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Maricruz Rosas

Professor Granillo

English 103

30 May 2019

Women, Men or Human?

Is the world prospering by accepting new ideologies into the American society? There is

still hate crimes, discrimination, diseases, but the uprising change is feminism. The American

society consisted of a patriarchy and in “Critical Theory Today” by Lois Tyson patriarchy is,

“sexist, which means it promotes the belief that women are innately inferior to men” (81). The

American society is removing the ideology of patriarchy because the world wants it to be

recognized by human beings instead of the concept the society has claimed for them. The

American society is in the era of change because the millennials have concluded that women

should not have the stigmas that patriarchy casted to them. The media has posted videos,

influencers and music to promote feminism and one artist in specific is Joy Crookes with “Man’s

World”. “Man’s World” asserts that women should comply to patriarchy because it’s the ideology

of the American culture, while Joy Crookes presents that it is time for women to regain power

and a voice within the society. By way of Feminist concepts that Simone de Beauvoir created

such as, Other, Mystery and Myth that demonstrates how the American society is slowly

eliminating the patriarchal system that distorts the meaning of being a women in the eyes of the

society; thus feminism allows women to have their own impact to embrace the humanity in their

lives instead of having others dominating it for them.

Moreover, according to Apple music Joy Crookes released “Man’s World” on the

25th of January 2019 under Insanity Records/ Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited. The album
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that “Man’s World” can be search upon is Reminiscence- EP. The music Joy Crookes creates is

categorized as Alternative. Joy Crookes aims to express her emotions through her songs and is a

big influencer for women. Crookes is an uprising artist that aims to influence her audience to

gain knowledge through what fears one the most. Her songs are all unique that relate back to

feminism and have a relaxing tone to them, and “Man’s World” portrays the life of a women in

the eyes of men. In the lens of feminism Crookes explored “Man’s World” by presenting a

women’s voice in a vulgar way in which is the complete opposite of what the society targets

women to be. Crookes uses this tactic in order to get the Americans society attention, and as Joy

Crookes also presented a music video to go along with it to reflect the physical appeal to “Man’s

World”.

Particularly, the music video presented by Joy Crookes and directed by Kumiko cannot

be found in YouTube because it is no longer available in the North American region. The music

video was broadcasted on the 9th of February 2019 in which Crookes kept the snippet of “Man’s

World” in her Instagram account. The music video presents Joy Crookes as the persona of Nigel,

as this is stated within her caption. “Man’s World” uses a woman for the replacement of a man

by the suit that is worn, and highly grasping the collar whenever a phrase is emotionally

connected to what a woman wants (00:00:05-00:00:13 “Man’s World”. The video was presented

as a woman dressed up as a man to symbolize the power that women are regaining because

women are a part of the American society. Crookes also presented a strong representation when

she grasped her private part as she slides down the hood of the car (00:00:28-00:00:30 “Man’s

World”). This was a strong form of feminism because it demonstrated that women will not

tolerate what the patriarchy says a woman should be because of the ethics the American society
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has or the emotion that will cause destruction towards the logic that these individuals has had

throughout decades.

Subsequently, “Man’s World” is projected off of the ideology of feminism which targets

the people who identify as women through ethic, logic, and emotion. Joy Crookes targeted

people who identify as women because the musical media presents Pathos and Ethos in which

she verbally and physically communicates it through lyrics and facial expression. This is

represented) when Nigel points her finger, tightens her hand, and says, “Man's world, No time

for f*ckin' with the man's world” (00:00:10-00:00:39“Man’s World” ). Crookes did these

actions to affirm the frustration of the societal factors that women are supposed to stand

towards. Joy Crookes used herself as a figure to represent the voice of these individuals

because when a person without popularity speaks out no one listens but when an artist sings

about the problem there is awareness. The only problem is that some people still want to

maintain the patriarchal society because of the tradition that its kept.

Furthermore, part of the American society strongly agrees that patriarchy must be kept

because the norm keeps the world safe from the unknown actions of others. Other is the

categorization of the women by her sex rather than the individual she has become. This is

complying to the patriarchy in order to have a normal societal process for instance in “Not All

Inequality Is Equal: Deconstructing The Logic Of Patriarchy To Understand Microfinance

Lending To Women” by Eric Yanfeil Zhao and Tyler Wry states, “It entails beliefs about

appropriate roles for men (public and economic) ver- sus women (private and domestic) and the

value of male versus female attributes and interests”. Men and women are being portrayed as

different as said by both Zhao and Wry because it gives people a purpose, and a role they are

supposed to carry. The entailment of roles gives the American society stability because it
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provides them with the title of what every citizen is supposed to be doing. Meaning men are

given the superior traits and women are the inferior ones. This give the world a sense of balance

and balance does not create problems. The issue is that balance does not comply to everyone

because it creates misjudgment of what American women are capable within the American

society and in the song “Man’s World” its direct impact is to raise awareness towards feminism

through: Other, Mystery and Myth.

Additionally, “Man’s World” is an awareness towards feminism because “Other” is how

men see women and Crookes aims to dismiss that women will comply to men. Joy Crookes

states, “A man comes into my life and I have to compromise? Stupid” (00:03:35-00:03:40“Man’s

World”). This is the voice of women all over because they have learned that in order to advance,

they have to come out of patriarchy. Women need to regain themselves even more so that men

don’t believe that they are what patriarchy believe them to be. Simone de Beauvoir wrote The

Second Sex that states, “My idea is that all of us, men as well as women, whoever we are, should

be considered as human beings” (24). This relates to “Man’s World” because women are getting

tired of having to compromise because they shouldn’t have to. American women realize that they

don’t want to be women because they want to be human and that means being a part of an equal

whole. This can only happen if the manipulation of what a woman could say is eliminated.

