Break It Down: Who's That Girl?

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As if I don't sing the praises of this woman enough, Robyn has been making stealthily feminist (or at least not anti-feminist) music for about a decade now, yet doesn't get nearly the attention other pop stars do. And I hate to pigeonhole her as a "pop" star, given the negative connotations that come with the word, pop: light, unsophisticated, disposable music. Robyn has always been smarted than that.

"Who's That Girl?" (which you can watch here as the embedding has been disabled) borrows a title from both Madonna and Annie Lennox, but the similarities end there. Robyn's "Who's That Girl" is a third-wave feminist anthem of sorts for women raised on the media's idea of airbrushed perfection, the "bad girl/good girl" dichotomy, and how impossible it is to live up to those standards: be sexy, but not sexual; don't complain too much; and above all don't show any signs of resentment toward society for forcing its unrealistic standards:

Good girls are pretty like all the time 

I'm just pretty some of the time 

Good girls are happy and satisfied 

I won't stop asking until I die 

Good girls don't say no or ask you why 

I won't let you love me until you really try 

Good girls are sexy like everyday 

I'm only sexy when I say it's okay

The overall message is a bit "hit-you-over-the-head" obvious, and granted, it's coming from a woman who's fairly privileged herself -- conventionally attractive, young, white, cisgendered. What's great is that this is a mainstream pop song that basically updates the "girl power" trope of the 90s making it something smarter, naughtier (draw your own conclusions about the line that says "you be the girl and I'll be the guy") and less treacly.