CRITICS ON BEAUTY IDEAL IN PRETTY HURTS, ALL ABOUT THAT

BASS, AND TRY SONG LYRICS

A Thesis

Submitted to Faculty Adab and Hamanities

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)

By:

Riska Mustika

1111026000024

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA

2017

i

ABSTRACT

Riska Mustika, Critics on Beauty Ideal in Pretty Hurts, All about That Bass, And

Try Song Lyrics. Thesis. Jakarta: Strata Degree (S1), English letters Department,

Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah

Jakarta, June 2017.

The writer studied and analyzed three song lyrics as the object of research:

Pretty Hurts, All about That Bass, and Try. The writer focuses on ideal beauty and

critics on ideal beauty that portrayed in the three song lyrics as well as the figure

of speech and the imagery of the lyrics. This research is aimed at finding how

does beauty is being idealized and how do women deal with the constructed ideal

beauty.

The result of the research shows that ideal beauty in the western is actually

oppressing women, since women are suffering to be “ideal” women. Even so,

women make progress to end suffering and find new perspective that to be

beautiful they only have to do one thing; being their true selves.

Keywords: ideal beauty, song lyric, feminism, appearance, preference.

iv

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of

my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by

another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the

award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher

learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.

Jakarta, June 2017

Riska Mustika

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

May peace and blessing of Allah be upon all of us.

All praises to be Allah Subhaanahu Wa Ta’ala, the Lord of the universe

who provides the writer this opportunity and grants her the capability in

completing this thesis. Peace and salutation be upon our prophet Muhammad

Sallallahu ‘Alaihi Wasallam, his family, friends and adherent.

First of all, the writer would like to express her sincere thankfulness to the

two real angels of her life, her beloved parents Ijah and Nana Rudiana. Thousands

warm regard of the writer goes to her best of the best friends, her sister and

brother Tika Mustika and Ardan Nasrullah, and to their beloved children Aufa

Ardhani Putri and Radiatma Wiraga. The writer’s life is just being wonderful and

meaningful with their present.

Secondly, the writer would like to express her earnest gratitude for the

intellectual and spiritual support to all following people:

1. Prof. Dr. Sukron Kamil, the Dean of Adab and Humanities Faculty;

Drs. Saefudin , M. pd., the Head of English Letters Department; and

Elve Octafiyani, M. Hum., the Secretary of English Letters

Department who have assisted me during studying in this department.

vi

2. My advisor, Mr. Arief Rahman Hakim M. Hum. who has given her the

assistances to make this thesis possible.

3. All the lecturers, for having taught and educated her, especially Pak

Dhuha Hadiansyah, M. Hum., staffs of Faculty of Adab and

Humanities and librarians of State Islamic University Syarif

Hidayatullah Jakarta.

4. The writer dearest synthetic angels, Euis Fauziah and Nurul Aini

Saputri for being able to show how a real friend supposed to be.

5. Ema Rismayani, Dadan Ramdhany, and Hurin Ria Pioneer, whom

distance always fails to separate them with the writer.

6. The writer second home La Flamme, it always turns weird and strange

when they are not around.

7. The members of UKM Bahasa-FLAT, whom the writer learns a lot of

great ways of thinking.

8. All the people the writer met, which without they knowing, have given

her precious lesson.

Jakarta, June 27 2017

Riska Mustika

viii

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT......................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL SHEET.......................................................................................... ii

LEGALIZATION............................................................................................... iii

DECLARATION................................................................................................ iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................... v

TABLE OF CONTENT.................................................................................... viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION........................................................................ 1

A. Background of the Research....................................................................... 1

B. Focus of the Research................................................................................. 4

C. Question of the Research........................................................................... 4

D. Significance of the Research...................................................................... 4

E. Research Methodology............................................................................... 4

1. The Objective of the Research........................................................... 4

2. The Method of the Research.............................................................. 4

3. The Instrument of the Research......................................................... 5

4. The Unit of Analysis………................................................................. 5

5. The Technique of Data Analysis........................................................ 5

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK............................................ 6

A. Previous Researches.................................................................................... 6

ix

B. Concept........................................................................................................ 7

1. Feminism…………………………..................................................... 8

2. Ideal Beauty in the United States......................................................... 13

3. Lyric Poetry.............................................................................................. 14

4. Figure of Speech.............................................................................. 15

5. Imagery............................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS........................................................ 23

A. Imageries and Figure of Speech Describing Ideal Beauty and Women’ Felling about Ideal Beauty ......................................................................... 23

B. Critics on Ideal Beauty............................................................................... 30

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS………................... 43

A. Conclusions.................................................................................................. 43

B. Suggestions................................................................................................... 43

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................. 44

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Research

Lyric is a kind of poetry. Poetry itself is a part of literature.

Literature is representing what is happening in the society. Lyric of song is

expressing the thought and the feeling of the speaker. To the writer, lyric

of song is carrying some issues that appear in the society. Through lyric, a

speaker can deliver their feeling and thought towards issues or facts within

a society. A speaker also criticizes some problems that catch his/her

concern.

From the explanation above the writer sees that the lyrics of Pretty

Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try are the lyrics carrying a point of view

about issues and problems in the societies where the songs come from.

The three song lyrics mentioned above, speak about ideal beauty in the

United States, which in fact, is persecuting women. For instance, women

with ideal beauty in the country are the women who are tall, have long

legs, small breast and hips, smooth skin and well groomed-hair.1

1 Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey (eds), Women's Lives; Multicultural Perspectives

(New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2007), p. 122.

2

Pretty Hurts is a song that sung by Beyonce for her eponymous

fifth studio album (2013) and published in the United State.2 It conveys

the feeling of women that suffer a lot to be beautiful. Beside shows how

suffering it is to be beautiful, the lyric encourages women to be well

minded in understand what is beauty, how to be beautiful, and to stop

keeping them suffering in fulfill the society‟s requirement of being

beautiful.

