Caillat's Song Compare And Contrast Essay

In the current patriarchal society, modern media – including television shows, television commercials, movies, popular magazines, and even hit songs – often portrays women as tall, thin, and beautiful with perfect skin. If not, women are being told how they can become that ideally beautiful person. From a feminist critic’s perspective, both Colbie Caillat’s song “Try” and the music video that goes along with it offer a distinctly opposite than the societal norm, but still important, message often missing in today’s media.

In her song, Caillat comments on the expectations put to women, the effects that trying to achieve them can have, and the importance of breaking free from these expectations. Feminist criticism of Caillat’s song shows that it offers empowerment to women being themselves and learning to be happy with who they are. Although the obvious central message is aimed at women, the underlying message of accepting one’s self and acknowledging that one doesn’t have to strive to meet the media’s standards can also be applied to society as a whole. Men and women alike of all ages can take this underlying message in the song and use it in their own lives in order to learn that it is okay to step outside societal norms and to not worry what others think of them.

“Broadly

defined, feminist criticism examines the way in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Tyson 83). A feminist critic analyzes how women are portrayed in a text and may also look at what is considered a woman’s role, or the cultural norm for women, in the society surrounding the text. “Behind it [feminist criticism], however, lie two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women's cultural roles and achievements, and for women's social and political rights … Much of feminist literary criticism continues in our time to be interrelated with the movement by political feminists for social, legal, and cultural freedom and equality” (Abrams 88). Essentially, a feminist critic delves into a text and looks not only at how women are shown to be, but also how that relates to creating equality in the general and gender norms in society.
“Try” deals with the realistic portrayal of women, their appearance, and how it relates to other people’s expectations. When young women are exposed to media and the expectations it has on them, it tends to impact them greatly. Women in the media are often portrayed as being ideal, something other women should strive to be. “Women are much more likely than men to make or receive comments about their appearance in all three media where this could be measured [television, movies, and commercials]” (Signorielli 8). In the music video for “Try,” Caillat portrays women as realistic actual human beings with varying ethnicities, body types, and ages. She comments on women’s appearance in a way that is positive for women and empowers them. The beginning of the music video starts out with women in full makeup and with their hair done in a way that shows how women are often portrayed in the media. As the video continues, however, the women and Caillat herself are seen removing these things that make them ‘acceptable’ or ‘perfect’ with smiles on their faces. This helps in showing Caillat’s message that having an ‘ideal’ appearance does not have to be as important as people make it seem. With lyrics such as, “Take your makeup off / Let your hair down / Take a breath / Look into the mirror, at yourself / Don't you like you?” Caillat shows her audience that it’s okay to not be perfect. She portrays women as they are, without make up or other enhancements, and shows them that it’s more important to like and accept themselves than to try and live up to how women are portrayed in the media.
Caillat’s “Try” undermines the social oppression of women in a way that therefore empowers the women and deals with their social rights and wish for equality. In this case, the social oppression is traditional gender roles and appearance related expectations pushed onto women through the media.
Women are also seen spending their time in appearance-related activities such as shopping and grooming. On television, three times as many women [10%] as men [3%] are seen grooming or 'preening' ... In films, this difference grows to 31% of the women compared to 7% of the men. TV commercials show a similar trend with 17% of the women seen grooming themselves compared to less than 1% of the men. (Signorielli 8)
Both the lyrics and the video comment on traditional gender norms and this strictly defined femininity that can be found in western society and its media. Caillat’s lyrics “Get your shopping on, / At the mall, / Max your credit cards / You don't have to choose, / Buy it all / So they like you. Do they like you?” give an example of how the media tends to portray women as creatures who live to shop and whose appearance is of the utmost importance which causes people to generally view women, or expect them to be, this way. Through feminist criticism, the audience can see how Caillat remarks on this with these lyrics by showing the excessive expectations women are held to. With her lyrics “You don't have to try so hard / You don't have to bend until you break” Caillat shows that women don’t have to deal with this social oppression and these social inequalities and that their role is so much more than what people often believe. She shows the audience that there is more to life than being what other people, particularly the media, expect or try to get one to be. Caillat offers empowerment to her audience by showing them that they don’t have to bend to other people’s wills and try to become someone they’re not.
In “Try”, Caillat also undermines the psychological oppression of women while offering to bring them empowerment. Due to the expectations put upon them, women often do their best to be what is considered perfect or flawless. In an interview about the song “Try” Caillat stated, “And I know that most women go through that. When you have blemishes on your skin, gain weight, or my friend has crooked teeth, or my mom's roots are going gray. And everyone is trying to hide their faults from each other when we all have it” (Kletnoy). Here she shows the psychological oppression women are under and how women tend to feel the need to hide parts of themselves from others in order to be liked. In her song, Caillat’s lyrics “Wait a second, / Why should you care, what they think of you / When you're all alone, by yourself / Do you like you? Do you like you?” undermine the societal norm of catering towards how others want or expect a woman to be. This shows women that their role in the world is more than just trying to be liked by others and that the more important thing is to be liked by themselves. Caillat indicates to her audience that spending time worrying about how others view them isn’t how they should spend their life.
In both her lyrics and her video Caillat comments on the male predominance of western culture in relation to women. Similarly to her dealings with the psychological oppression of women, Caillat’s constant referral to an ambiguous ‘they’ and repetition of phrases such as “So they like you. Do they like you?” notes how women are often made to focus and put emphasis on what others, specifically men or the media, think of them. As well, women are often underrepresented in all types of media, including music videos. This minimized representation sends women negative messages about the importance and value of females as compared to that of males (Signorielli 7). “Try” challenges this norm not only by generally being a song of empowerment for women but also by having a video that consists entirely of women. “Try” sends the audience, especially women, the message that every person is important and each person determines their own value.
Feminist criticism of Colbie Caillat’s “Try” reveals an empowering song and video for women of all ages to watch, listen to, and to heed.

The video promotes a realistic portrayal of women while undermining negative societal expectations put to those women. Furthermore, the message behind it, one calling people to accept themselves and to not feel the need to strive towards unreachable goals set by the media, can be applied to the lives of not only women but men as well. While the song was obviously meant for women, it is still holds the important message for people of any gender, age, or race to understand that being true to and learning to accept one’s self can only lead to positive

results.