"Just a Girl"

by No Doubt
Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I'm exposed
And it's no big surprise
Don't you think I know
Exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me
To hold your hand
'Cause I'm just a girl, little ol' me
Well don't let me out of your sight
Oh, I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don't let me have any rights
Oh...I've had it up to here!

The moment that I step outside
So many reasons
For me to run and hide
I can't do the little things
I hold so dear
'Cause it's all those little things
That I fear

'Cause I'm just a girl.
I'd rather not be
'Cause they won't let me drive
Late at night
Oh I'm just a girl,
Guess I'm some kind of freak
'Cause they all sit and stare
With their eyes
Oh I'm just a girl.
Take a good look at me
Just your typical prototype
Oh...I've had it up to here!

Oh...am I making myself clear?

I'm just a girl
I'm just a girl in the world...
That's all that you'll let me be!

Oh I'm just a girl, living in captivity
Your rule of thumb
Make me worry some
Oh I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?
What I've succumbed to
Is making me numb
Oh I'm just a girl. My apologies
What I've become is so burdensome
Oh I'm just a girl. Lucky me
Twiddle-dum there's no comparison

Oh...I've had it up to!
Oh...I've had it up to!!
Oh...I've had it up to here.


Gilbert and Gubar write that “from the eighteenth century on, conduct books for ladies had proliferated, enjoining young girls to submissiveness, modesty, selflessness; reminding all women that they should be angelic” and should "devote herself to the good of others" (816). Often times it feels as though not much has progressed since the eighteenth century. Although women are now expected, and even commended, to enter the work field just as their binary opposites--men--society continues to dictate that the primary role of the woman exists first and foremost within the home. The woman is expected to fit the traditional cookie-cutter mold of the perfect housewife--meek, docile, compliant, and most importantly, a good maid and en even better cook. Dissatisfied with this chauvinistic image of the fantasized archetypal woman, many women in popular culture felt necessitated to voice their discontent.
In No Doubt’s “Just a Girl”, the band, steered by Gwen Stefani, voice their exasperation over society’s prescriptions of what and how a woman is assumed to be. The satirical and sardonic lyrics, written by Stefani, express not only the conventions of the typical woman in society, but the frustration of which that accompanies. Stefani explains that not only is merely being a female equivalent to that of a freak, but is “burdensome”. The band not only expresses the restrictions placed upon women, both physically and mentally, but exemplifies the rules society has bestowed upon women.
No Doubt tactfully yet explicitly address the issue of a male dominated society that is “forcing us to hold your hand”, implying that the woman’s every move is to be cautiously guided and led by a man. Women are then expected to simply sit back and “[live] in captivity” and watch as her male-regulated life passes her by. She has no say in any aspect of her life, and is thus powerless. She is not, however, excluded from society, holistically, but is in exclusion from her own life. Although in reference to literature, Judith Fetterley states “power is the issue in the politics of literature, as it is in the politics of anything else. To be excluded from a literature that claims to define one’s identity is to experience a peculiar form of powerlessness” (2). The quote can also be attributed to aspects beyond literature; to be excluded in general is to experience powerlessness, which is essentially what Stefani propounds through her lyrics. Dwelling on this concept, Fetterley goes on to say that “our literature neither leaves women alone nor allows them to participate” (1). Addressing these issues and the rules and regulations society has placed upon women is in itself participation, thus challenging and ultimately breaking free from the traditional and stereotypical roles of the woman.

Works Cited

Antipodal. "Just a Girl". YouTube. 7 December 2006 .

Fetterley, Judith. "On the Politics of Literature." Literary Theory: An Anthology.

Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael
Ryan. 2nd ed. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. pg. 812-825 and Ch.3 "On the Politics of
Literature" by Judith Fetterley

One Flew Over the Panopticon

The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest essentially sheds light into a tyrannically run mental institution and its inhabitants. The oppressive and autocratic Nurse Ratched rules the entire ward, meticulously watching and governing the inmates’ every action and utterance. Randle McMurphy, one of the film’s central characters and one of the newer patients, serves as the force that opposes the despotic nurse time and time again.
The nurses’ station, symbolically and strategically placed in the focal center of the ward, signifies the absolute power and control the authority figure possesses. Michel Foucault mentions that “all that is needed, then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower" (554) and that "any individual, taken almost at random, can operate this machine" (555). As in any society, however, a nonconformist must exist. While throughout the film McMurphy continually tests and challenges the authority of his supervisor, his rebellious and defiant nature is best exemplified in the following scene in which he attempts to strangle his supervisor.



The mental ward in this case serves as the Panopticon, which Foucault describes as inducing “in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power (554). The patients are fully aware that their every move is being carefully monitored; and as long as this is the case, they wouldn’t dare do otherwise than what’s expected of them-to be compliant and submissive inmates. Any patient who refuses subordination is immediately reprimanded with severe consequences (electroshock treatments, lobotomies, etc.). And as Foucault mentions, “the disciplines provide, at the base, a guarantee of the submission of forces and bodies"(565).


Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 549-566.