All About That Bass lyric is sung by Meghan Trainor written by

Meghan Trainor and Kevin Kadish released on June 30, 2014 in the

United States.3 The lyric implicitly encourages women to be confident

with their body shape. It can be seen in line “Yeah, it‟s pretty clear, I ain‟t

no size two/ But I can shake it, shake it, like I‟m supposed to do”. The line

encourages women to be feeling normal just like the other women who

have no big sized-body and shows them that women with big-sized body

could perform and move the way thin-sized women perform and move.

The lyric emphasizes that women need to be confident and love them-

selves just the way they are.

Try lyric is sung by Colbie Caillat from her fifth studio album,

Gypsy Heart written by Colbie Caillat, Antonio Dixon, Keneth Edmonds

and Jason Revees. The song was released on June 9, 2014 in the United

States.4 It encourages women to stop trying hard to be beautiful and stop

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Hurts_(song) (Accessed on June 15, 2017)

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_About_That_Bass (Accessed on June 15, 2017)

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Try_(Colbie_Caillat_song) (Accessed on June 15, 2017)

3

impressing others that only like them just on their appearance. The lyric

invites women to love them-selves with whatever they are.

For what ideal beauty is defined, women in the world particularly

in the United States are struggling to be the “ideal” women and are

suffering in doing so. The song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass,

and Try criticize the ideal beauty and what women do to fulfill the

requirements of it and grant a point of view for women to not being

followers of ideal beauty constructed by the society as well as telling them

to live their lives happily without paying attention to the requirements of

being an ideal woman with ideal beauty.

According to Nyoman Kuta Ratna, literary work is produced by an

author, and the authors themselves are representative of the society. By

mean of that, the authors especially women have function and obsession to

show their demand, so that their existence in the society could be

meaningful.5 It could be understood that the lyrics of songs Pretty Hurts,

All About That Bass, and Try which are written by women function to

show women‟ demand. In this case, women ask the other women and all

the people of the society to be well minded in defining beauty. This

research argues that the ideal beauty is actually harmful for women

mentality and only offering hardship instead of happiness.

5 Nyoman Kutha Ratna, Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra (Yogyakarta:

Pustaka Pelajar, 2013), p. 194.

4

B. Focus of the Research

This research focuses on critiques delivered by women about ideal

beauty in song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try. This

study also focuses on imagery and figure of speech to describe the

connotative meaning of those lyrics.

C. Question of the Research

1. How do the song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try

criticize the female ideal beauty?

D. Significance of the Research

The writer hopes that this research can be useful to the readers in

understanding song lyric and to engage the readers to have a better view

toward beauty looks like concept and to be well minded in defining what

beauty is.

E. Research Methodology

1. The Objective of the Research

Regarding to the research questions, the thesis has propose to show

what does women think about ideal beauty and how do they criticize it.

2. The Method of the Research

The writer applies descriptive analysis method by using feminism

approach. Descriptive analysis is done by describing the facts and analyze

it. The writer will describe how beauty is defined and stereotyped.

Afterward, the writer will analyze how the song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All

5

About That Bass and Try – as women‟ voice since they are sung by

women – criticize the ideal beauty.

3. The Instrument of the Research

The writer uses herself as the instrument of this research by

reading the lyrics repeatedly.

4. The Unit of Analysis

The units of data analysis in this research are the lyrics of songs:

1. Pretty Hurts, sung by Beyonce written by Beyonce, Ammo,

and Kevin Kadish;

2. All About That Bass, sung by Meghan Trainor written by

Meghan Trainor and Kevin Kardish;

3. Try, sung by Colbie Caillat written by Colbie Caillat,

Babyface, and Jason Reeves.

5. The Technique of Data Analysis

The writer analyzes the ideal beauty in the western where the lyrics

come from. Further, the writer describes how do the lyrics criticize such

ideal beauty and what are the ideas the lyrics give to women to live their

life happily without paying attention to that stereotyped ideal beauty. The

connotative meanings of the lyrics are described by analyzing its imageries

and figures of speech.

6

CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Previous Researches

This is not the only one research which chose the song lyric of

Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass and Try. There are previous researches

found by the writer with the same corpuses.

The previous research about Pretty Hurts is entitled “Bending the

Body: A textual analysis of Stromae and Beyoncé‟s body politics” by F

Dhaenens and S Van Bauwel (2014), which analyzed some of Beyonce‟s

songs including the Pretty Hurts. The research argues that Beyonce and

Stromae explore and embody diverse and complex subject positions in

their media representations

Research about All About That Bass comes from Annisa Nindya

Prasanti (2015) with Semiotic Analysis Lyrics of Meghan Trainor’s song

“All About That Bass”. The research analysed the lyric through a

semiotics approach.

The Try song lyric has been analysed by Meita Puzi Susanti (2016)

in her research entitled “Critical Discourse Analysis of the Songs‟ Lyric in

Gypsy Heart Album by Colbie Caillat”. The research present a critical

7

discourse analysis of three song lyrics in the Gypsy Heart album including

the Try song lyric.

The three previous researches on Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass

and Try Song lyrics are different to what the writes elaborates about those

song lyrics. The writer in Pretty Hurts lyric elaborates the ideal beauty and

all its prolonged polemics. Meanwhile, in the All About That Bass, the

writer uses feminism theory and figure of speech as well imagery to

elaborates what lays in the song lyric All About That Bass while the

previous research elaborates the lyric with semiotic approach. Lastly, in

Try song lyric, the previous research and the writer‟s research have same

goal; to deliver a message of the song writer that beauty is not all about

physical appearance. However the previous research is different to the

writer‟s as it sees ideal beauty issue though a critical discourse analysis

while the writers sees it through feminism.

B. Concept

1. Feminism

It is fundamental claim that women are oppressed. The word

“oppression” is a strong word. It repels and attracts. 6 The root of the

word “oppression” is the element “press”. Something pressed is

something caught between or among forces and barriers which are so

related to each other that jointly they restrain, restrict, or prevent the

thing‟s motion or mobility. Then women will be just incapable in 6 Verta A. Taylor, Nancy Whittier, and Laurel Richardson, Feminist Frontiers (New York:

McGraw-Hill Education, 2011), p. 7

8

everything, included defining what beauty is that supposed to have no

requirements that force them to suffer.

