idea that women are, or at least should be, satisfied with how society treats them. By using the words “just a girl” and “twiddle-dum”, the song specifically targets the stereotype of the perfect woman who is not very smart or influential but is happy to simply care for her boyfriend/husband. These lines are in contrast with other parts of the song that articulate women’s dissatisfaction with their treatment in society, which reveals the negative impact these stereotypes have on women. Lastly, the song outright condemns gender roles without sarcasm in the lines, “I'm just a girl in the world.../That's all that you'll