In 2013, Kanye West endured on his Yeezus tour having stage design that included Jesus look figures appearing on stage, that was seen as an artist who was exploring his creativity. Five years later Ariana Grande released “God is a Women” with a music video showing Grande depicted as God from popular paintings. This music video sparked controversy saying that Feminist like Grande have ruin our society. The reaction to both of these A-listers’ ideas are polar opposite, why? Grande writes a song describing how sexual interaction will make you feel as though God is a woman compared to Kanye West who preaches that God is shining through him and is divine and yet Grande receives more hate. In religions like Christianity, God is genderless but in society this isn’t always true. In Pop-culture and society, it is more acceptable to present God as a man compared to a woman because of patriarchal and male dominance ideas being value over other ideas.
To start, as a society male dominance has been supported for thousands of years. According to Greda Lerner in The Creation of Patriarchy, she believes that patriarchy was developed from 3100 B.C to 600 B.C (2,500 years ago) during the Mesopotamian times (Lerner 8). These values stemmed off “The Book of Genesis” telling the story of creation. The book tells how Eve was created from the rib of Adam after we was put to sleep by God to create her after Adams request for a helper. Because Eve was created for man and was constructed using a bone of Adam, the idea that women must be subordinate was created. As time goes on, we see that this idea is still in modern history like in. Sigmund Freud, a famous neurologist and founder of psychanalysis in the mid nineteenth century to mid twentieth century also had spoken on the idea of male dominance.
Lerner says Sigmund Freud’s theories supports patriarchy more forcefully saying “Sigmund Freud’s theories further reinforce the traditionalist explanation. Freud’s the normal person is male; the female, by definition, is an organism that lacks a penis, and all its psychological structure is assumed to be centered on the struggle to make up for this deficiency” (Lerner 19). We see that male dominance has been around for over two thousand years, so when the question of God gender comes into play, why wouldn’t people believe he is a man if males are superior to women. Our subconscious comes into play at these moments, humans will connect the dots and connect values. This idea is what helps Kanye West case. Off West album Yeezus, track 3 called “I am God (feat. God) talks about how Kanye see himself as a God and that he is at the same racking as Jesus, calling himself “Yeezus”. The Lyrics included the repetition of the line “I am a God” and reference Kanye high above with other divine man like Jesus watching over the world talking about their messages to one another.
Many may think that these lyrics would cause a controversy about calling himself of God is wrong, but this was not the case. Father Mathew Moretaz, from the St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan defended Kayne. He said “Give Kanye a break… He is a celebrity. A divinity. Everybody loves him” (“Priest defend Kanye West’s…”, 2013). Instead of preaching that God is gender neutral, Father Mathew Moretaz helps Kanye’s case because he tries to claim that fame is similar to being divine. After putting out a song descripting himself as a God, Kanye West was still praised for his art and creativity.
For Ariana Grande, history is against her. In the story of Adam and Eve, Eve fell into the temptation of Satan and ate the fruit from the forbidden forest. “The Book of Genesis” reads “The woman would bear children with great pain” (Genesis 3:16). From this the idea that women could only be caregiving and nurturing was born. When the patriarchy was created, man’s job was to hunt large gam while women gathered and hunted small gam, this created the notions that man are strong and power and women are nurturing and lower then man. Since then, man have been seen as more powerful than women. Since the hunter gather ages, women have been surprised and weren’t able to have a voice until recent years. During the early twentieth century, the first wave of the Feminist culture started, and it hasn’t stopped.
According to the international Women Development Agency, Feminism is “feminism is about all genders having equal rights and opportunities. It’s about respecting diverse women’s experiences, identities, knowledge and strengths, and striving to empower all women to realize their full rights” (“What is Feminism”, 2018). This new era of equals right directed fights against male dominance; many times, the word “feminist” is used to degrade women giving the term a wrongful idea. This term was used to attack Grande after her music video for “God is a Women” was released saying that Feminist are ruined our world. The video consisted of famous paintings and sceneries of the interpretation of God and using the opposite gender (a women). For example, images like the creation of Adam, a painting representing God giving life to Adam, is change with only women showing the bias of male dominance in society on the gender of God. Grande’s song and music video has been seen as so offensive that it has been banned in certain countries. K. Shanmugam, Singapore’s home affairs minister put many feminist’s artist on his “offensive” playlist including Lady Gaga’s “Judas” and Ariana Grande’s “God is a Women”.
The article described K. Shanmugam as “tight rein on public speech and media” and was very serious when dealing with “race and religion” (“Singapore minister puts Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande on ‘offensive’ playlist”, 2019). Grande’s and other artist’s songs will put on this playlist with one common theme in their music, all used some idea or describe God as being a Woman. Their music was seen as offensive because they put ideas like a female god out into the world. Grande’s music was banned from Singapore because the representation of God as a Women, but Kayne West is praised. The difference between the reaction to Kanye West’s music and Ariana Grande’s is completely different because of the bias towards male dominant world. Our society and culture are living in an androcentrism standpoint; it’s centered on the domination of males or masculine interest. From political representation to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors, we see male dominance in every corner of our world. When a culture or society has been influenced by an idea for so long, its extremely difficult to change. A culture is created when idea and behaviors are developed by a group of people that are passed down by multiple generations.
Trying to change the 5th or 6th generations idea is an impossible task; they will often stick to the values they were taught. This is why Kanye’s behaviors are often pushed to the side because it’s normalized. The idea that God is a man is a subconscious idea so when it is shown through art and music, it’s accepted. Grande’s new ideas cause discomfort to old views and makes people want to reject them. This new modern idea of femininity and equal rights has only been around for a few 100 years compared to patriarchy that has been around since between 3100 B.C to 600 B.C. Since patriarchy has been around longer, more believe in it and are more willing to side with this idea. When Grande tries to show a different perspective on a common theme in pop culture, it isn’t reviewed well by the public. Overall, seen through artist like Ariana Grande and Kayne west, there is a male bias present in pop culture with association to the topic regarding the gender of god. Whether you believe that God is a woman, man, genderless or all of the above; every culture has their own right to have an opinion.
Every culture, religion or belief system has a set of rules and ideas that are genuine to them and telling one they are wrong because yours is right is ethnocentric. In today age, it is socially acceptable to say God is a man, treating situations like Kanye West insisted he is a God as an act of creative but saying Ariana Grande is trying to ruin society and feminist will be the end of the world. This hypocritical idea needs to be changed, if the world can accept God being perceive as a man then they should perceive God as a woman. Male dominance is coming to an end so will society be on the wrong or right side of history.