Theory is simply an effort to understand and explain the social

world. Theories of gender are attempt to identify the major processes

and social structures that give rise to the differences and inequalities

between women and men and to analyze how these gender inequalities

are connected to other major inequalities of race, class, sexuality, and

nationality. 7

The writer uses the theory of feminists that discuss about women

subordination in sexuality. There are several thoughts that become her

references in analyzing the lyrics. The thoughts of some feminists such

as Donna Haraway, Simone de Beauvoir, and Susan Bordo are very

important in linking the research problems and its analyzing.

In this part, the writer describes the inequality in the major of

sexuality that lead to beauty stereotype in the society rooted from men

preference.

Feminist theorist turned to psychoanalysis for an explanation of

women‟s oppression what would locate it at the level of the

ideological, the cultural and the subjective.8

What feminist theory needed, argued Juliet Mitchell in 1975, was

an explanation of the processes through which our sexed identities are

acquired and maintained, which would both account for the strength

7 Ibid., p. 38

8 Ibid., p. 8

9

and ubiquity of these identities and see them as culturally constructed

and thus open to change.

Donna Haraway‟s description of women‟s literal rediscovery of

their bodies through the 1970s women‟s Liberation Movement goes on

to the point out that „in the context of the whole orthodox history of

western philosophy an technology, visually self-possessed sexual and

generative organs made potent tropes for the reclaimed feminist self‟ 9

Haraway also argued that if the female body constituted a troubling

disturbance for misogynist thought masquerading as „neutral‟ science

or philosophy, and hence became a „potent trope‟ in the writing of

second-wave feminists it had equally been a problem for earlier

feminist thinkers. 10

For feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Perkins Gilman

and Simone de Beauvoir, the female body often seemed a trap, a

limiting burden whose transcendence was a prerequisite for accession

into the rational or public sphere. 11

To de Beauvoir, despite her devastating intellectual female body

appears as „absorption, suction, humus, pitch and glue, a passive

influx, insinuating and viscous‟. She argued not only how men see the

female body; it is how a woman „vaguely feels herself to be‟.

Beauvoir state that female body and it sexuality is for her „a

strength and disquieting burden‟.

9 Ibid., p. 159

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

10

For feminist of the 1970s, this view was to be contested and the

female body both reclaimed and given a voice. As Adrienne Rich

argued in 1977, the women body is the terrain on which patriarchy is

erected. 12

In the writing entitled Condition of Illusion: Papers from the

Women’s Movement, which the focus is the-fashion-beauty-complex,

Bartky state that:

One of the sexual violence is „a major articulation of capitalist

patriarchy‟ that functions to confine women to their objectified and

passive bodies and to estrange the from their bodies: on the other

hand, I am it and am scarcely allowed to be anything else; on the

other hand, I must exist perpetually at a distance from my physical

self, fixed at this distance in a permanent posture of disapproval.

(Thornham, 2000:161)

For Adrienne Rich, a feminist of 1970‟s, the women body is the

terrain on which patriarchy is erected. 13

Then, Thornham points that

the demand for control over one‟s own body – control over whatever,

when and with whom one has children, control over how one‟s

sexuality is expressed - becomes central to the feminist project

because, in the words of Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, „it is essential to a

sense of being a person, with personal and bodily integrity, able to

12

Ibid. 13

Ibid.

11

engage in conscious activity and to participate in social life‟

(1983:341-2).14

Women is liberated to define what is their body and how is

beautiful. Angela Hamblin writes, our bodies are our territory, our

sexuality and fertility, our raw materials. In our male imperialist

culture both are systematically exploited. 15

It speaks a lot about the

limitation of women to control over what is their own, their body.

Further, Angela Hamblin in Condition of Illusion: Papers from the

Women’s Movement states:

It is the distortion and mutilation of women‟s natural capacity for

sexuality which constitutes the primary marker of patriarchy.

Women, as Master and Johnson had discovered, have a natural

capacity for sexuality far in excess of that of men … but thousands

of years of patriarchal conditioning and exploitation has robbed us

of our sexuality. (1974: 87) 16

Angela Hamblin describes a lot about the authority of patriarchy on

women in the writing Condition of Illusion: Papers from the Women’s

Movement states. She brings up three focuses, they are: the fashion-

beauty complex, one of the best areas of second-wave feminism, and

medical control of female body. That threefold is united by the desire

to reclaim what is seen as a natural female body, a body undistorted

by patriarchal constrains or violence and possessing its own active

14

Ibid. 15

Ibid. 16

Ibid., p. 163

12

sexuality. She points out that women ignorance about their own

primary terrain, their bodies, is in the self-interest of the patriarchy. 17

Patriarchal ideology objectifies and distorts the female body and, to

the extent that women too are caught up in this ideology, it estranges

them from their bodies. 18

It is said by Eli Claire in her writing Stolen Bodies, Reclaimed

Bodies: Disability and Queerness:

For decades now, activists in a variety of social change movement,

ranging from black civil right to women liberation, from disability

right to queer liberation, have said repeatedly that problem faced

by any marginalized group of people lie, not in their bodies, but in

the oppression they face. (2007: 413).

Meanwhile, Susan Bordo on her Unbearable Weight Feminism

states out as she quoted Dinnerstein, that as a consequence of women‟

infantile experience of woman as caretaker of their bodies, “the

mucky, humbling limitations of the flash” becomes the province of the

female; on the other side stands an innocent and dignified „he‟ to

represent the part of the person that wants to stand clear of the flesh,

to maintain the perspective on it. Tness wholly free of the chaotic,

17

Ibid., 162 18

Ibid., 164

13

carnal atmosphere of infancy, uncontaminated humanness, is reserved

from man.19

There are so many ways oppression and social injustice can mark a

body, steal a body, feed lies and poison to a body.

The writer argues that the body is central to patriarchal oppression

of women and is a crucial site of resistance. In addition. The thoughts

of the feminists above are very useful for the writer in understanding

the issue of ideal beauty, and help her in linking the critics of the

lyrics and the women subordination.