For instance, Other also entails that women should have a voice within the society

because their voice gets distorted by the sex they were given. In the video snippet “Man’s World”

presents “He's feeding me words I know I want to hear, and although they get tasty you should

disappear” (00:00:35-00:00:40“Man’s World”). Crookes uses her facial expression in these

specific words with a face of anger and disgust. Joy Crookes presented this image to demonstrate

that women know what the society is trying to feed others to believe and that is that they are only
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women. Women who are supposed to comply to the rule of being sensitive, submitting

themselves to their partner and allowing other things to be their priory instead of themselves. In

“The Girl and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex: Feminine Becomings” by Mitchell

Elspeth states, “In Beauvoir’s account woman fluctuates between freedom and alienation;

transcendence and immanence; subject-being and object-being” (263). Women need the liberty to

be human, and in this quote, it presents that women are torn between two worlds. One world is

being a part of patriarchy and the other is where she separates and resigns herself as human. The

fight that remains is how men see women because the image brought by the society is not who

they are.

Afterwards, Crookes and Beauvoir’s believe that the society see the American women as

a Mystery because they do not see that women are strong and resilient to get their equal space in

the society. Mystery is what men believe what a woman is and disregards a women’s needs.

Crookes states, “Ain't got no time, don’t need no mister to tell me what when and why”

(00:01:03-00:01:07“Man’s World”). Women are starting to fight off the idea that they need a

man. Crookes presents this because the society believes that women should be with a partner yet

presenting this in the song influences other women to flee away from the idea that they need

someone else. For example Beauvoir asserts, “she “wallows in immanence,” she is

argumentative, she is cautious and petty, she does not have the sense either of truth or of

accuracy, she lacks morality, she is vulgarly self-serving, selfish, she is a liar and an

actress”(724). Beauvoir stated what a woman is instead of what she isn’t for instance a woman is

the total opposite of what a man believes a woman to be. Yet men do not acknowledge this

because they are too busy with themselves. Men only rely on patriarchy instead of the changing

ideologies that are submerging. Women are developing because millennials are being taught to
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reach the untouchable. The American society is allowing its individuals to expand, and that is

what women are doing by expressing themselves by what is outside of patriarchy.

In Fact, women are regaining their power by presenting what they have been through

because of patriarchy know as Myth. Joy Crookes asserts, “Tornado hit the bedroom, and now I

can't see myself, catching' what I should have left far behind, Same old cliché that I thought I

could fight” (00:01:53-00:02:07“Man’s World”). The singer admits that there have been

problems in her life because of the partner she had. Throughout the development of the song the

singer realizes that she has to let herself be her authentic self because the world has been

conditioning her to not fight what is expected from her. Similarly, Simone de Beauvoir admits,

“A woman does not need to see or touch to feel the Presence at her side” (802). Women receive

support through ways men do not imagine for instance they feel it through pain and love, and this

is something that men don’t imagine a woman getting her support. Women want to feel equal to

men, and if they cannot be women, they want to identify themselves as human because being

human gives them the benefit of equality without the stigma of a sex.

Therefore, Mitchell Elspeth and Joy Crookes strongly assert that to a get women the

equal power of men Myth must be stopped because it is the only danger the women have. Myth

is what patriarchy casted upon women. Elspeth states, “Woman ‘becomes’ through certain

formations, which according to Beauvoir, divide and bend her against her autonomous self”

(269). Patriarchy bends the women into who they want her to be and these women are being less

of themselves. Lately women have broken from the glass that patriarchy stood them against

because they noticed that they are not going withstand what is expected from them. Women don’t

want to stay beautiful, nice, and stay at home because it will leave a never-ending cycle to their

kids. Crookes believes in this because her video snippet presents Nigel to be the incredible
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person one aspires to be, women want to be empowering and have the power to do whatever they

want (00:00:00-00:00:40“Man’s World” video). This video accurately presents the reality that a

woman wants because they want to be free. They don’t want others to judge her for her actions

instead they want to be judged because of what one is capable of.

Ultimately, feminism is in the up rise in the American culture because of the theorist

Simone de Beauvoir and her concepts of Other, Mystery, and Myth. Women are starting to fight

for the power and voice that they were never granted because of the patriarchal society. The

media exploded the idea of feminism through the work of Joy Crookes with “Man’s World”.

“Man’s world” does admit that patriarchy allows for a stable culture because that is what

everyone knows. Yet women are expanding because they are afraid of what this can lead on the

future. Women want to regain power because the Other categorizes them by sex instead of their

identify. It is also giving the society the wrong intel of what a woman is capable of. Most

importantly it also creates discrimination towards the women with Mystery because it does not

let one to have an interpretation of who they are. Joy Crookes, Simone de Beauvoir and many

others are fighting to get women the triumph they are aspiring to receive. Even when this battle

is a never-ending battle one should always consider the fact that these women are fighting for a

better understanding of who is the other half of the world. It has been an eternity without giving

women the equality that men have not worked hard enough for.
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Works Cited

Beauvoir, Simone De. The Second Sex. uberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1949_simone-de-

beauvoir-the-second-sex.pdf.

Mitchell, Elspeth. “The Girl and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex : Feminine

Becomings.” Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 32, no. 93, Sept. 2017, pp. 259–

275. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/08164649.2017.1407640.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, 2015.

YANFEI ZHAO, ERIC, and TYLER WRY. “Not All Inequality Is Equal: Deconstructing the

Societal Logic of Patriarchy to Understand Microfinance Lending to Women.” Academy

of Management Journal, vol. 59, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 1994–2020. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.5465/amj.2015.0476.