Pop stars: Role Models for women?

Somebody’s uncle once said “with great power comes great responsibility”. Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna are three of the biggest pop stars in the world, amassing millions of followers, and thus becoming role models and holding a great amount of influence over the youth that listen, watch, and emulate them.

When the First Lady of the United States thanks Beyonce “for being a role model who kids everywhere can look up to” it says something. If we look at all the different facets of her life it seems like in every single one she could be commended for her great portrayal of women. She has multiple hit songs with a central message of women empowerment, she radiates positivity in her interviews, and she has in large part kept her personal life private and stable, while at the same time staying mostly controversy free. 

Beyonce on empowering women

Lady Gaga is easily one of the most controversial pop artists of our generation and seems to have her own way of being a role model for women. Although her songs and advocacy are often geared towards the LGBT, her overall message of love, acceptance, and bravery is universal. Critics at times have called her “hypocritical” and she could certainly be described as such given some of her past comments. In a 2009 interview when being asked if she was a feminist she responded with “I’m not a feminist. I hail men, I love men” perpetuating the stereotype that feminists are men-haters. However, in that same interview (see below) she calls the interviewer out on his sexism. Gaga also has multiple female-empowering songs such as “Scheiße”, but her use of derogatory terms for women in interviews and social media are distracting to her message of women empowerment. It seems like Lady Gaga tries to be a positive role model and aims to be a fighter for women’s rights and freedoms, but at times through her own words her attempt at a positive portrayal of women is lost.

Lady Gaga 2009 interview

In 2009 Rihanna and her then boyfriend Chris Brown got in an argument that resulted in her being the victim of domestic violence. Weeks later she gave an interview to ABC News where she revealed that she went back to her abuser because she still loved him, but later ended the relationship because she realized how much of an impact she had on the lives of young girls and she didn’t want to be responsible for telling them “go back". In 2012 she released a remix to her song “Birthday Cake” featuring Chris Brown. Unsurprisingly it caused a fire storm of controversy to which her response was “it never occurred to me how this was going to be a problem. It really didn't".'RiRi' is definitely not trying to be a role model for women anymore.

Rihanna on the Chris Brown incident

Different pop stars have different ways of portraying themselves and they all have different opinions on being a role model. They’re all human and as such are not perfect. At the end of the day it’s their music that matters… right?