2. Ideal Beauty in United States

As the writer analyzes the song lyrics sung by United States-based

singers, in this part, she specifies her elaboration about ideal beauty

only in the region. It is said that starting in childhood with dolls like

Barbie, women and girls in the United States are bombarded with

images showing what they should look like and how to achieve such

look. Movies, TV programs, posters, billboards, magazine articles and

add all portray images of the ideal women. 20

Women must be young, tall, with long leg, small breasts and hips,

smooth skin, and well groomed hair. Their body is trim, toned, and

very lean.21

19

Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight, Feminism, West Culture, and the Body (London: University

of California Press, 1993), p. 17 20

Women lives 122 21

Women life 122

14

By contrast, in real life women come in all shapes, sizes and skin

tones. Many women are short and stocky and will never look tall and

willowy no matter how many diets and exercise routines they follow.

The ideal standard of beauty is one that even models themselves

cannot achieve. Magazine ads and feature photos are airbrushed and

enhanced photographically using computer-based image processing to

get rid of imperfections and promote the illusion of flawlessness

(Dziemianowicz 1992). 22

Constructed ideal women in the United States make girls aged

eight or nine are in self-imposed diets; many teenage girls think they

are overweight; and by college age one in eight young women in the

country is bulimic, imagining herself to be much fatter than she

actually is. 23

It could be highlighted that the ideal women in the United States is

formed as thin-sized women.

3. Lyric Poetry

Lyric poetry includes song, ode, sonnet, elegy, and pastoral. 24

The

pastoral originated in the Idyls of Theocritus, a Sicilian Greek who

lived in the first half of the third century B.C. associated with him are

two lesser pastoral poets, Bion and Moschus. Their idyls are spherd

song, usually in dialogues, on rustic subject, love and the season set in

22

Gwyn Kirk, Margo Okazawa, (2007), Op.cit p.22 23

ibid 24

Robert Hilyer, A Pursuit of Poetry (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1960), p. 116.

15

landscape where trees and flowering meadows hear the voice of Pan

and are familiar to the nymph and muses. 25

Elegy is a poem dealing with the death of an individual or with

death in general. And, in its adjectival form, it may refer to any poem

in the language. 26

Ode is one of the most indefinite terms in English verse. Almost

any poem of substantial length and elevated tone may be called an

ode. 27

Sonnet would seem to be an arbitrary form.28

The sonnet come to

birth in Sicily at the court of that tremendous fellow, Frederick II

(1194-1250), Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, King of

Jerusalem, etc.

4. Figure of Speech

a. Simile

The Latin word “simile” means alike; we use simile when

we say one thing is like another.29

Usually, a simile is signified by

the words, like, as, appear, so, seem, etc. Simile is used for

purposes of comparison and analogy.30

25

Ibid. 26

Ibid., p. 117 27

Ibid., p. 77 28

Ibid., p. 88 29

John Frederick Nims and David Mason, Western Wind; an Introsuction to Poetry (New York:

McGraw-Hill Companies, 2000), p. 20 30

Irving Ribner and Harry Morris, Poetry A Critical and Historical Introduction (Chicago: Scott.

Foresman, 1965 ), p. 15

16

Simile is found at a poem Once by the Pacific by Robert

Frost.

The cloud were low and hairy in the skies,

Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.

Robert Frost uses a simile to create a picture that would be

extremely difficult to delineate through simple description. Thus,

he presents a second picture to make the first picture clear.

b. Metaphor

According to Ribner and Morris, metaphor insists that one

thing is another, no merely like it; comparison is made by

identification.31

Metaphor and simile express likeness.

The obvious deference between simile and metaphor is that

the first, by means of words (“I feel like a wrack”); the second omit

the linking word and seems to identify the two more

wholeheartedly (“I‟m a wreck!”).32

Metaphor is stronger than

simile and more concentrated, it hits with greater impact.

In the piece of poem by Emily Dickinson below, she uses

metaphor to describe the speaker as a loaded gun.

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –

In Corners – till a Day

The Owner passed – identified –

And carried Me away –

31

Ibid. 32

Frederick and Mason. loc. cit.

17

c. Personification

Personification is the term used when one gives a physical

characteristic or innate quality of animation to something that is

inanimate, or to an abstraction.33

Personification is seen in a piece of poem by William

Shakespeare.

… Danger knows full well

That Caesar is more dangerous than he.

The word danger is an abstraction that attributed as

something alive by adding the word shake that show an action.

d. Synecdoche

Synecdoche is commonly defined as “a part for the whole”.

Synecdoche is a way of perceiving and thinking as well as of

speaking, in its commonest form it singles out some part of a thing

as important enough to stand for the whole thing.34

As when we say, “a sail!” meaning the whole ship. Or we

may use a broader term for a narrower one, as when we see a

police officer and say, “here comes the law!” without synecdoche,

the mind itself would have trouble operating.

e. Metonymy

Metonymy is referring to one thing by using another name

of something associated with it. Metonymy is used by Shakespeare

33

Mary Oliver, Poetry Handbook (San Diego: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1994), p. 103 34

Frederick and Mason. loc. cit.

18

when he means to tell us that kings, scholars, and physicians must

all die in time.

The scepter, learning, physic must

All follow this, and come to dust.

f. Symbol

Symbol is an image that stands for more it denotes literally,

is like metaphor in that it transfers meaning from one thing to

another.35

With symbol the current of interest is reserved; our

concern is directed from the first term to the second.

The A is better known, more concrete, more of a sense

image than what should be the B, which is often an abstraction the

user does not even identify. If the poet mentions a rose, but is

really thinking of the nature of beauty, the rose is a symbol of

beauty.

Symbolic images often are physical object: a hill, a well, a

river. They symbolize such abstractions as spiritual ascent, vitality,

time. A lion is a symbol for fierceness or courage; a fox for

cunning; a rock for firmness; a torch for learning. Light is a symbol

of knowledge; darkness for ignorance. We often find symbolic

35

Ibid., p. 50

19

meaning in the details of life. As Portia does in The Merchant of

Venice when she exclaims:

How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

A candle becomes a symbol for the power of virtue.

g. Allegory

Allegory can be defined as a narrative in which characters

and events stands for ideas and actions on another level. Most

allegory has a narrative framework, either a short incident or a long

story.

