When music tackles identity, it can get happy or sad, light or heavy, sweet or sour — after all, everyone expresses themselves differently. In the past few years, women have been owning the true power of their identity more and more. From the international Women’s Marches to #MeToo to various disappointments in government leadership, there have been moments of both challenge and unity fueling a new wave of women empowerment — not just politically, but personally.
Many emotions emerge in songs that gets real about the state of womanhood in a patriarchal society. Each in their own cleverly-worded, passionately-performed way, these songs prove that. They borrow age-old remarks, such as “you’re one of the guys” or “you throw like a girl” and flip them on their heads to reveal how gender inequality is baked into our culture, affecting women, of course, but men and non-binary folks, too.