Girls Just Want To Have Gender Equality
The song talks about women’s rights, the fight against sexism, the belief that women are just as good as men, and and that they deserve the same privileges. That they weren’t made to work at home, living for and because of men. Everybody should have the same opportunities. That is how I understand the 1980s. A time of change and renewal, of seeking a new order. The 80s were more than 30 years ago. You would think that we would have learned the lesson by now.
Kesha Rose Sebert, better known as simply Kesha, is a successful pop-rock singer, songwriter, actress and dancer born in LA in 1987. In October 2014, she filed a lawsuit against her producer Dr. Luke that, in her own words, had abused her “sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally” since she was 18, causing her to struggle with depression and an eating disorder. She claimed that he drugged her and raped her afterwards on several occasions.
On February 19, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich declared that she didn’t have the right to ask for an indemnization because her contract had been “heavily negotiated” and that she will have to record six more albums with Dr. Luke. That’s six more albums working with a man that made her a victim of mental manipulation, emotional abuse and sexual assault. Six.
The singer has been supported by artists and celebrities such as Adele, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. The hashtag “#FreeKesha” on Twitter gathered millions of people around the globe asking for her liberation. The pages www.thepetitionsite.com and www.change.org have collected more than 200,000 signatures that adress Sony Music and its CEO, asking the record company to take action.
The international community has risen to stand with Kesha. But the judge considered that her contract has more weight than sexual and psychological abuse, denying an injunction and declaring that his instinct was to “do the commercially reasonable thing.”
This did not happen in Saudi Arabia, not in 1947. We are not talking about witches in Britain. This is going on right now. A member of the American Justice system has put a commercial agreement above a woman’s personal safety and emotional and mental integrity. We live in a society that still allows an individual to live in a situation of gender-based abuse. The judge has told Kesha that she does not own her body.
Every nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten. And this is just in the United States. Gender inequality is a shame for all the men that live on this planet. The idea that feminism is a “women-only” thing to believe in, to fight for, is totally wrong. As Emma Watson, actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, said, “both men and women should feel free to be strong.” We need to stand up for our people’s rights. Sexism is one of the most hidden, yet present, inequalities in our society. We see it everyday, in songs, in daily conversations, on social media. Gender gaps still exist. We haven’t killed the beast yet. Things are better, but the fight is not over. Kesha’s case is just one of the millions of situations of abuse that happen every single minute, one of the thousands of lives destroyed by degradation and battery. It’s popular in the media because she is a well-know celebrity in the music world, but her situation shouldn’t be more important than the one of the 293,000 victims that are sexually assulted every year in the U.S.
Obviously, this is not an American-only problem. Sexual discrimination is a global issue. I come from a country that, historically, has been a leader in sexual repression. Spain has one of the biggest pay gaps in Europe, with an almost 25% difference between men and women’s salaries.
Women’s rights is a really serious issue. A male writer denouncing the problem should not be rare. We shouldn’t comment about how terrible sexism is, we should take action against it. Because girls don’t wanna have fun. They want gender equality.
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