A mountain may be a symbol of salvation, a traveler may

be a symbol of a human being in his life. But if the traveler takes as

much as one step toward the mountain, it seems that the traveler

and mountain become allegorical figures, because a story has now

begun.

h. Paradox

Paradox is a statement that seems to imply a

contradiction.36

Awareness of paradox is often expressed by means

of oxymoron, which might be translated from the Greek as cleverly

stupid or paraphrased as absurd on purpose.37

It links, in one

syntactical unit, word that seems to cancel each other out: “honest

36

Ibid., p. 76 37

Ibid., p. 77

20

thief,” “saintly devil,” “beautifully ugly,” “lucky disaster,” “hurry

slowly.”

i. Irony

Irony directs our attention, in any of several ways, to a play

of opposite. When we say that situation in life are ironic when

there is some striking illustration of the way in which qualities,

events, and the like contain something of their opposite, when a

result for example, is the contrary of what was intended.

When Romeo is saying:

If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand….

It said ironic because we know that at any moment he is

going to receive a report that Juliet is dead

j. Allusion

Allusion is defined as “a reference to something in history

or previous literature is like a richly connotative word or a symbol,

a means of suggesting far more than it say”.38

Allusion is an “it-

reminds-me-of” pattern. When Frost writing about the accidental

death of a farm boy, call his poem “ „Out, Out,‟ “ he assumes we

will remember Macbeth‟s famous remarks on life and death.

Referring to William Blake's poem The Sunflower or to van Gogh's

38

Perrine Laurence and R. ARP Thomas, Sound and Sense: An Introduction To Poetry (Florida,

United State of America: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1991), p. 61.

21

paintings of sunflowers would deepen and extend a perception of

“any” sunflower growing in a field.

k. Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exaggeration in the service a truth. We

frequently say things like “the best evening I ever had” or “the

nicest dress I ever saw” without hyperbole, some teen-agers to use

a hyperbole could hardly get through a sentence. When Miranda in

The Tempest, wants to tell her father that what h has just said is

very interesting, she remarks:

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

5. Imagery

The language of the poem is the language of particulars. Without

it, poetry might still be wise, but it would surely be pallid and thin. It is

the detailed, sensory language incorporating images that gives the

poem dash and tenderness and authenticity. Poems are "imaginary

gardens with real toads in them," said Marianne Moore.39

Imagery is representation to the imagination of sense

experience. When Robert Burns wrote, "O, my luve is like a red red

rose," that rose is an image; rose as a thing that seen by the eye. Here,

Burns was using visual imagery. The word image most suggests the

mental picture. Visual imagery is the most of imagery that occurs in

poetry. The other imagery are auditory imagery: image represent

39

Oliver. loc. cit.

22

sound; olfactory imagery: represents a smell; gustatory imagery:

represents taste; tactile imagery; represents touch such as hardness,

softness, heat, cold, etc; organic imagery; an image represents internal

sensation, such as hunger, thirst, nausea, etc; and kinaesthetic imagery:

represents a movement or tension in the muscles or joints.

23

CHAPTER III

THE ANALYSIS OF LYRICS

1. Imageries and Figures of Speech Describing Ideal Beauty and

Women‟s Feeling About Ideal Beauty

Table 1

Imagery of Pretty Hurts

No Imagery Corpus Lines

1 Visual Imagery …You're a pretty girl…

3

…Blonder hair, flat chest…

15

…Reflection stares right into you

(pretty hurts, pretty hurts)…

41

Table 2

Figure of Speech of Pretty Hurts

No Figure of Speech Corpus Lines

1 Symbol …Just another stage, pageant the

pain away this time I'm gonna

take the crown…

7-8

24

2 Personification …It's the soul that needs the

surgery…

14

Table 3

Imagery of All About That Bass

No Imagery Corpus Lines

1 Kinaesthetic Imagery

…But I can shake it, shake it, like

I‟m supposed to do…

10

…She says, “boys like a little

more booty to hold at night”…

19

2 Visual Imagery …I see the magazine workin‟ that

photoshop…

13

Table 4

Figure of Speech of All About That Bass

No Imagery Corpus Lines

1 Metaphor Because you know I‟m all about

that bass „bout that bass, no

1-2

25

treble..

2 Symbol …I see the magazine workin‟ that

photoshop…

13

3 Symbol …You know I won‟t be no stick

figure silicone Barbie doll…

40

Table 5

Imagery of Try

No Imagery Corpus Lines

1 Kinaesthetic Imagery …Run the extra mile keep it

slim…

4-5

2 Visual Imagery …Look into the mirror, at

yourself…

58

Table 6

Figure of Speech of Try

No Figure of Speech Corpus Lines

1 Symbol …Get your shopping on, at the

mall, max your credit cards,…

21-23

26

a. Visual Imagery

The lyrics mostly use visual imagery and symbol to deliver

the ideas. Every lyric uses visual imagery and figure of speech to

show how beauty are that stereotyped by society.

In the lyric of Pretty Hurts visual imagery appears in lines

3 and 15 “…You're a pretty girl…/…Blonde hair, flat chest…”

blonde hair and flat chest in line 15 are some of the characteristics

of what pretty girl is. In line 3, “you are a pretty girl” is an

interpretation of what was seen, that is blonde hair and flat chest.

The other sight effect is “…Reflection stares right into you (pretty

hurts, pretty hurts)…” describes the girl that rethinking of what she

used to do and believe. It is pretty hurts when her reflection stares

at herself and saying that all the time she is being through

believing the definition of beauty constructed by society makes

nothing but unhappiness.

In line 13 of All About That Bass lyric ”…I see the

magazine workin‟ that photoshop…” tells a lot about magazine

that builds such image about beautiful woman with perfect shape

by applying a tool named Photoshop to a picture of the women. By

doing this the magazines can create an image of perfect women

with the shape as the magazines pleased. Jean Kilbourne states,

adolescents are new and inexperienced consumers – and such

27

prime targets. They are in the process of learning their values and

roles and developing their self-concepts.40

The magazines and industries of fashion today show only a

model with thin body. This way of showing the “exemplary

woman” affects adolescents in the way of defining beauty.

“…Look into the mirror, at yourself…” in line 58 of Try

lyric, the sight effect here is describing the moment of women in

being aware about all the things that have been through following

the stereotype of beauty.

b. Kinaesthetic Imagery

The line 10 of song lyric All About That Bass “…But I can

shake it, shake it, like I‟m supposed to do…” says that the speaker

can shake her body in order to get her body slimmer as supposed

to be. This line describes that being slimmer as something that

women have to be. “…Run the extra mile/ Keep it slim…” also

describe that being slim is one of the stereotype of beauty women.

The speaker shows men preference in the body shape of

women that implied in line 19 of All About That Bass lyric …She

says, “boys like a little more booty to hold at night”…

c. Symbol

Symbol is the visible object or action that has further

meaning. In lines 7 and 8 of Pretty Hurts lyric, “…Just another

40

Jean Kilbourne, “ „The More You Subtract, the More You Add‟: Cutting Girls Down to Size,” in

Women‟s Lives; Multicultural Perspectives eds. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey (New York:

McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2007), 132.

28

stage, pageant the pain away/ This time I'm gonna take the crown

away…” the writer found the words stage and crown as symbols

of beauty. Stage means a place to perform, it symbolized where

women show her beauty and being liked by people because her

beauty suit the definition of beauty by society. The word crown

symbolized the appreciation of people for the women are

successful in gaining the title of beauty women.

The words stage and crown are supporting each other to

have a clear meaning that represents the beauty and society

preference. The lines describe women who already had enough of

the beauty ideal, want to show their pain to the people and take

away the crown that is symbolized society preference, in this case,

the preference of beauty.

In line 18 of Pretty Hurts “…Vogue says, "Thinner is

better..." the word “Vogue” is a symbol of fashion industry since it

is a name of fashion and lifestyle magazine. The line speak about

the industry of fashion that stereotypes beauty is thin.

In line 13 of All about That Bass lyric also concerns on

fashion industry, “…I see the magazine workin‟ that photoshop…”

the word magazine symbolizes an industry of fashion and lifestyle.

Magazine captured only the images of thin women, even magazine

itself contains photoshoped images in purpose to create and show

how is beauty women looks like that is thin.

29

“…You know I won‟t be no stick figure silicone Barbie

doll…” in line 40 uses Barbie doll to clearly symbolize women

image in society, therefore Barbie doll was created as

representation of beauty woman that lays in everybody‟s mind. In

the lyric of Try “…Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your

credit cards,…” the words shopping, mall, and credit card

symbolize the consumptive behavior of women in fulfilling their

needs in beautify themselves.

The symbols and visual imageries within the song lyrics

Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try are clearly explaining

how ideal beauty is. It delivers the ideas that ideal beauty is has

huge effect in the behavior and the way of thinking of women.

Thus, this stereotype is criticized by the song for it plants much

more pain and anxiety than happiness in live the life.

d. Personification

Personification gives human attributes to an object, animal,

or concept. This kind of figurative language is found in the line 9

of Pretty Hurts lyric “…It's the soul that needs the surgery…” the

word soul is a concept of human mind, soul is believed as spiritual

part that lies in human body. The line delivers the idea that there is

no need for women to fix their body with having surgery. It is not

the body that has to be fixed, but the soul.

e. Metaphor

30

“Because you know I‟m all about that bass/ „bout that bass

no treble…” the metaphor in the line compares women body to

bass guitar. The words bass refers to bass clef on the bottom of the

guitar which has big size. It is compared with women‟s buttock.

The word treble refers to treble clef on the top compared with

women‟s breast. The treble clef has small size. The lines describe

about the shape of women body that are big or fat. Further the

lines have more explanation in line 10 “… But I can shake it,

shake it, like I‟m supposed to do…” accordingly, the lyric gives an

idea that the women whose fat bodies are all fine with it.

f. Allusion

“…She taught me to pray and drink/ And how to clean the

bathroom sink…” the word pray refers to something in spiritual

aspect of human. The spiritual aspect occurs in human by

believing God. The lines give an idea that putting makeup is

equally with pray and drink, that are important in life

The three lyrics; Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try

are all delivering the critics toward ideal beauty. The lyrics explain

how beauty being defined by the society and how is women

attitude toward it.

2. Critics on Ideal Beauty

The song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try

speak about ideal beauty, body shape of women, and self-esteem. It

31

is not delivered to man only but to both gender, man and woman,

to all the people, to the society. The imageries and figures of

speech give effect to the reader in understanding the issues

appeared in society regarding to ideal beauty.

In the previous explanation, the writer showed how do the song

lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try describe ideal

beauty through its imageries and figures of speech. The lyrics give

description of how society defines beauty on physical appearance.

According to Sheila Jeffreys, feminist critics of beauty have

pointed out that beauty is cultural practice and one that is

damaging to women.41

Accordingly, the lyrics of Pretty Hurts, All

About That Bass, and Try also point out that what is called beauty

is something coming from society construction and being exist in

their culture. The writer describes how beauty ideal is criticized by

the three songs lyrics.

a. Pretty Hurts Lyric

[Harvey Keitel:] Ms. Third ward, your first question - what is

your aspiration in life? 1

[Beyoncé:] Oh... My aspiration in life... would be... to be

happy.

[Verse 1:]

Mama said, "You're a pretty girl.

What's in your head, it doesn't matter

Brush your hair, fix your teeth. 5

What you wear is all that matters."

41

Sheila Jeffreys, Beauty and Misogyny; Harmful cultural Practice in the West (London: Taylor &

Francis e-library, 2005) p.6.

32

The lyric shows a wrong perspective about being beautiful in

line 3 to 6 that is believed by all women. The lines show how a

“mama” as a woman believes that being beautiful is all about well-

arranged body appearance and outer looks.

[Pre-Hook:]

Just another stage, pageant the pain away

This time I'm gonna take the crown

Without falling down, down, down

In these lines, the lyric shows women that have attitude to stay

beautiful without suffer any pain. The words formed in the lines

imply that women have a strong willing and belief to outperform

what it is called beautiful that represented by the word “crown”.

[Hook:]

Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst 10

Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts

Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst

We try to fix something but you can't fix what you can't see

It's the soul that needs the surgery

In line 11 of Pretty Hurts lyric, “…Perfection is a disease of a

nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts” is shooting deeply to the fact that the

definition of beauty by nation or society is the source of pain. Why?

Because not all the women in the world have the appearance that suit

the images of beauty women arranged by society. Hence, it remains as

disease in women who do not suit the images of beautiful women.

The perfection in defining beauty is such a disease and harms

women. This disease is attacking the mind and mentality of women.

Women simply have to set their mind well and being an open minded

33

people in dealing with the stereotype of beauty, so that they could not

being harmed by the “perfection” within beauty. This harmfulness is

so affected, as Edut stated that, it is not surprising that many women

and girls, including models and film stars, think there is something

wrong with their bodies and work hard even obsessively to eliminate

or at least reduce their flaws.42

Women will always remain worrying

about their bodies if they are thinking too much about the beauty ideal.

Thus, this lyric is never being exaggerated to state that perfection is a

disease of a notion.

[Verse 2:]

Blonder hair, flat chest 15

TV says, "Bigger is better."

South beach, sugar free

Vogue says, "Thinner is better."

The lines express a certain body looks that supposed to own by

woman that is thin or slim and big at some parts.

Ain't got no doctor or pill that can take the pain away

The pain's inside and nobody frees you from your body

It's the soul, it's the soul that needs surgery

It's my soul that needs surgery 30

Plastic smiles and denial can only take you so far

Then you break when the fake facade leaves you in the dark

You left with shattered mirrors and the shards of a beautiful past

The lines, “… Ain‟t got no doctor or pill that can take the pain

away/ The pain‟s inside and nobody frees you from your body/ It‟s the

soul, it‟s the soul that needs surgery” state that the problem is not

laying in the body, but the soul. When women do not suit beauty ideal,

42

Kilbourne, op. cit. p. 122

34

then it is not the body that needs to be fixed, it is the soul that has to be

fine enough in accepting the “disease of a nation”.

[Outro:]

When you're alone all by yourself (pretty hurts, pretty hurts)

And you're lying in your bed (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) 40

Reflection stares right into you (pretty hurts, pretty hurts)

Are you happy with yourself? (pretty hurts, pretty hurts)

The lines show woman deep thought towards a ideal beauty and

beauty ideal that require particular looks. Women are actually being

dishonest to their selves when they struggling to be being beautiful. Thus,

women have to ask their true opinion of being beautiful.

You stripped away the masquerade (pretty hurts, pretty hurts)

The illusion has been shed (pretty hurts, pretty hurts)

Are you happy with yourself? (pretty hurts, pretty hurts) 45

Are you happy with yourself? (pretty hurts, pretty hurts)

Yes

The lines impress women feeling that actually poisoned by the idea

of beauty ideal in which their deep selves are not happy and suffer. It

could be highlighted that the lyric criticizes ideal beauty by showing the

illness in seeing ideal beauty is so much harming women‟ lives.

b. All About That Bass Lyric

Because you know I‟m all about that bass 1

„bout that bass, no treble

I‟m all about that bass

„bout that bass, no treble

I‟m all about that bass 5

„bout that bass, no treble

I‟m all about that bass

„bout that bass… bass… bass… bass

35

The line shows women‟ confident to show their whatever-sized-

and-shaped body. The word “bass” in the lines refers to a music

instrument, bass guitar. The lines implied that women has to feel as perfect

as bass guitar‟s shape which becomes an image of how women‟ body

should look like.

Yeah, it‟s pretty clear, I ain‟t no size two

But I can shake it, shake it, like I‟m supposed to do 10

„cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase

And all the right junk in all the right places

As Catherin MacKinnon pointed out that sexuality to feminism is

as work to Marxism, something that most owned by someone, but the

most taken from. 43

Beauty and body are parts of sexuality of women

and those things are the most taken from them. Women are missing

their freedom to define how beauty ideals are, even though the beauty

is their very own.

The lines delivers an idea of women must no longer lose their

freedom to feel secure with themselves, to free their mind from beauty

ideal constructed by society by most considering on men‟ preference

like implied on line 11 and line 12.

MacKinnon added, gendering and subordinating women are based

on heterosexuality that institutionalized sexual dominance of men and

43

Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones, Teori-Teori feminis Kontemporer (Yogyakarta: Jalasutra,

2009)p. 35

36

the obedience of sexual of women.44

Hence, men preference is always

a base to define beauty.

I see the magazine workin‟ that photoshop

We know that shit ain‟t real, come on now, make it stop

If you got beauty, beauty, just raise „em up 15

„cause every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top

The critics also go to the industry. Here, the lyric concern about the

industry of fashion and lifestyle. Magazine as a reference of newest

fashion style generally uses thin women as models. This way,

magazine can be interesting and marketable because it suit ideal

beauty in society. The lines show that magazine as a symbol of

industry is on the same stream with ideal beauty.

Magazine shows only models with the body shape suited the

beauty ideal by society. Even magazine edited the images using an

application to edit photo; photoshop. It is done because magazine

follows what society want. Magazine can show images of the very

beautiful women, even if in fact the women are not that beautiful. So

the critic is, industry of fashion is showing the beauty of women that

in fact is not natural, it is manipulated in order to produce an image as

society want, and can be liked by people.

Accordingly, Dziemianowickz pointed out that the ideal standard

of beauty is one that even the models themselves cannot achieve,

44

Ibid.

37

magazine ads and feature photos are airbrushed and enhanced

photographically using computer-based image processing to get rid of

imperfections and promote the illusion of flawlessness. 45

It is clear

that the industry of fashions contribute themselves in developing the

anxiety of women to have “beautiful body”. The industry of fashions

has a big portion in straightening the ideal beauty in the society.

Women have to wake up and build a new point of view in

understanding what beauty is. The lyric of All About That Bass tells

the women to love their body, even though their body size do not suit

the size of the body of ideal beauty women because every inch of them

is perfect from the bottom to the top.

Yeah, my mama she told me “don‟t worry about your size”

(shoo wop wop, sha-ooh wop wop)

She says, “boys like a little more booty to hold at night”

(that booty, uh, that booty booty) 20

You know I won‟t be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll

So if that what you‟re into, then go „head and move along

The lines emphasize women attitude towards man preference on

the body of women. The lines show that women do not pay attention

to what men want, they are independent. They have their own decision

to not being subordinated by men. They are stay being them. They do

not force themselves to have a body like Barbie doll as what men

prefer.

I‟m bringing booty back

45

Kilbourne. loc. cit.

38

Go „head and tell them skinny bitches that

No, I‟m just playing, I know you think you‟re fat

But I‟m here to tell you

Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top 35

The lines emphasize women to accept themselves because

they are perfect with any kind of shape they have. The lyric boldly

delivers its massage for women to be skeptical on ideal beauty that

is actually poisoned women.

c. Try Lyric

Put your make up on 1

Get your nails done

Curl your hair

Run the extra mile

Keep it slim 5

So they like you. Do they like you?

The lines is questioning women are they like themselves

with all the effort they do to be beautiful to make people like

them as well as questioning women do they like themselves in

making other like them by doing all effort they are suffering to

done. Here again, the lyric has similar tone with the two

previous lyrics which stating that women have to accept

themselves just the way they are.

Get your sexy on

Don‟t be shy, girl

Take it off

This is what you want, to belong 10

So they like you. Do you like you?

The lines are trying to deliver similar view with the first

stanza.

39

You don‟t have to try so hard

You don‟t have to give it all away

You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up

You don‟t have to change a single thing

The lines boldly tell women to be themselves because there is

nothing to change on them. The lines remind women to stay being

herself, to have self-esteem, and to free themselves from ideal beauty.

Get your shopping on,

At the mall,

Max your credit cards,

You don‟t have to choose,

Buy it all 25

So they like you. Do they like you?

Ideal standard of beauty are reinforced by, and a necessary part

of the multi-billion-dollar beauty industry that sees women‟s

bodies only in terms of series of problems in need of correction.46

The industry, particularly the industry of fashions are advantaged

by the “problems” that women have regarding to fulfilling their

need in reaching “beautiful body”.

The lines speak a lot about industry of fashions. The critic is

very bold, it is about the consumerism of women today in

beautifying themselves.

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? 30

46

Ibid., p. 123

40

The lines firmly ask women to again, readjust their way of thinking

in dealing with beauty. The essence of beauty is not about appearance,

but about the ability to accept ourselves just the way we are.

Take your make up off 55

Let your hair down

Take a breath

Look into the mirror, at yourself

Don‟t you like you?

Cause I like you 60

The lines role as a conclusion stated women have to like

themselves. Relax themselves from the unbearable beauty

requirements that actually make them suffer instead of happy.

Today, women are sinking in beauty ideal, endlessly doing

everything to reach that ideal. The song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About

That Bass, and Try lyrics urge women to live their life without the

anxiety of being unbeautiful. The four songs lyrics are boldly

criticizing the stereotype of beauty that actually victimized women.

The critics shoot the aspect of mentality of women, industry of

fashions, and for sure, the society that still following the beauty ideal.

After analyzing four songs lyrics; Pretty Hurts, All About That

Bass, and Try, the writer finds that they all have the same goals, to

state women anxiety towards beauty ideal and also to show their

independence in being apathetic in beauty ideal as well. Women in the

songs are described as the women who think properly in deal with

beauty ideal.

41

The characteristic of the songs is mostly similar. The lyrics Pretty

Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try mention the industry of fashion

that has important role in reinforce beauty ideal in society. In addition,

the lyrics Pretty Hurts, and All About That Bass, put the word

“mama” refers to mother. The word “mama” implied a meaning which

explains a lot about stereotype. Mother is person that exists earlier, she

taught us about everything, especially about beauty. It is portrayed in

the line of All About That Bass lyric “…She says, “boys like a little

more booty to hold at night…” the mother is also one of aspects

reinforcing beauty ideal. Likewise in the lyric Pretty Hurts, “…Mama

said, "You're a pretty girl/ what's in your head, it doesn't matter/ brush

your hair, fix your teeth/ what you wear is all that matters...".

42

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGETION

A. Conclusion

As mentioned in the chapter I that the focus of this study is the

women criticism about ideal beauty in song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About

That Bass, and Try and on the imagery and figure of speech used to

describe the connotative meaning of the four lyrics.

The song lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try are

categorized as poem for it consist of intrinsic elements that poem have.

The most elements used in those four lyrics are visual imagery and

symbol.

Visual imageries of the lyrics give images of how beauty is seen

and understood. The symbols used are trying to show that the stereotype of

beauty is lied firmly in our society. The words magazine and Barbie doll

are the symbols of beauty and fashion industry that have a strong

relationship.

After summarized the analysis, the writer concludes that the lyrics

is containing criticism of feminist about ideal beauty. Women had enough

in facing the stereotype of beauty that force them to suffer. Keeping them

unsatisfied with themselves because their appearance do not suit the

beauty ideal that build by the society.

43

By the critics, women are expected to be well minded of threat

themselves in living the society and facing the beauty ideal. The writer

reveals that the beauty ideal that stereotyped is rooted from men

preference. Women are oppressed since long ago in the culture of

patriarchy. The freedom of women in defining beauty is stolen by men.

The critics are bold, the lyrics trying to deliver a message for the

women to have their own liberty in understanding how is beauty, to cut all

the anxiety of being not beautiful, to be happy with their own appearance

that have no need to be fixed.

B. Suggestion

The writer hope this thesis entitled Feminist Criticism Toward

Ideal beauty in the Song Lyrics Pretty Hurts, All About That Bass, and Try

could giving the appreciation to literature.

The first suggestion from this research is, for student especially

who study about English literature to be acknowledged that all the literary

work such as lyric are containing a message of the author to be

understood. The second suggestion is, it is a must to appreciate the literary

work as a way to make it exists eternally.

44

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https://genius.com/Colbie-caillat-try-lyrics

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